Looking for a parking space in Zandvoort? Sorry, this street is closed, says Google Maps

A boy in swimming trunks digs a pit in the sand, the waves flush his work every few seconds. Elsewhere on the beach of Zandvoort, two teenagers are bored against the blue slide of a play set. Four men in shorts and wind jackets turn to the North Sea for a group photo, cans of beer in hand. On a quiet Wednesday afternoon like this one is everyone’s beach.

Inland, the question is who is getting priority in the public space: the tourist or the local resident? A group of residents of the Parkbuurt is ready with the traffic and parking nuisance on summer days that they ‘closed’ their street themselves on navigation apps. They indicated to Google Maps that the streets are blocked, while in reality that is not the case. Via the navigation app, residents keep tourists who are looking for a parking space. The municipality finds the residents’ campaign unheard of, and has placed signs in German and Dutch with ‘Navigation from’, to lead visitors to parking areas – also via the streets in question.

It may not be completely legal, but it works

The Parkbuurt, which is just behind the beach, has strikingly more flower boxes than elsewhere in the village. In addition to the large bins of the municipality, residents themselves have placed smaller pots on the sidewalk and on the street. There are flags and pink flowers in it and there are 30 km/h stickers on it. None of the local residents give against NRC To the fact that they are those who have improperly passed on to Google Maps that their street has been closed. Although the majority understand the action. “It is now busy every weekend, so you try something,” says a man who walks out his dog. A pensioner: “When I was young, you could still put the car everywhere”.

Aggressive

Journalist Bas (66, prefer not a last name), saw the Google Maps initiative Heus passing by in the BuurtApp. Sure. In a tight green shirt he drinks a cup of coffee in front of his house, dog Luna wags at his feet. According to him, it runs ‘the spots’ on busy beach days. “People ride here 70 kilometers per hour while children play. Sometimes they become aggressive, I understand that when you are looking for a parking space that is not there.”

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Bas gets a red prohibition sign from the shed next to his home. If he thinks it is ‘insane pressure’, he asks in the BuurtApp if there is ‘consensus’ to put that sign on the street one day at the entrance of the Parkbuurt. “It may not be completely legal, but it works.”

Willemien, an older lady with a green shopping bag, just walks past (“This is not agreed, though”). She finds Bas’s traffic sign “only”. While she strokes Luna, she says: “It scares tourists, just like the Google Maps promotion. Everyone is here.”

2,000 parking spaces

Less than a kilometer away, in his office at the Town Hall of Zandvoort, traffic alpower holder Gert-Jan Bluijs points to the various parking strips and sites on a map. “In parking lot De Zuid: 2,000 places. We can scale them up with 300. And there, you can also stand along the boulevard.”

They are especially necessary at times when it is nice beach weather or that an event takes place (except during the Grand Prix, then the village is closed and only cars of residents are allowed in).

Zandvoort attracts more than one hundred thousand visitors on ‘those famous days’. According to Bluijs, that amounts to five to six thousand cars. “With extra traffic controllers and enforcers we can handle that crowds, but it remains a seaside resort.”

It annoys me that they sit in the chair of the judge herself

Bluijs rejects the action of the residents, he has asked Google to no longer implement the “fake navigation” in Maps. The alderman “likes to talk to residents”, but also does not know who they are. “It annoys me that they sit in the chair of the judge themselves.”

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Is the self -direction of a group of residents not also a cry for help about the growing flow of tourists? Bluijs: “Getting a grip on tourism is almost a cultural process in itself. We want to keep the village livable, but also be hospitable. And sometimes it is forgotten that tourism also yields a lot of income. We have relatively low housing costs here, that must come from somewhere.”

Overtourism

Jan van der Borg, a professor of economics and tourism affiliated with the universities of Leuven and Venice, says on the phone that he is not looking up from the incident in Zandvoort. “The amount of tourists who can handle a place depends on facilities such as the number of parking spaces, buses and restaurants. Those facilities are not only used by tourists, but also by residents and commuters. Overstourism is therefore not about numbers, but about the interplay of factors.”

Van der Borg believes that administrators in general ‘in laconic’ deal with the dangers of overto tourism. “They are in a split, because the economic interests are very large and positive, but the range of tourist destinations remains constant. In the coming years, an increasing number of people will want to visit the same places. That endangers the capacity. Municipal authorities have to make unpopular choices if they want to prevent continuous nuisance.”

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