10,000 tourists for every resident: Overtourism reaches Holland's 18th century windmills

The pretty Dutch village of Kinderdijk has come up with a novel way of tackling a recent wave of mass tourism.

Residents of the Unesco-protected windmill neighbourhood have started handing out postcards to visitors, on one side of which is a historic picture and on the other a message in English that reads: "Thank you for your visit. We've lived here for centuries”. In the top left-hand corner are some statistics: “600,000 tourists per year, 60 inhabitants all year long. 10,000:1 #overtourism."

On the outskirts of Rotterdam, Kinderdijk is famed for its 19 windmills, described by Unesco as "beautifully preserved".

While locals are happy to welcome tourists, they are concerned by a dramatic increase in visitor numbers in recent years. Resident Kirsten Wensveen told local broadcaster RTV Rijnmond: "We are happy with the tourists, they bring in the money that helps to maintain our buildings, but this is too much."

Once used to pump water from the low-lying fields, few of the 18th-century windmills are operational today but remain a popular attraction for visitors.

The area has subsequently becomes increasingly reliant on tourism – but the balance is off-kilter. While residents won a recent battle with the Molenwaard local council to ensure that visitors can only photograph the windmills with a drone after acquiring a permit, the war is far from over.

Anja Noorlander, speaking to the broadcaster, issued a warning to the council. "With elections coming up, we want to make it clear that 600,000 visitors are the absolute maximum," she said.

Residents are angry that decisions are being made by the Kinderlijk World Heritage Foundation – or Stichting Werelderfgoed Kinderdijk (SWEK) – which now runs the site, without local consultation.

Resident Peter Paul Klapwijk told reporters: "In the past year, for example, a new cruise boat has started sailing past the windmills, and the Foundation has extended public access hours without discussing it with us. Sometimes it feels like people are sitting right there in your living room."

In response, SWEK blamed the residents for failing to attend meetings. "Every last Wednesday of the month we have a residents' meeting to talk about the plans, and no one has come up for the last four times," said Jan Dirk Verheij, from SWEK.

Mr Klapwijk countered that residents do not turn up because they don’t feel valued and their input is ignored. He claims that SWEK "don't involve us, they just tell us about plans that have already been made, so no one shows up".

Overtourism is becoming increasingly prevalent around the world. This year saw Maya Bay in Thailand close, Boracay in the Philippines complete a six-month hiatus from visitors in order to "recover", and more than 500 people march the streets of Ibiza to protest against the impact of overtourism.