BUDGET AIRLINE RYANAIR has hit back at a Dutch tourism executive who accused the company of ‘destroying’ European cities.

Amsterdam Marketing chief executive Frans van der Avert  said that “cities are dying from tourism”.

“No one will be living in the historic centres any more.

“We see lots of visitors with no respect for the character of the city. Low cost carriers create a problem. Ryanair – they are the loudest.”

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, Ryanair’s marketing boss Kenny Jacobs accused van der Avert of disrespecting the 14 million tourists who visit Amsterdam every year.

He pointed out that Ryanair only transports around 525,000 people to Amsterdam from Dublin and Malaga and half of those are Dutch.

“Yes, Amsterdam does have a lot of tourists, cities like Barcelona and Prague are also very popular and at certain times of year some locals do consider it too much. But that does not mean you stop tourism or show such disrespect to the tourists that do come as Mr. van der Avert does when he says he wants to “…increase the quality…” of the visitors.

“If Mr. van der Avert feels that Amsterdam is only attracting tourists who want to party he should not criticise the tourists, he should criticise the leadership of the organisation responsible for running Amsterdam tourism, who are clearly incapable of marketing the city to tourist segments other than party goers.

“Wait a minute, that’s Mr. van der Avert’s job!”

Jacobs added that one in ten Dutch people works in the tourism industry.

“I think Mr. van der Avert needs to wake up and do a better job selling Amsterdam and he should get his facts right and stop disrespecting the tourists who support one in ten jobs in the Netherlands, including his own.”

Read: European tourism chief says Ryanair and Airbnb travellers are ‘destroying’ cities