A tiny Dutch village that is home to a Unesco World Heritage cluster of 189 windmills dating to the 18th century is uneasy with its fame; many residents are saying no to rumored tourism expansion.
Visitors arriving at the village museums are being handed cards that say "600,000 visitors a year. Sixty inhabitants #overtourism." Residents complain of finding visitors picnicing in their gardens, or being asked to get out of the way so visitors can take pictures of their homes.
The mills of Kinderdijk, east of Rotterdam, were built to pump water out of marshland to create farmland, and to keep it dry. The land is now owned by the World Heritage Foundation Kinderdijk, which turned first one, and then two of the mills into museums. The rest are inhabited by families, some for as long as ten generations.
The foundation nearly went bankrupt eight years ago, but has recovered through €4.3 million in access fees, parking tickets, payments from cruise ships that stop there and from souvenir sales. Reports that the foundation plans a second cruise dock and an increase to 850,000 visitors a year, sparked the revolt, which has now become an issue in local elections.
Comments (1)