Tourists go home

[Needsomebloodyperspective]

I’ve just read an article about protests on the streets of Palma about tourists. I know there are similar protests going on in Tenerife. I don’t know what to think about this.

There are obviously some tourists who act like absolute revolting pigs on holiday, we know this. On the other side surely the jobs that tourists help create and the tourism industry helps the economy.

Interested to learn other people’s perspectives.

This. Plus hotels should stop taking bookings from stag and hen parties.

There's just too many people on the planet. That causes the problems.

I can really understand the problems - especially in places where there is a pile ‘em high ethos that have a combination of sun and cheap alcohol.
I have seen behaviours in some places that made me ashamed to be British. Not buried in night time either - drunks in broad daylight, shouting, almost naked while walking around.
Some people seem to lose all sense of dignity.
Also Air BnB seems to have done more harm than good.

I really think that a large part of the problem is travel without respect of local culture.

It's up to the governments of the countries mentioned to build affordable housing and to sort out the AirBnB issued, rather than waving goodbye to a large chunk of income

This. I live just off the m5 in Somerset and the traffic is a nightmare in the summer. I just want to be able to take my children to soft play or to get to Tesco without sitting in traffic for ages.

I agree. The problems are caused by lack of regulation, planning and control at national, regional and local levels. You can't blame the tourists.

I own a house in Portugal (the rules in our deeds are that it is a holiday building and you cannot live there permanently), last year the government introduced new laws to restrict holiday property licences, charge new taxes on holiday let’s and generally make it more difficult to rent out your property a a holiday let under the guise of making more homes available to the local population. Obviously that doesn’t work when properties are within buildings that are designated as holiday properties. But what is more interesting is that they had an election earlier this year, and the party who won had repealing these new laws as one of their major campaign promises, so clearly, in Portugal at least, reducing the number of holiday properties isn’t a priority for most people.

One of my clients bought an old farmhouse, barns and outbuildings to convert to residential units (on the edge of a town just outside the Lake District). The local council wouldn't grant residential planning permission and would only grant holiday accommodation status, meaning short term lets only and no "permanent" living in them. Completely bonkers to have a local authority insisting on holiday lets when at the same time, locals are crying out for homes to live in. It took him a few years and thousands in planning appeals to get residential planning permission. It's pretty bad when local authorities set out to make the local housing market worse by not allowing developers to build residential homes and try to enforce holiday homes instead!

Are you seriously suggesting that Venice, a city that's existed for 1600 years, will fall apart without tourism?

I'm pretty sure they will figure out a way to survive. There are much more sustainable things to base your local economy on.

No one is saying no tourism, what they are saying is the path should be "sustainable tourism".

It does sound like the world would be better off with far fewer AirBnBs. Or to have them taken right back to the original plan of people renting out their spare rooms.

Sadly I don’t see it happening.

It's not just the Balaerics, closer to home there's so many parts of the UK where tourism is becoming a major issue...all the national parks, Cornwall, Skye etc etc.

It's not that locals are anti tourist, they are anti bad behaviour.

I have lived close to a family tourist destination on a Spanish island.

The amount of properties which are now holiday lets is staggering.
People really are struggling to find anywhere for long term rental as so much has turned into Airbnb types, obviously it’s financially beneficial for the owners but not for the locals.

It isn’t anything to do with tourist bad behaviour.

I've heard that the protests are organised by eco groups (think just stop oil types) and the majority of locals think they are nutters. I can see their point though about second homes, and self catering rentals though. I was watching A Place in the Sun recently, and they said a town in Spain (can't remember which one) was over 50% inhabited by ex pats who'd bought holiday places and rentals.

Currently in the canaries. No issues here but some of the Brit's here are vile. Drunk , sweaimg , litter everywhere, abusive to staff.

1. There are too many people in the world.
2. There are too many people in the world who can afford to go on holidays.
3. Posts on social media have created an "Instagram epidemic" whereby far too many of the above-mentioned people choose to go to places they've seen on social media sites to get the obligatory selfie in the desired location.

The irony is that such over-tourism is in danger of destroying the very reasons why people wish to visit particular places. If a place is famed for its peace and tranquility, for example, it will quickly lose that peaceful vibe once everyone's heard of it and then wants to go there!

If you know of a beautiful place that you love to visit, the very worst thing to do is to post a photo of it on Instagram or Facebook or anywhere else where hundreds of thousands of people will see it and share it with hundreds of thousands of other people.

Do you know of a "hidden gem" or a "secret beach"? For everyone's sake, please keep it a secret and don't be tempted to share it! I don't want to know about it - and I don't want other people to know about it either.

I live in a tourist hotspot. Locals blame tourists for high levels of litter but the worst bits are the dodgy parts of the town where no tourists need to go. I get a bit sick of the higher levels of traffic, parking being overrun etc but overall it's good for the local economy so it's a good thing really. However, what needs to happen is that councils use tourist money to improve things for the town e.g. more regular emptying of public bins, litter picks etc. They could also do a thank you to locals in some way but I'm not sure what that would look like in reality.

The World was very different 1600 years ago!

What modern industries do you think would be suited to a place like Venice with infrastructure and transport problems?

It could hardly survive only on fishing and glass blowing!

Where would be the employment for the "locals"?

Realistically it could only be a retirement "village" or playground for the rich - people with money who'd need the same kind of "services" at tourists, i.e. restaurants, cleaners, a bit of retail, etc.

The thing I don’t really understand is - any one person can only be in one place at a time. So everywhere can’t be crowded at the same time. If one place becomes over popular, surely that leaves other places emptier. Why do people want to go to crowded places OR why don’t the authorities in those places act to put limits on the number of visitors and also encourage tourists in places that don’t usually get them?

I think about British seaside towns - many with beautiful beaches and lovely views, as well as nice locals. But some of them are just no-go zones altogether, when the town up the road is awash with tourists despite being smaller or not as nice a beach. For example Bridlington has a huge, lovely beach. Views from the cliff tops and out to sea are as nice as anywhere I’ve been.

Had to drive to Inverness at the weekend for work. A9 already clogged with caravans and campers trundling along..and it will just get worse.
The islands already under the deluge of cruise ship passengers who arrive sometimes in their thousands,all trying to see the same things in a few hours.
Edinburgh during the festival? Avoid it!
Too many people, not enough bins/ bins not emptied,prices hiked to ridiculous levels to fleece tourists,particularly around the Tattoo. Tourism is a vital sector for Scotland, but its a small country with poor roads and infrastructure. Thankfully our shitty weather puts many off coming.

The thing I don’t really understand is - any one person can only be in one place at a time. So everywhere can’t be crowded at the same time.

Um, yes it can, because there are 7 billion people on the planet and every year more and more of them can afford to and want to travel! And the iconic sights are the ones that everyone wants to visit at least once in their lives, which is why places like Venice, London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Barcelona, Prague, New York, Sydney, The Great Wall of China, etc, are so incredibly busy at all times.

30 million people visit Venice every year. 30 million!! That's the same number that visit London - a much larger city. In high season, that equates to around 110,000 people per day and I'm willing to bet that the majority of them hit the same few sights - St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, the Rialto Bridge, etc, so they are concentrated in a very small area.

I was here recently, the only thing I saw was “go home tourists” spray painted on the sign to Valldemossa.

I agree this isn’t just happening Mallorca, I read lots about the Fringe in Edinburgh this year, performers being priced out.

This.