CF Tourists - is it worse ??

[WeWillLookBack]

We have just got back from a few days in Cornwall - we live in Devon, so spend a lot of time in both counties and are very used to tourists and holiday makers. We stayed in a 'pub with rooms on the beach, which was lovely. However - I am utterly gobsmacked by the level of CF we have witnessed in the 3 days. It feels like peoples entitlement is off the scale. I don't know how those in hospitality are dealing with it.

Wednesday - Woman went mental at the poor young lad serving in the beer garden - insisted she had booked a table outside. Very politely told her that they do not take reservations for the garden, just the restaurant. Screaming ' Are you calling me a liar'. He went in, and didn't come back out.

Friday AM - they serve breakfast for guests 8am-9.30am, then open for breakfast at 9.30am (lots of signs saying open at 9.30am). At 8.30am a group were outside - rattling the door. Member of staff opens the door, and lets them know they open at 9.30am. Lots of moaning - insisting they can have breakfast now etc. She says no - very polite. So he tells her it is disgusting that they allow guests to sit in the window eating when others can't ! ( and to make up for their error, they should serve them breakfast too)

Friday evening - Family of 6 rocked up - no space in the beer garden. Started shouting - so the owner came out. Man very angry - they had driven for 6 hours - and the kids needed feeding. The owner was great - polite but firm. The man actually suggested the owner walk around the beer garden and checked when people were leaving so they could secure a table. He said no. A lot of swearing. Asked to leave.

Drive home Saturday morning. Along a winding road along the coast - car in front just stops. Man gets out and stands looking at the sea. Single lane - so I cant go around him. After a few moments I beep - he stomps over to my car and says 'Can I help you' ... I say you have blocked the road - could you move please. To which he responds 'I am looking at the view - maybe you could just be kind' FFS !!!

Oh, and another couple who were shocked and angered to be told that they could not charge their electricity vehicle for free. Nor would we be giving their daughters free riding lessons (we aren’t a riding school or trekking centre, I’m not an instructor and we don’t hire our ponies. There is nothing to suggest we are anything but a farm, so no idea why they thought that). They were so indignant when I declined, despite my explanation that w don’t offer that service, I’m not qualified to teach and we aren’t insured- as well as having no inclination to let complete strangers ride any of our ponies/horses.

I’m sorry I really fancy the NC500 now that I know what it is 😂

Wondering if they marketed it like this to remind people that there are places in the UK other than Devon and Cornwall…

DP and I were 'hovering' like that near a couple in a pub. They were finishing a meal; we had bought drinks. One of them noticed us, and said 'Do you want a pudding? It's not been touched'. They went and we shared a tiramisu.

I live in Cornwall and the entitlement amazes and I'm thankful for not working with the public, but I still see it!!

you're from Devon so I can't imagine it's much different there either.

problem with touristy areas is that some of the tourists forget all our lives are here and think it's just one big tourist attraction! This is our daily life.

you should have a look at what some teenage yobs have been doing at Polzeath on the north coast!! Most likely private school kids shipped down here for the summer.

Walking backwards when taking a photo is not entitlement though. A lot of people are clumsy every day and bump into people when not on holiday.

Reminds me of when I was working near St Pauls in the 1980s. Huge cohort of Chinese or maybe Japanese tourists outside, one had nominated self as group photographer (note: pre phones with cameras so you had one go at a decent shot) , they were all lined up on the pavement with photographer trying to fit them all in & St Paul's in the background. He kept sending the group backwards to try and fit everyone in. Eventually the group found themselves immediately in front of a low, just below knee height hedge, but were sent back again.... the entire row fell backwards into the hedge. So funny to watch.

I'd put money on it being York.

The people expecting free riding lessons!

😂

My aunt and uncle live in a medieval house in a tourist town. My aunt got so sick of people standing in her flower bed to have their photos taken that she kept a watering can on the window sill and started watering them.

Also if they left the kitchen door open in summer people would wander in thinking it was a cafe. I was visiting once and it happened. We were all a little tipsy so invited them to join us!

Sorry but “be kind you fucking bitch” that the poor pp experienced did make me laugh in a dark way. Just sums up that awful trite phase.

God forbid a Welsh speaking area should have For Sale signs in Welsh. Cheek of them.

@phishy you make an interesting point. I live in London and the cinema and restaurant I'm going to tonight are 30 minutes from my door by walking and about 15 by public transport. I haven't yet decided how to get there but I will get the tube or bus home because it will be dark and I'll feel a bit safer especially after a couple of glasses of wine. But that makes me a local by any stretch of the imagination.

My friend lives in Essex about an hour away by train. The distance from her house to central London might even be less than the distance between the OP's house in Devon and her holiday destination in Cornwall.

Does that make my friend a tourist? I suppose it does just like someone going from Devon to Cornwall for a holiday is a tourist. She blends in mostly but there's always a risk that she'll do something that will mark her out as not from round here. Not by ticking off staff in pub gardens or pointing at planes because like most people she has those where she lives. But she usually says things like: "Can we get the bill now because I need to catch the last train?" or "Do you remember when this used to be an HMV?"

I'll let her come just like all the other tourists I'll meet tonight. There's no "let" about it. It's a free country and they can do whatever they like without asking me. Just like them and the OP I can go anywhere on holiday and be polite or not but I'll always be a tourist when I go there.

jacks excellent work on the field!

I haven't been away for years. People keep telling me to go on holiday but quite honestly, not a lot about it is appealing now. I really regret not seeing more of our lovely countryside before all this happened - I was due big trips in 2018 and 2019 but parental care put the kibosh on that.

I glared at him but didn’t say anything and he shouted “Be kind, you fucking bitch”.

yes this is exactly the sort of person the “be kind” movement has appealed to. An absolute bullies charter.

As for the bloke backing up to take a picture, you check if anyone is behind you. I’m going to generalise and say, it is usually men who don’t look to see who’s around them, just assuming people will move out of the way. Also who don’t anticipate that someone will want to walk through a space they’ve been blocking, and don’t move until asked directly.

I'm a bit taken aback that this is a surprise to anyone. We used to go to Biarritz a lot before the pandemic. We speak a bit of French and try to use it when we're there, for the fun of it, and a waiter once thought we were Swiss, because, he said, 'of your accent, and you are polite, not like les fuck-offs'. That, he said is a word for holidaying Brits they use sometimes.

Seriously, not a bad idea!

Big thank-you to anyone reading this who works in hospitality and remains polite despite having to put up with this CFery.

I know why I barely leave home to go anywhere in Cornwall during the summer, and you've all reminded me of the reasons.

Yet there are lots of polite tourists who bring in lots of money to these places

Who cares? It's great fun to read.

I think we do like to bash ourselves at times. It is not true that everyone else in the world thinks the British are the worst tourists ever. There are both rude and wonderful people everywhere. In Asia it was always the Chinese and Russians that people complained about. Or Korean tour groups.

I don't do any of this stuff, but lots of it - well I can see why it happens. For the record, I am not going on any kind of holiday and my family are just home this summer.

Many of these problems result from too many people in too small a space with too few facilities. And lots of services are being run with the minimum number of staff to save costs. The roads are also jammed. All this combines to create a hellish situation, which is a significant factor in why I will just stay home.

Even though lots of the behaviour described is appalling, it is easy to see why it happens:

People trying to get a meal struggle - places are full, there are category specific time slots. The people are hungry and stressed, probably with kids whining for food.

Parking is full. People park on private property. Problem caused.

etc.

And the fact you tried to speak French at all. I used to work in tourism on the continent. 95% of Brits never even tried at all, and a huge chunk of those who didn't try got angry with the locals for not understanding them.

Hmm, I lived in France for a few months, and I speak decent French. But there's a significant minority of French people who are rude to you if your French isn't perfect.

I usually get one a day at work - an unreasonable customer, I have a stock of replies including company policy, ultimately refer them to the duty manager.

Sometimes they are right the company ideas are wrong, not my fault though.