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Red Light windows take on a new look
Many windows in Amsterdam’s Red Light District have taken on a new looks. For years, windows have showcased scantilly dressed women beckoning customers. Now, smartly dressed mannequins are on show.
The city council has voted to clean up the notorious district and is buying up brothel windows. The first 18 have been rented out to young clothes designers.
Authorities have grown increasingly concerned that criminal gangs have muscled in on the area, with rising violence and evidence of sex trafficking.
Officials estimate that the sex trade in the Red Light District is worth tens of millions of euros a year. Once, prostitution was confined to a small area near the port with brothels usually run by older women who had retired from the sex trade.
Now it is thought international crime syndicates are ruling the roost. Tourism and the spread of pornography has turned the old centre into a sex trade bazaar.
This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Amy Armitage. For more information see: Amsterdam - Red light. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.
