Watch: Amsterdam warns stag party Brits to stay away in new campaign

Amsterdam has launched a campaign warning young British men looking to visit the city just to drink and take drugs to "stay away".

The city is deliberately targeting Britons aged 18 to 35 searching online for places for stag parties, cannabis and drinking in the idyllic Dutch city.

One video from the campaign shows a young drunken male being handcuffed and arrested after smashing glass in a side street.

Coming to Amsterdam for a messy night and getting trashed = €140 fine + criminal record = fewer prospects,” the clip warned.

Another film shows an unconscious youth on a park bench being treated by paramedics and taken away in an ambulance.

"Lose control = hospital trip + permanent health damage = worried family,” the video said. “Coming for drugs? Stay away”.

British tourists, seen as “nuisance tourists”, trawling search engines for "stag party Amsterdam", "cheap hotel Amsterdam" and "pub crawl Amsterdam" will be geo-targeted by the Stay Away campaign videos.

“Visitors will remain welcome, but not if they have misbehaved and caused nuisance. In that case we as a city will say – rather not, stay away,” Sofyan Mbarki, Amsterdam’s deputy mayor, said.

The Stay Away initiative is part of an effort to clean up Amsterdam’s raunchy reputation as Europe’s most liberal party city.

It focuses on Britons who are seen as the leading cause of the problems, with locals often complaining about British tourists urinating in its 18th and 19th century streets, vomiting in its historic network of canals and engaging in drink and drug-fuelled brawls.

Watch: Amsterdam Taking Steps to Make the Red Light District Safer

"Warnings about the risks and possible consequences will discourage some of the visitors," the city council said.

For years, tourists have travelled to Amsterdam for its cannabis coffee shops and red light district, famous for its legalised brothels.

The campaign is the starting point of a long-term effort of keeping tourism below 10 million overnight stays every year.

The number of visitors has almost doubled from 5.3 million in 2010.

The plan includes forcing brothels and bars to close earlier and a ban on public cannabis smoking in central Amsterdam from May.

Mr Mbarki said: "Amsterdam is already taking lots of measures against excessive tourism and nuisance, and we are taking more measures than other large cities in Europe.

"But we have to do even more in the coming years if we want to give tourism a sustainable place in our city. Amsterdam is a metropole and crowds and bustle are inherent features, but to keep our city liveable we now have to choose for restriction instead of irresponsible growth.”

Campagnevideo Stay Away versie 2 from Gemeente Amsterdam on Vimeo.

Marco Lemmers, chief executive of Conscious Hotels, which owns almost ten venues in Amsterdam, said he would have preferred a more positive campaign.

"You could show people that they will get in trouble with certain behaviour, with a bit of humour, but you shouldn’t act like everyone who comes here for a wedding is a criminal," he said.

"You should read what the Dutch get up to on the Costa Brava in Spain! Has Amsterdam even thought of the potential collateral damage for the Netherlands as a destination as a whole?”