THE BRIGADE OF THE NIEUWMARKT An ethnographic account of change and tourism in a “small village” in the center of Amsterdam by Corina Enache 1 THE BRIGADE OF THE NIEUWMARKT An ethnographic account of change and tourism in a “small village” in the center of Amsterdam Corina Enache 10861939 Master Social and Cultural Anthropology Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam Academic year 2014-2015 Word count 27,498 Supervisor: dr. O.G.A. (Oskar) Verkaaik Readers: dr. I.L. (Irene) Stengs dr. V.A. (Vincent) de Rooij 2 PLAGIARISM DECLARATION "Declaration: I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy [published on http://www.student.uva.nl/fraude-plagiaat/voorkomen.cfm]. I declare that this assignment is entirely my own work, all sources have been properly acknowledged, and that I have not previously submitted this work, or any version of it, for assessment in any other paper." CORINA ENACHE, AUGUST 7st 2015 3 DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to Jet, Joost and Marten for opening the door wide while the rest were still looking through the keyhole. Through this difficult, yet exciting journey, they were not only my guides and friends to the day to day of the “small village” that is the Nieuwmarkt but also my inspiration to keep my faith that the answers are there, acting themselves out in front of me every day. I just needed time to see them. They were right. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For Oskar Verkaaik. For being not only my supervisor but also a great teacher and mentor through my journey to understand and love anthropology. For not giving me the answers but creating an environment where I was stimulated to search for them and where I believed enough in myself to be able to find them. For Kristine Krause, for encouraging and supporting me to write the best proposal I could have ever written. For Mihalis Karavatzis, for supporting me from afar and linking me to the wider discussion on participative city marketing. For Camiel and our endless thesis writing sessions in the Spui building and being the best sparring partner I could have wished for. For Veronica and her critical thinking; her believing in my work was an anchor in times where I didn’t know where I was going. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Theoretical framework……………………………………………………………………………………………………….10 Methods and selection……………………………………………………………………………………………………….15 Chapter 1: The Nieuwmarkt & its residents…………………………………………………………………………17 1.1 From the outside looking in - the rebirth of a small street………………………………………………….19 1.2 A place of one’s own and the fight to keep it. The original Nieuwmarkt brigade……………….25 1.3 The 70s brigade, the present “voice” of the Nieuwmarkt…………………………………………………..31 Chapter 2: The second fight for the Nieuwmarkt: residents vs. tourism………………………………38 2.1 Long Stay, No way. The No SoHo group and the hotel ban…………………………………………………40 2.2 The Nieuwmarkt square and its terraces. United in a common goal………………………………….45 2.3 Sint Antoniesbreetraat and the Skylight café. The future is prosperous…………………………….48 Chapter 3: Amsterdam Marketing: the tourist whisperer……………………………………………………56 3.1 Amsterdam Marketing and the residents as national visitors…………………………………………….57 3.2 History of Amsterdam Marketing……………………………………………………………………………………….62 3.3 Amsterdam Marketing and the business sector…………………………………………………………………65 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….67 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….71 6 Introduction In recent years one of the strongest challenges in Amsterdam has been how to manage the impact of the highly increasing number of tourists on the quality of life of the local residents. This challenge is not singular to Amsterdam and is shared by other European cities like Paris and Barcelona as tourism to Europe has exponentially grown in the last years. This happened because of two distinct trends – increase in revenue allocated to travel and price reduction of air travel. In Amsterdam, a city of app. 800.000 inhabitants, more than 6.000.000 tourists were estimated to visit in 2013. On the positive side this has generated income and jobs from tourism, but on the negative side it has contributed to an imbalance in the quality of life of the residents (especially those in the city center) who are constantly complaining of nuisances related to tourism – like noise, traffic, garbage. The residents of the city center are also complaining of economic transformations of their neighbourhood that slowly reduces its residential function, and through increase in hotels, restaurants, bars and souvenir shops, transforms the neighbourhood into an entertainment space for touristic consumption. There is a strong pressure from the residents as well as the media, on the city council and especially on its marketing department (Amsterdam Marketing) to find ways to relieve the tourism pressure on the city, and especially the city center. “Not becoming a second Venice” is the current catchphrase of policymakers, marketers and residents symbolizing both the fear and commitment of not transforming the city into a touristic product devoid of residents and local culture – as is the common perception of what Venice has become. The residents put the blame of this touristic pressure on Amsterdam Marketing and their highly successful city brand “I Amsterdam” and fear that despite multiple assurances of the policy makers the city is slowly transforming into an amusement park. The Nieuwmarkt is a special neighbourhood in the center of Amsterdam. Special in two ways. First, in the sense that the 70s Nieuwmarkt riots are an icon for the residents’ ability to oppose capitalistic processes – in the 70s, when the city officials, in an attempt to capitalize on economic growth, decided to dismantle the residential neighbourhood and transform it into office spaces and a highway, the residents rioted and managed to alter the plans and keep their neighbourhood residential. It is the biggest riot in the recent history of the city documented by multiple articles, analyses and documentaries. Second, Nieuwmarkt looks and feels like a “small village” that somehow has managed to strike a balance and still be a residential neighbourhood in a highly trafficked touristic area. For these two reasons, I chose it as my fieldwork and hoped to find here the answer to the question: “How the highly involved groups of local inhabitants relate to tourism as a case of change in their neighbourhood?” 7 The Nieuwmarkt is situated in the borough of Amsterdam-Centrum, next to the De Wallen (Red Light District), Waterlooplein and Central Station (see below neighbourhood outline). As a result it shares some of their characteristics: intense foot, car & bike traffic and issues with drugs and prostitution, above average souvenir shops. It has, versus other neighbourhoods of Amsterdam, an over proportionate percentage of social houses versus the city center as well as an over proportionate percentage of inhabitants over 50-60 y.o. It is more residential and less populated with tourists than other neighbourhoods in the center but still above the average for Amsterdam.1 Source: http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/159247702#map=16/52.3720/4.9028 According to the 2014 census, the Nieuwmarkt neighbourhood has app. 9000 inhabitants. It also has 18 hotels and 30 cafes, which is significantly less than the center of Amsterdam and other European centers but still a lot for a residential area. Daily, making their way from the Red Light District or Central Station more than 4000 tourists visit the Nieuwmarkt, making it the 8th most trafficked destination in Amsterdam (based on a recent case study2). These numbers are only projected to increase in the following years (+ 29% increase in tourism until 2025 according to NBTC 2013). 1 Data taken out of the analysis of the neighborhood done for the development of the 2016 plan. See the complete analysis at the following link: https://www.amsterdam.nl/gemeente/bestuurscommissies/bestuurscommissie-c/gebiedscyclus/ 2 Sander van der Drift, April 2015: Revealing spatial and temporal patterns from Flickr photography, a case study with tourism in Amsterdam. 8 Many residents I have talked to expressed that the number of tourists is too much for them to handle but they have found ways to fight back – either by exerting “everyday resistance” to the tourists or by trying to influence or oppose development of commercial projects as they fear it will just increase the tourism pressure on the neighbourhood. Many of them refer to these actions as “the second fight for the Nieuwmarkt”. Only this time it is not a fight against the municipality but against the tourism industry and businesses as its economic enablers (tour operators, hotels, bars, restaurants). In my thesis, in order to answer my research question, I aim to chronicle their actions by focusing on a special group within the Nieuwmarkt which I have called the “70s brigade”. I have chosen this group because of their special relationship to the municipality and their strong sense of legitimacy in the neighbourhood that has as roots the events of the 70s. I will show that this is instrumental to the success of their actions. I will also show that although they are disconnected from the wider tourism generating activities (managed by Amsterdam Marketing) they are strongly connected (via the local municipality) to managing (via influencing policies and economic developments) the tourists that come as a result of those activities. 9 Theoretical framework To answer my central question: “How the highly involved groups of local inhabitants relate to tourism as a case of change in their neighbourhood”, I will argue by joining the current debates surrounding participative marketing, against the empiricist marketing tradition (Simon Anholt 2007, Moilanen & Rainisto 2009) that considers residents consumers with no agency of the product that is the city developed by the city branding/marketing policies. I aim to show that residents do have agency and as a constitutive part of the city develop actions from below.