If people/press here describe the problems in the center, many quickly refer to 'Drunken Brits' to sum it up, though I am sure other groups also cause problems. The reputation of British tourists in Amsterdam is: very drunk, causing brawls, puking on the street, urinating on the street, screaming and small vandalism. I am sure that residents of the Spanish Costa's will have a similar idea about the Dutch btw.
The explosion of air travel causes problems for many cities in Europe. Venice has become practically an open air museum and other cities, like Amsterdam are moving more and more in that direction. Barely a week goes by without a letter of complaint or an article in the Amsterdam newspaper of the negative effects of this increase. For many locals it has become a problem. I used to live opposite the Anne Frank house for 7 years and thankfully moved to another area: the sheer number of people on the street and esp. people partying on boats in the canals became were starting to get on my nerves. The city hall seems to do little as tourism is an important source of income for the city.
In the case of Amsterdam an additional problem is that it is a popular spot for hen/ stag parties. Esp. with young Dutch provincials and with young British (there are many cheap flights between the UK and Schiphol Airport). These groups mainly come to get drunk and cause most of the problems as they seem to think that all is allowed here. The palace is located in the old heart of the city, close to the central station, between two of the most popular shopping street and linking the trashy red-light district, popular with young tourists / provincials and the Leidse- and Rembrandts square, two other touristy areas to go out. So the drunkards often pass the palace when going from one area to another.
Of these young tourists, the British ones form the largest problem by far, as a survey from a few years ago (2009?) showed. Of course they make up 20% of all tourists thus forming the largest group. It is usually easy to spot them, the girls: tons of make-up, fake hair and very revealing outfits, even in winter; the boys in Geordie-shore outfits & hair cuts too, usually loud and drunk. Note that I am sure that most (British) tourists do know how to behave & actually visit the several museums of the city. And on the bight side: the Brits are usually cheerful and pleasant, so that makes up for it I suppose. According to the British embassy at the time, the problems with British tourists were taken out of proportion by the Dutch press. The city counsel did little apart from hoping that these young Brits would soon prefer to go to Prague as the alcohol is cheaper there, though they started a program to make some areas a bit more up-market (closing down parts of the red light district for example). But anything here takes ages so the effects have not materialized yet.
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Why they didn't do anything about this earlier is a mystery, it has been going on for years/ decades.
