There's a lot of this about at the moment unfortunately - I live in the Peak District, and my village Facebook group is full of people frothing about visitors, as if they own the whole of Derbyshire! It's ridiculous.
I remember from a number of years ago (I believe it’s still in place), where a beautiful countryside road in the Peak District was suffering damage from people taking scrambler motorbikes and quads up the banks and woodland to the sides of it. Instead of addressing the actual problem – the inappropriately used vehicles – and putting in measures to stop/punish them, the locals fought for the road to be completely closed on bank holidays and won. This means that people who live far enough away to need a good whole day to make it worthwhile now can’t come and drive at a slow speed along the actual road, however those who live nearby CAN, if they so choose, come and bring their scramblers and quads after work or school and tear up the mud and spoil it for everybody.
I live in the West Midlands – how would these people feel if the folk in my region campaigned for them not to be allowed to use our motorways on bank holidays?
moan that them buying a house there takes away a house from a Cornish person
There’s no ‘taking away’ a house at all, as that suggests dishonour or illegitimate actions. What has happened is that a Cornish person has chosen to SELL them (or a previous owner) a house that a Cornish person could have had. If it was a private sale (as virtually all will have been), there’s no law that requires them to get the best market price by selling to a Londoner rather than selling to a native of the county who can only afford to pay half as much.
Also, there’s no restaurants or cafes open locally so you’d have to self cater for every single meal so what’s the point in travelling down here just to have a different view when you’re eating your own dinner?
Just stay home!
As PPs have said, for many of us, that’s the whole point of holidays. It's nice to eat out sometimes, but the change of scenery and getting away from your own normal mundanities is the big attraction.
If you live in a beautiful centuries-old cottage overlooking Grasmere and surrounded by green mountains, it’s all too easy to tell folk who live in high-rise tower blocks in the centre of Slough or Wolverhampton that they should ‘just stay home’.
Somebody upthread said it’s rather like the anti-immigration ‘go back where you came from’ sorts and I completely agree. I happen to live in a (for all of its faults) safe, prosperous, developed European democracy. Do you know just how much effort and hard work I put in to deserve that right for myself? None whatsoever – I just have several generations of family who happened to be born in what is now the UK and never bothered to move. Why does that mean I deserve to live here any more than any other law-abiding person from a war-torn impoverished nation?
I'd love to know whether your cousin's job in reliant on tourism, OP.
Yes, it is. It might be two, three or more steps removed but, indirectly, it is the tourist money that makes the economy of which she is a part function well. I haven't been to London for nearly two decades, but I'm still part of the national economy that relies on London tourism (along with everything else nationwide that contributes to it) to function.
Her livelihood does not rely on tourism so to her they just make transport, restaurants, events etc uncomfortably busy
Has it maybe never occurred to her that she wouldn’t have such an efficient, regular transport system and choice of restaurants and events if there was only the pool of locals to use and pay for them?