Tourists 24/7 365 days a year..

The problem is because these towns/cities take so many tourists, the shops start to cater to them and not residents.

I live in a village and the high street is just full of gift shops and cafes. I can no longer nip down and get some milk, put the duvet in for a wash, post a letter because everything I need is now gone.
Unless I’m in need of an emergency Jellycat or an overpriced coffee…I no longer bother using my own high street. It belongs fully to the tourists now.

There’s nothing you can do. I travel to the next town for my shopping. A lovely village with absolutely everything you need and all independent sellers. But….maybe that makes me a tourist 😂

With so many shops closing on our high streets, I think I’d feel blessed that people are helping your town’s economy so much

Good point. I live in a town that has no attraction for tourists at all. Two thirds of shops on the main street are empty and half of the rest are charity shops.
Very unattractive place to visit for locals let alone tourists.

Oh @SadiraOfTyr how superior and far more intelligent you are than the rest of us. Congratulations.

I live in Edinburgh and it's busy all year round. I avoid going into the city centre unless I absolutely have to.
The Council had the perfect opportunity after the pandemic to listen to residents and attempt to scale down the Fringe/Hogmanay etc but as usual it only cares about the money that these events bring and not the impact on people who live here all year round.

I have never seen any evidence to the contrary. The worst are the ones who have to wear big badges so that they can be easily rounded up by their handlers and ushered back on to their floating petri dish cruise ship.

I lived in Cambridge for 10 years and left a few years ago. I loved how buzzy the city was and felt very lucky to live somewhere so beautiful and historic where lots of people wanted to visit. I only left for family reasons.

Ah yes. Some of us go travelling and some of us go on holiday. It’s a very important distinction. 😂
Honestly though, these people who think they can gate keep where they live and that the Tourist rabble shouldn’t be there despite them reaping the financial rewards of them. Irritating.

You are surprised the Royal mile has tourist shops ? Fwiw it isn't the "main street" of Edinburgh

Have you never been a tourist OP? Where do you go when you travel?

I kind of get your point, but places are like this the world over. Recently went to Florence, for instance - the place is rammed with tourists. Cambridge is also chaos with tourists although I would say it's still primarily a working and student city. Edinburgh however.... we went fairly recently and I was quite shocked at how the Main Street (the Mile?) is seemingly now just tweed shops or whiskey shops. All a bit twee and naff. Also, what with all the Harry Potter tours in Edinburgh?

I work in the centre of a very touristy university town and l don't mind it, to be honest! You get used to dodging the language schools, the traffic's always insane anyway and there's loads of nice shops, pubs, cafes and galleries due to all the tourist money coming through. I love the huge mix of different cultures swirling around looking at our history and eating our cake 😂
Disclaimer - l do work for a cultural institution that would struggle without the money the tourists spend, so l am a bit biased ...

Well it’s not going to change, so you either suck it up or move. What other options are there?

You think tour groups are stupid ?

Tourism and travelling is good and everyone should do it.
BUT recent experiences of hordes blindly following a flag/ teddy on a stick would suggest that some people lose all mental competency when in a tour group, so those should be banned with immediate effect.

It's everywhere and has got much worse since the pandemic. 10 years ago you'd get the odd tourist in Glasgow in the summer months. Now there are coachloads of them every day from March through to October. Partly because cruise ships have started calling, partly because Edinburgh is SO expensive and heaving with visitors people have cottoned on that they can stay in Glasgow and travel through.

I also live in a very popular town that mn hates! Coastal town, very touristy. I live in a nice, quiet area but we are near a big attraction. The season used to be Easter to November, now its February to new year. The parking issues are mad, nearly all year, we have a drive but often tourists block us in, or out, because we are one of the only streets without permit parking and car parks are really expensive here.
We could move, but our dc have school/college and I work in the town, and I like it here! (Apart from the parking!)

I live in a well known historical seaside town. It can be a bit irritating when we can’t park near the beach because all the car parks are rammed, or there are huge crowds everywhere, but tourism is essential to the town surviving. I enjoy trying to spot tourists as opposed to local people - tourists seem to walk with greater determination!

She won't be a tourist, she'll be a traveller, which is completely different. She goes there to absorb the local culture and wouldn't be seen dead looking at a touristy thing.

I live in fairly central London and love the constant buzz from people. But I can understand why that would be frustrating when focused on a small location.
Is this a new thing where you live? Has it suddenly become popular because it was used in a TV show, and therefore might die down again?
If you genuinely do still love where you live, perhaps you could stay near the town but just slightly further out?

Most roads are busier/there's less space, so while you notice it more with tourists coming. most towns are crowded compared to in the nineties. Just something to think about if you do move, because relatively few places are quiet now (though a lot of high streets are dead in terms of shops, but they've been replaced by housing/take-outs etc, and still have a lot of people around).

A huge yes to that! It's all well and good people complaining about tourists, (or Unis) but lots of the tourist/Uni towns would be dead without them. Yes, I fully understand why local residents don't like what their towns/cities have become, but from someone living in a run down Northern town, you wouldn't like the alternative either, of barely any shops left on the High Street, social deprivation caused by lack of local jobs, proliferation of drug dealing/money laundering turkish barbers, ethnic supermarkets, vape shops, etc. I think everyone needs to accept things have changed - in some places, tourists and Unis do seem to have taken over, but lots of places without them have suffered badly too. At least tourist towns still usually have lots of amenities, shops, pubs, restaurants, etc which locals can enjoy.

Yeah I’ve heard of this not just in UK but abroad too. So much for COL crust if so many people can afford to swarm around like ants on holiday all year round.

I live in an historic tourist town, we always have tourists and tour buses,students ive never seen it as a huge issue, we have lulls but there is tourists keeps the economy going, i don't understand why you want a "quiet town" .

It’s like this the world over. Over-tourism is becoming a real problem with the global rise of the middle class, the rise of cheap air travel and tourist social media content.

More and more places are putting in restrictions on numbers, tourist taxes and prioritising locals.

Edinburgh is the same now too. It's never quiet. I think AirBnB has a lot to answer for because it's increased the capacity of the city for tourists and it's also taken them outside of the usual tourist areas. I am sick to death of almost being run-over by large, out of control wheely suitcases that tourists are struggling to get up and down the many hills. Also sick of people suddenly stopping in the middle of the pavement to check google maps on their phones, or crossing the road and immediately stopping preventing those behind them from getting off the road too 😤

I live near and extremely touristy area and I actually love it. I think it's wonderful that people across the world have made a decision to come to the beautiful part of the country that I'm lucky enough to live in all year round.