Introduction of environmental zones in amusement parks
"De Efteling" is the largest theme and amusement park in the Netherlands. Now the provincial government of North Brabant wants the park to reduce its emissions. Only then would it be allowed to increase its visitor numbers by one million per year. One possibility would be the introduction of environmental zones.
The Efteling park between Tilburg and Den Bosch attracts more than five million visitors every year, not only from its own country, but also from Flanders, Lower Saxony and the Rhineland. The number of visitors before the pandemic was over five million. During the pandemic, visitor numbers dropped somewhat, but the park company's stated goal is to increase the number of visitors to over six million in the long term. To achieve this, de Efteling promises to significantly reduce pollution, as the theme park is surrounded by natural areas that should not be damaged. The biggest burden on the environment comes from the many visitors' cars driving to and from the park.
But how can you reduce car traffic if there is no railway station nearby? Admittedly, the park already did away with the diesel locomotive that connects the individual attractions with each other. Now the most important of the 36 attractions and different themed areas are connected by an electric train. In addition, the company's fleet of vehicles has already been renewed and stocked up with environmentally friendly alternatives. But will that be enough?
Since fewer than five million visitors come anyway in times of pandemic, the conversion to alternative energies is not yet so pressing. But what if more guests come again? After all, new attractions are being planned and implemented right now to attract many new visitors, big and small. One solution would be to convert the buses of the five bus lines that serve the park to electric. Another conceivable solution would be an environmental zone that would encompass the park and its surroundings and only allow clean trucks with Euronorm 6, as in the environmental zones in the rest of the country. However, trucks are usually excluded there, which doesn't really affect De Efteling. It would be better to follow the example of The Hague, Arnhem, Amsterdam and Utrecht, where diesel cars and diesel vans are also affected by the ban, because most visitors come as a family in a car or as a small group in a van. An extension to other fuel types, as in Groningen where only electric vehicles are allowed, would be another solution.
If the park does not succeed in presenting convincing concepts, there could soon be visitor quotas from the provincial government restricting access.