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!

I was reading about the protests in the canary islands the other day (as we were on one..). They're not protesting about tourists (or even British tourists) in general - tourism is the biggest contributor to their economy. They're protesting about the impact that uncontrolled tourism is having on the locals. For example, house prices are now unobtainable for many locals due to tourists buying holiday homes and pushing the prices up. Roads are becoming gridlocked due to an infrastructure that can't cope with the millions of tourists that visit every year (compared to less than a million residents). Health facilities can't cope. Water supplies are often under pressure. The protests are aimed at their government, wanting them to put better controls in place to make the tourism sustainable and limit the impact.

So just price them out! Massive generalisation, I know, but people who go there for that 'expeirence' do so because it's cheap.

Someone who lives there has told me that one of the problems is that lots of flats were bought up to be holiday lets meaning a shortage of affordable housing for locals so they are quite rightly cross about that. There are more self catering places than hotels there which means a shortage of jobs too.

Those are good points, @PianPianPiano .
We only have to look at the impact on Venice and Barcelona, for example, to understand these concerns.
Tourism is a massive problem in that respect, although someone wanting sunshine and beer in Tenerife is no worse than someone wanting a ski holiday in Val d'Isere

girly middle class commentator

large amount of class.snobbery

oh the irony!

The behaviour of some "Brits abroad" is appalling. On the other hand, the behaviour of lots of them isn't. If you wouldn't behave like it at home, don't do it abroad. The issue is that the "problem" tourists would indeed behave like that at home on a night out but are on a night out every single night of their holiday. They ruin it for everyone else.

edit: I meant to delete the quote! I only quoted it so I could easily copy the two phrases at the start of my post 🤦🏻‍♀️

But also, there are thousands of Spanish people who don't want anyone priced out because they are making a living in bars, restaurants, taxis, sun lounger hire, shops etc etc.

Just about every holiday destination struggles with these issues. It's also the same in desirable parts of the UK. It's the flip side of living somewhere where tourism is the main source of income.

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.

DH and I are in our 50s, we generally do one ‘exploring’ holiday per year, plus one Spain/Balaerics beach holiday per year. Looking forward to Majorca in June! But I doubt we offend the locals and you can’t tar us all with same brush. And yes, the Germans can be atrocious

It might help if the U.K. in the first place was less tolerant of drunken behaviour - fighting, throwing up in public, being loud and generally obnoxious. If there were hefty fines here for being ‘drunk and disorderly’ maybe it would not be seen as OK to behave the same in other countries.

And personally I’d like to see double hefty fines for anyone causing drunken aggro in A&E, or ending up there purely because they’re pissed.

This .

Come on even Brits avoid resorts where they'll be loads of loutish brits .

It's actually embarrassing being British these days .

The whiners should move elsewhere then.

It's like living or working in London and protesting about all the tourists. Do I complain, yes, but I accept it's part and parcel of London life. I am a Londoner who has moved out to the burbs.

Why not travel to local places like Snowdonia, the Lake District or Scotland, all the most beautiful places with plenty to do, and amazing

You think people should leave their home because of badly behaved tourists?

Because, as the OP says, the weather is often shit and always unreliable.

The whiners should move elsewhere then.

What? Spanish people should move away from their homes if they don't want to see undressed adults bellowing and puking around the place?

As pp have mentioned, clearly there's an issue with sustainability/infrastructure but this will apply just as much with more 'cultured' tourism. The issue I see is with the behaviour of some tourists, and from my experience unfortunately a lot of these are British. I don't think locals have a problem with people wanting to sit in the sun (even if they want to eat british food etc)- but being almost permanently pissed, vomiting etc everywhere, damaging property, being loud and obnoxious etc is not OK anywhere.

I live in a UK tourist area and similarly the locals welcome respectful tourists. The problems arise with those who want to visit the lovely countryside but then leave rubbish everywhere, have loud parties that disturb the neighbours, scare livestock and park irresponsibly on narrow lanes meaning that locals can't get to work etc.

I’ve never noticed Germans or anyone else behaving really badly - just Brits. In some places I’m embarrassed by the behaviour. Excessive daytime drinking and dressing out of the norm for the local area.

I honestly think that the way some people behave on holiday is abominable, taking the idea of "letting your hair down" way too far. And then it impacts on others - other guests who have also paid good money for their holiday, and most importantly the staff and residents.

I've no issues with tourists who want to go out and get drunk in the evening - go to a bar and a few clubs, fine. But downing shots by the family pool at 11 am and then drunkenly groping the waitress by 1 pm before throwing up all over the hotel room... No thanks. That ruins it for everyone else.

And before I get flamed, yes, I observed the above in a five star hotel on the Canary Islands, it's not made up.

Why not travel to local places like Snowdonia, the Lake District or Scotland, all the most beautiful places with plenty to do, and amazing

I live in one of those places and yes it's beautiful.

We have also just had the wettest 18 months on record. Last summer was a total wash out, save 2 weeks in June. Is it really so hard to get your head around the fact that some people want a bit of guaranteed sunshine?

We were just talking about this on our last holiday. For the first week of the holiday we were pretty much the only Brits, surrounded by Germans, Austrians and French guests. Then for the last few days, the Brits arrived and the vibe totally changed. Not for the better.

The rudest tourists I have come across are Americans. Absolutely need to stress that loads of them were lovely people but I saw so many be incredibly rude to staff. One woman screamed at a waitress and stormed out of a French restaurant as they didn't have any Californian red wine!

I think they should price the louts out personally, but then others don't want to do that because they rely on those louts spending money for income.

It's the reality of living in a cheap tourist place. I'm a Londoner, didn't like how overcrowded and uncivilised London had become , I moved out. There's no uproar about that.

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

Umm use your eyes and ears?

Quite!

The British Bulldog tattoo is often a giveaway, too.

Parts of mainland Spain have introduced laws limiting all inclusive alcohol - in all seriousness, they should just scrap alcohol being included completely and up prices in bars and hotels - that would help enormously.