Holidays in the sun - what is wrong with that

[mids2019]

I was listening to some radio piece about residents in a Spanish island wanting fewer UK tourists. There was a girly middle class commentator on this story supporting the islanders claiming British tourists are awful, wanting just to drink and eat bad food, dressing inapproriately,, drinking to much and being leary. All the Brit abroad sterotypes.

However I feel there is a large amount of class.snobbery here and a lot of families just want a week or two somewhere hot, have a few beers, relax and try and get a tan. Some of us don't want a.cultured or stressful holiday and I am very much each to his own on this.
As long as there isn't any breaking of laws I think we shouldn't be ashamed of breaks to the costs del sol etc.

Prices in the UK are extortionate and our weather is miserable. Viva Espagna!

a girly middle class commentator annnd you lost me there

Espagna 😂

I'm a bit mixed. I can see how having people turn up and just want the sun but nothing else from your country (ie want their own cuisine, language, don't want to see anything but a pool etc) would feel a bit off.

But I can also see how having regular and reliable tourist money must be very useful.

I can also see how there is a good chunk of snobbery involved in judging some holidays worthy.

For balance, somewhere like Venice would be seen as a culturally rich holiday, but tourists there are wrecking the city so it's not without its issues either.

Holidays, like most things, are often not as ethically simple as we'd like them to be.

I can see why they don’t like it.

Loads of drunk Brits behaving badly with no respect for their environment? No thanks.

Getting away for a bit of a sun isn’t the issue, it’s that the tourists are so badly behaved.

But a lot of UK tourists are awful. Fine to still want to go to holiday in Spain. Fine for not all Spanish to love it. Not sure what your point is?

If people said something similar about Chinese tourists for example it wouldn't fly so I don't think Brits should be singled out. Plenty of people make awful visitors to other countries.

I don't get it, just sitting in the sun. Sounds boring. But each to their own.

However, spending £4k, flying half way across the world to do it when there's sun in August in the UK or in Spain then saying I have no money really baffles me.

I imagine it was related to the protests in Tenerife.

The Canary Islands are generally popular with Northern Europeans.

there's sun in August in the UK there is no guaranteed sun in my part of the UK in any month, including August. Last year is pissed down all August here.

Are Chinese tourists notorious for dressing inappropriately and causing havoc with continual public drunkenness? I must have missed a memo.

I think the problem here is multi-faceted. "Spain" is not one homogenous lump. The sort of people who are attracted to a holiday hiking on the camino de Santiago or visiting cathedrals in Burgos are not causing an issue. Neither are the millions of families who enjoy beach holidays on Majorca, the Canary islands, mainland Spanish resorts. If these families want to eat English breakfasts and have dinners of steak and chips rather than tapas and paella then the Spanish economy is making money from them by catering to those needs. There is nothing "wrong" with going on holiday and seeking out British pubs and food you are used to - OK it's not something I would choose, but it's not antisocial or illegal, is it?

The "problem" tourists are the minority who go to Spain for the cheap booze and partying who ARE antisocial and break laws. And it's not just British tourists - Irish, Dutch, Germans are just as bad in certain resorts.

I don't think you can really say the locals are being unreasonable when you have no idea how this affects them. Of course plenty of British tourists are fine and behave well but that doesn't negate the fact that plenty behave very badly. Imagine you live in a peaceful, beautiful place that gets taken over by drunken, rowdy tourists for many months each year. Of course you'll be pissed off. The locals wouldn't be complaining if it wasn't a problem. They've had enough.

Viva Espagna 😂😂
'Espana'

I’m assuming you were listening to this item on a British radio station, she’s hardly going to complain about German/Italian/French tourists to a British radio show is she.

British people have behaved shamefully in the past in many Spanish resorts. But people will always complain, often justifiably, about visitors who don’t understand local ways. Just talk to anyone from Cornwall about grockles.

España if we’re being particular.😀

I live in Spain on the coast and it's honestly cringy when "the Brits" arrive. It's the law here that no one is allowed to be without a shirt or in a bikini away from the beach. Only the Brits ignore this. Beer bellies out entering bars and restaurants
Obviously not all Brits do most ARE respectful but those that aren't stick out like a sore thumb, drunk, loud, abusive to waiters and hotel staff, demanding and super entitled

Noone is looking at families wanting some sunshine and nice holiday. These are welcomed

"girly middle class commentator"
What do you mean by that?
It's understandable that some of these resorts are not happy with the "bargain loving Brits in the sun", to coin a phrase. I know that some residents of Lanzarote and Tenerife are anti tourism. However, it does bring in a hefty income. Cleft stick.

How would you differentiate, then?
How would you decide who is a nice British bloke, or a loud one with his belly out?

I agree with you.
The problem is - it's a very good income for a lot of people.

I’m a bit torn. My usual holidays are cycling and walking holidays - both in the uk and abroad. A week’s hiking in the Sierra Nevada is still one of the nicest things I’ve ever done and I’m itching to do the Camino. But, I live in the North West, we’ve already beaten our average rainfall and it’s only two weeks into April. There are few things nicer after a winter as wet as ours than a week on the beach in early June, with the sun warming your skin and the Med to swim in.

There is a good dollop of snobbery around this too. Of course it's not appropriate to be breaking by-laws by going into a restaurant in a bikini, just as it's not appropriate to break other laws.

But if someone wants to spend a week or fortnight sitting on a sun lounger "with their belly out", eating pie and mash and watching the football on the telly that is THEIR CHOICE. Just because it's not something you'd choose doesn't make it wrong, or harmful.

Have you actually been to a resort that attracts this kind of tourist OP? I’m not so sure you’d be so tolerant if it was your house that you had to be swilling puke and worse off the doorstep of a morning.
Unfortunately our Uk booze culture is notorious in too many holiday resorts and I've very sympathy with the locals!

I think your post has a bit of that colonial Brit mentality about it. Someone from elsewhere says ‘we don’t like them coming for various reasons’. You say ‘I don’t care, I want to go so I will’.

I get your point about not everyone behaves badly but surely you can understand how it feels to other countries and cultures that ours throughout time has gone and thrown its weight around wherever and whenever we like. No wonder we have a bad reputation.

I'm just here to find out what OP means by "girly middle class commentator".

I agree with you about sitting in the sun. It’s not my idea of a holiday but each to their own.

No guarantee of any sun in August. Where I live we had no summer at all last year. Plus, our schools go back mid August so we are stuck with July which was equally as bad as August last year. Hoping for a prolonged dry spell this year. The sun is a bonus.