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Original poster

Tourists exodus today relieved

840 replies

justasking111 · 30/08/2021 09:16

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Bagamoyo1 · 30/08/2021 09:53

I think your post is unnecessarily harsh OP.
Yes of course, no one condones the behaviour you describe, it’s disgraceful. But the vast majority of us don’t behave like that.

We went to South Wales this summer. We were polite, we spent lots of money in cafes, activities etc, people were friendly and so were we. I’d like to think we went some way towards helping tourist attractions get back on their feet, after a disastrous 18 months. It’s not nice to think we were disliked just for being tourists.

HesterShaw1 · 30/08/2021 09:54

Ah OP :( . I get that it's been a really hard summer, with more people than usual, with people who usually take their attitudes to Spain etc, who are frustrated at the crowds....but posts like this really don't help do they?

Hobnobswantshernameback · 30/08/2021 09:55

I'm welsh
A first language welsh speaker
Is that good enough for you op?
I'm even an NHS worker
Do I get a badge?
I holidayed in west wales
Got shafted by a pre-booked restaurant that didn't even tell us they'd closed and cancelled our booking
Works both ways

NailsNeedDoing · 30/08/2021 09:55

If it really is just the knuckle draggers of society that you’re complaining about here OP, then it’s more understandable. More than once I’ve been embarrassed by the behaviour of fellow British tourists in the cheaper foreign holiday destinations, and I realise that some people do just become loudmouth wankers when they’re away.

At least they stayed in this country this year and no one else had to put up with them.

BroccoliFloret · 30/08/2021 09:55

If we're playing masks top trumps, we still wear them in Scotland too. And the kids do in school too.

FTEngineerM · 30/08/2021 09:56

Wales relies on tourism

It provides 6% of income.. Confused

Macncheeseballs · 30/08/2021 09:56

Everyone's been through a pandemic, have a little compassion. If you live somewhere lovely enough for tourists to visit, share it or perhaps move to somewhere less appealing.

Ineedaduvetday · 30/08/2021 09:56

I was in South Wales this summer and I don't recognise the behaviour you describe from what I experienced.

The only two complaints I saw were people being upset at being asked to wear a mask in a pub we were in and a woman who was complaining that the public toilets were not free to use but charged a fee to use.

Tulips15 · 30/08/2021 09:57

We live in a beautiful part of Wales, Right on the coast.
Our buisness is Hospitality.
We are v.greatful for how busy we have been, never seen the area so busy.
A few tourists have made it hard this summer with awful attitude and behaviour..., equally so have some locals!

fizbosshoes · 30/08/2021 09:57

Just about everyone is a tourist at one time or another

Its not tourists that are the problem…its awful people

100% this. I dont live in a tourist area but I also sometimes encounter rude, entitled people who drop litter in their home town but thankfully they are in a minority.

Kokeshi123 · 30/08/2021 09:57

Am I the only person who lives in a popular tourist area and LIKES seeing tourists?
It's pretty flattering to think there are people who'll pay just to visit the place I live in all the time.
Tourists bring in money and motivate LAs to look after the appearance of cities.
And nearly all visitors are lovely!

Hobnobswantshernameback · 30/08/2021 09:57

Ooh and I had bar staff in a pub on two separate occasions tell me off rudely for wearing a mask
I'm always polite as half my family work in hospitality
Again
Works both ways
And If I'm being really picky
I was holidaying in wales and couldn't get anywhere to serve me or speak to me in my first language
Fuck sake
I'll take my knuckles somewhere other than my actual homeland next year

lockdownmadnessdotcom · 30/08/2021 09:57

I've taken a decision not to visit the UK tourist places I've been a regular customer of for so long, for a while, seeing as they've made it so clear they don't want us. The steep price increases what levt a sour taste too. I hope you don't regret it when this year's visitors go back to foreign holidays and the old ones don't come back

This.

I had no desire to holiday in the UK Wales Cornwall this summer due to overcrowding, ridiculous prices (people really do have more money than sense) and the feeling among the local people that they don't have covid and only those virus-shedding tourists have it.

HesterShaw1 · 30/08/2021 09:57

@HesterShaw1

Ah OP :( . I get that it's been a really hard summer, with more people than usual, with people who usually take their attitudes to Spain etc, who are frustrated at the crowds....but posts like this really don't help do they?
That being said, the OP is right on one score. There has been a noticeable increase in aggression.
Thewholeshackshimmy · 30/08/2021 09:58

I totally agree with you. We have had a touring caravan for 8 years. Most years it’s bliss and the other campers are so friendly and helpful. Not this year, this year each campsite has been filled with a different kind of camper, many have been extremely rude and obnoxious with clearly no respect for their fellow holiday makers. I look forward to when the sites are back to how they have been pre Covid but I fear that is wishful thinking.

ZenNudist · 30/08/2021 09:58

Well I clicked yanbu. If I were in your shoes I would be feeling selfish and not want to share. I'd want my quiet lovely picturesque hometown to myself.

If your area depends on tourism for jobs then there's a bit of having cake and eat it attitude to tourists. Eg. Cornwall. But some places are not really tourist hotspots but are being overrun this year.

Macncheeseballs · 30/08/2021 09:59

And let's not forget the friends and relatives who come to stay with the people who live in tourist hot spots. Are they part of the problem, or are they OK cos they're related to you?

CiderJolly · 30/08/2021 09:59

We went to Wales this year, beautiful country, but there was a noticeable unfriendly attitude from, I would say, 50% of shopkeepers, staff at attractions. Prices were very expensive too.

My little boy, 11, broke his wrist while away, and while at a&e we got chatting to a Welsh lady and her son, also 11. The lady was friendly but her lad was really confrontational- he asked my boy ‘where are you?’, my little boy was a bit confused and eventually realised the boy wanted him to say Wales and then he told us we should be speaking Welsh with a glare. Last thing you want when your kid has just broke his wrist and is in pain. English is an official language of Wales anyway. The mum looked embarrassed and explained to the boy that it was ok as were nice English 😂. The animosity is really sad in this day and age, especially from kids who are clearly parroting what they’ve heard at home.

It’s put me off going again.

We went to Scarborough for the first time also this year and it was much friendlier and better value too.

lockdownmadnessdotcom · 30/08/2021 09:59

@Member869894

I felt this hostility when I popped into a shop in a tourist location this week. There was a big sign in the door saying that they had worked all the way through the pandemic( as though the rest of us haven't) and that they expected their customers to wear masks. They were pretty 'off'but very happy to take my money.
I have no problem with this at all. In fact when the supermarket chains said "we can't enforce masks" I thought of course you can.

If you want to shop here, and don't have an exemption, it's a term of doing business with us that you wear a mask. Perfectly reasonable.

No need to go on about working through lockdown though - I imagine a good number of the tourists worked through lockdown too. Not all WFH layabouts like me (although I also worked, just not with the public, but you get my point).

CallmeHendricks · 30/08/2021 10:00

Who are "tourists," though? Anyone who has ever travelled away from their home environs? Which means all of us.
So, be clear. You're complaining about rude people, and we have those everywhere, including in Wales.
You have lumped the whole of England, let's be clear Britain in one sweeping generalisation. I object to being called rude, just because I toured the Lake District last week.

Original poster
justasking111 · 30/08/2021 10:00

@LagneyandCasey

It's unclear if you just a local or if you work in the tourist industry, op.

Hospitality isn't exactly renowned for dealing with polite customers 100% of the time. Maybe think about changing career.

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

I am a local friends and family rely on tourism.

We've all had to pay more for attractions, eating out etc. There isn't a special rate for locals.

A lot of staff are young people doing a summer job they're not mature enough to deal with aggressive behaviour from tourism folk.

We've two lovely families staying in an Airbnb nextdoor, from Scotland. I gave them our takeaways menus and suggestions on outings with pushchairs. I like tourists, like the buzz rhey create in the area. Just not some of this year's lot.

I bet they're the neighbors from hell back home 😅😅

OP posts:
lockdownmadnessdotcom · 30/08/2021 10:00

@Macncheeseballs

And let's not forget the friends and relatives who come to stay with the people who live in tourist hot spots. Are they part of the problem, or are they OK cos they're related to you?
Like me as my mother lives in a tourist hotspot - not in Cornwall or Devon though.
SophieHMS · 30/08/2021 10:01

Holidaying begrudgingly in wales when you'd rather be in Spain; thinking you're the dog's last bollock because you really PAID MONEY for something; having an inbuilt sense of entitlement because you are "helping" the economy of a part of the UK that's been abused then neglected by England - with those attitudes no wonder the "natives" are pleased to see the back of you.

Macncheeseballs · 30/08/2021 10:01

Kokeshi, ah if all 'locals' were like you, it would be a nicer world.

Hlgwsbytktu · 30/08/2021 10:02

I live in England but our family have a shared static caravan in towyn, north Wales.
I haven't been this summer because my parents are there most of the time and tell me how manically busy it is. But also the local social media groups for there are full of posts talking about litter, fights, rowdy behaviour, violence, general feeling of unease. Plus we now have new neighbours who drink into the early hours and keep everyone awake on the caravan park. I just couldn't face it. I'm going down in a few weeks when I hope it will be quieter. I can understand got locals, especially those who don't work in the tourism sector, get sick and tired of it all