Tulip growers in the Netherlands are pleading millennials to stop taking selfies among the flowers, after tourists caused thousands of euros’ worth of damage by trampling over the plants in search of the perfect picture.
Colorful tulip fields throughout the Netherlands are popular destinations for visitors, but the rise of the selfie in recent years has resulted in damage as people enter and walk across the fields.
Now the Dutch tourist board and local growers are fighting back, launching a social media campaign and employing a team of “ambassadors” to tell selfie-takers not to step on the bulbs during their travels.
“They cross all over the fields and they damage the [tulips],” grower Simon Pennings, who owns more than 40 fields to the west of Amsterdam, told CNN. He said the problem has emerged “in the last couple of years,” and is driven by younger selfie-takers.
“Last year I had one field and there were 200 people in the field,” he added. “We have to keep them clear … we have fields nearby the road and all the time, from 10 o’clock in the morning to nine in the evening, they take pictures.”
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/netherlands-tulip-selfies-scli-intl/index.html
