Tourists exodus today relieved

[justasking111]

Well it's over today the tsunami of tourists will be gone.

We have never experienced such, rudeness, aggressive behaviour from them as we have this summer. Our businesses have limped along short staffed, been abused, threatened as have locals. The littering has been something else.

I know everyone has had a bad year but so have the Welsh our lockdowns harder and longer than others.

We still wear masks in shops fgs

So hopefully you all had good holidays but glad of a bit of peace now

I’m counting the days till it’s over. The traffic, and queues and crowds. The rising Covid rates are worrying. Not long now.

@justasking111

We're just not used to knifings, fighting in a pub because one bloody beer has run out. Being physically threatens because you politely point out that an area is for staff only. Leaving awful reviews on Google because they had to wait in a line for a table to be cleaned down even though they were walk ins. Or hurling abuse because there was not a free table or were asked for track and trace details.

The knuckle draggers were out in force this summer. Where do they usually holiday I wonder??

Magaluf

@lorca

I'm holidaying in South Wales later in September - what are the Actual Laws around masks? Do I have to wear them in shops/restaurants? In the street? On a beach?

I don't wear a mask at all in Surrey. Not since Freedom Day although I am in the minority .

masks are still mandatory in shops and health care settings, not in hospitality venues

gov.wales/coronavirus

After the Cantab earthquakes, it was extremely noticeable how intolerant, snappy, and quick to anger many Cantab's were, towards retail and hospo' workers, and also in the tourist locations.

It was bloody awful. I was mortified as I watched one woman tear strips off a worker at a nearby tourist attraction, for very little to no cause. We intervened, and I actually apologised profusely on behalf of the woman (I knew she'd come from Christchurch, cos I heard her play the quake card).

We've all been through a shite year. Some more shite than most, and we don't know each other's story, other than knowing we've all been through the stress, trauma and uncertainty of the pandemic, whichever side of the counter we're on.

There's no excuse for physical and verbal abuse of anyone, but most particularly if they are in the difficult position of serving you and may feel pressured just to sit there and take it.

We still wear masks in shops fgs

I’m in south west England and yesterday in Asda and every single person was wearing a mask.

That aside, we visited cheddar gorge with friends, saw a parking space come available at the same time as another family. We were positioned perfectly to enter it (pure luck but we’d been driving round for a while). Woman from other car came and tried to stand in the space to save it for her husband. Nope, not how parking works. Dh drove into the space and she moved. They reversed back and waited for us to get out the car before calling us “chavvy scum” and apparently people don’t behave so appallingly in London. There were also tourists allowing dc to chase the goats on the cliff edges. The overall behav and grumpiness of people was very different to previous years. Maybe people are on holidays for the sake of it when it’s not really their kind of holiday.

I’m from the south east but moved here 15 years ago.

Us retired folk will be back to annoy once the schools go back

so you want to live and run a business in a "touristy" part of the UK, but not have the inconvenience of tourists?

This is a very stupid non-argument.

You do know, don't you, that so-called 'touristy' areas are also places of work, and study, which have nothing to do with the tourism industry, and are home to thousands of people.

If the curse second-home ownership doesn't force locals to move, that is.

She said fighting over beer, which I can imagine if post-rugby nights out are anything to go by and that's just the locals (cough me)

@FlumpsAreShit - we had a fantastic week in Northern Ireland this summer. Everything was truly exceptional - food and service were stand out excellent and so friendly. Had totally opposite experience in Wales, with a couple of exceptions. We felt genuinely welcomed in NI (also in Devon earlier this year, and Spain)

I live in a spanish resort. The tourists are still here and it's a pain not being able to just eat where we want without booking but it's been wonderful seeing life and the holiday vibe and those businesses that have struggled returning to normal. And if you think wales had a tough lockdown you should see what happened in Spain we were locked in our houses not even able to go for a walk. ( and it's been LOVELY without hoards of drunk Brits) we have just had respectful EU visitors.

OP - perhaps you can tell us all exactly where you are then we can all make sure to avoid it so you don't have to deal with us all in the future

@KaycePollard

so you want to live and run a business in a "touristy" part of the UK, but not have the inconvenience of tourists?

This is a very stupid non-argument.

You do know, don't you, that so-called 'touristy' areas are also places of work, and study, which have nothing to do with the tourism industry, and are home to thousands of people.

If the curse second-home ownership doesn't force locals to move, that is.

They may have nothing to do with the tourist industry, but what would life be like without the money it brings in?

No doubt you'd all be screaming at the government for desperately needed funding.

I use local services, local tradespeople, shop local and donate to local charities

Oh yes, for the x number of weekends per year you're there. And the house you own is not available for an actual local to have an actual home.

You really shouldn't be so sanctimonious and smug @makingmyway10

Weather is everywhere

I’ve lived in a few tourist areas, I really like the energy they bring to places. There are some nobheads (and we noticed an increase this year at the campsite we’ve been going to for thirty years - but put that down to people a) not knowing how to drive on country roads and b) not really understanding the different culture of holidaying in the UK)

But this bile and bitterness towards tourists is really ugly, it usually seems to come from a place of being weirdly conflicted between feeling superior and persecuted - this is our beautiful place so we deserve to be here but you don’t, you don’t understand how hard it is because you’re not local so you don’t deserve it but we do. But as others have said happy to take the money and then bitch behind closed doors (or on social media).

My sister and BIL run a caravan park in Crystal Palace (London suburbs) and live on site in the season. They have noted a definite increase in rudeness and aggression in some visitors. Complaints about high prices (London prices have always been high) having to queue in the small shop, whinging about petty things. There have also been a lot of complaints about drunkeness and late night noise in some instances upsetting other visitors. BIL is a big guy and an ex officer in one of UKs hardest prisons but even he found some of the behaviour offensive and challenging.

If you're living in a tourist hotspot maybe think about moving.

I think one of the points is that Welsh "tourist" areas have had to deal with far more tourists than they are accustomed to, or indeed set up for. And of course social distancing has reduced potential capacity even further, and people isolating has decreased the number of staff available. I have never seen as many "Staff wanted" signs in pub and café windows as I have this year.

Add to that the "entitlement" of people who are used to holidaying abroad in areas set up for vast numbers of tourists, who believe that the Welsh should be grateful that they are deigning to spend their money here and should treat them like the VIPs they are, and I can see why workers are pissed off.

That said, I have had some lovely chats with tourists I have bumped into (not literally) on coastal paths and such in my area, which has been nice, even if it has changed the atmosphere of my usually isolated strolls somewhat.

I think a lot of people have got shorter fuses over the last year. Still no reason to be rude ro hospitality staff. I have noticed more litter, overcrowding and general rudeness near here too.

The place where I have seen the least mask-wearing, by far, through this whole covid debacle, was St Davids in Wales last year, August 2020, locals and tourists alike. We stayed in a B&B and the owners would come into our rooms to talk to us without masks. This surprised me at the time, especially as, at that point, mask wearing was compulsory in England (and in Wales, I presume?) and it was a tiny minority that refused to wear them in England. So people in glass houses etc.

Bet your local economy has been grateful for those awful people’s money.

I don't think it's reasonable to be rude at all if you're a tourist, but it does work both ways.
We went to a popular tourist destination in the UK early in the summer before schools had broken up. I bought an item from a bakery, got outside and found it was the wrong item. Went back to the queue for the bakery and went to politely and apologetically explain that I had been given the wrong item and ask if I could have an exchange - pleases and thank yous and not aggressive at all (I normally wouldn't complain but I really didn't like the alternative I was given and was really hungry!).
I was met with an eye roll, a frown, and the correct item was shoved at me over the counter without a word said.

I have lived in one of the most touristy places in the UK before and know it's frustrating, but it's also frustrating being a tourist sometimes and being met with hostility when you're doing nothing wrong.

@Kleptaklunky

Weather is everywhere

That's the most profound thing I've ever read on here.

@OlympicProcrastinator

Don’t worry, we will all be spending our money abroad next year. Cheaper, friendlier and with guaranteed weather.

I know someone who works in Spain and they are dreading it because of exactly what the OP posted.

They are unbelievably patient because they have learnt to be or else there will be repercussions, the prices will be dearer for green list countries and the weather will be unbearably hot.

But off you pop.

Most of central London is owned by Arabs and Malaysians and is deserted at the weekend outside of the summer, even before Covid. Locals my age haven't been able to buy propert in London since the late eighties, never mind young people. This is not unique to Cornwall and Wales.

I live in a Welsh seaside town and it's been fantastic to see the visitors return in their droves. It was sad during lockdown, on bright sunny days, seeing empty beaches, closed shops, cafes and pubs all shut.

There are rude people everywhere, and it's unfortunate, but they are in the minority. I've seen a couple of folk being reminded to wear masks in shops and another person unable to understand the outside table service only in the pub, but that's it.

Keep coming to beautiful Wales, it's lovely here. Diolch.