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 !!!

I'm currently sharing caring for my mother-in-law and she lives in a,seaside red and I was buying something in Superdrug where she put my shopping into my bag whilst I was paying. I said thank you for that and she looked amazed.

To be fair, at least three of these CFs could be people who live there rather than tourists.

I agree with this, and if Covid wasn't bad enough, there are now economic worries too.

I have no wish at all to defend bad behaviour, and frankly I'm not really trying to defend it, but by way of explanation, people are frazzled and I can't see how things will change.

The right to roam doesn't give you the right to traipse through private gardens and the like though, even in countries where it is much more extensive than it is in England. It gives certain rights over open access land, but doesn't mean you can just go wherever you like.Sounds like it was them, not you who needed to brush up on the law justasking111

@FatherJacksBrick

We have much the same and it can be really inconvenient. There is very rustic looking log right outside one of the prettiest cottages in our village and they queue up in the Summer to take picture and do little TikTok videos.

The thing that always gets me is the utter self absorbed manners. They get all tetchy if someone tries to get past and think nothing of taking up half the street to get the right shot.

Don’t get me started on coach parties. Our High Street is narrow and there are three dedicated coach drop off and pick up points but they are never used. The coach drivers all just plonk everyone in the middle of the village, quite dangerously blocking the high street. One a day would be bad enough but in high season it can be four or five in a row!

In MacDonald's the other day. The customer unwrapped his breakfast roll an discovered that it was sausage rather than bacon. He called a member of staff over and pointed this out. she immediately took it away and quickly came back with a replacement. His only comment to his mate was, "She didn't even apologise". No she solve the problem promptly instead. His inconvenience 60 seconds wait.

I live in a touristy area, the behaviour at times is completely shocking, there were reports asthma year of the wild ponies being shooed away from the drinking ponds on a very hot day because the tourists wanted their children to play with their toy boats undisturbed. Some people are just prices. I deal.with the public in my job and I've encouraged some shocking behaviour but nothing could convince me to work in hospitality those guys deserve medals

Silversands Aberdour. People wildcamping leaving mess from fires etc. Completely ruined now.

I live in Edinburgh and completely dreading the festival/,fringe

@funnelfanjo is it Windy WSM?

I think the sale of disposable BBQ should be banned. They are a menace and cause so much damage. Both the new picnic benches in our park have been burned through by people leaving them unattended.

And they need to teach the country code in schools. As in ‘no, you shouldn’t be doing a full Insta shoot with those tiny lambs and carrying them all round the field’.

We were returning home on Sunday and had to take a short cut through the New Forest as the main a road was jammed solid (its like this every year during school holidays) we then inexplicably found ourselves in another traffic jam and couldn't work out why... turns out its was bloody tourists one after the other inviting donkeys to come up to their cars so they could take photos and stroke them. It's hell here In the summer, I would love to move away

I live in a coastal area which has become very touristy and gentrified.

Absolutely brimming with entitled CF tourists.

Barged out of the way recently by someone clearly not local and doing a holiday shop, I was reaching for an item and she wanted the same but for some reason thought she could just push me sideways to go in front and get it first. I was utterly gobsmacked. When I commented that I was after the same item and suggested she could have said excuse me she said “well I just need to get my shopping done” and ranted at me all the way down the aisle 😳

And yes definitely worse since COVID I think.

I agree about the locals. They have BBQs leave litter and behave badly too sigh ...

I've watched my parents become CF tourists!! They own their own motor home and like to 'wild camp'. To me, thats out in the middle of nowhere with no-one else around.

They seem to think its ok to park up anywhere that doesn't have a specific sign outlawing it. And OK, they don't leave rubbish, or mess behind, and use the loo in the van but the tourist board have asked people not to,but they think it only applies to the new motor home owners/renters. Its bizarre!

They then book into a site for 1 night to fill up and empty the appropriate tanks

I do think it pays to be nice to people.
Went to Cornwall last year, arrived at a very popular location at a peak time on a Bank holiday weekend. We needed a taxi to take us and our luggage to where we were staying. Rang the taxi company and the women on the phone explained it would be at least an hour wait. I said 'thats absolutely fine, I know you will be very busy at the moment, whenever you can get here will be great' , there was a short pause and she said 'the next free taxi is yours, probably be about 15 minutes'. The driver asked if we knew her when he arrived !

Actually my son works in a pub and it’s the older generation that he finds the rudest.

He hates the lunchtime shifts with the lunching pensioners.

20 years of working in hospitality, I could write a book with the things I’ve seen. It definitely has got worse since the pandemic, to the point that we now have signs up to say we don’t tolerate aggressive behaviour and rudeness towards staff .
Last week a lady came to Reception to ask if she could purchase one of the pillows, she was going on a long haul flight and needed it to be comfortable. The receptionist explained that we don’t sell them but there is a tourist / souvenir shop 2 minutes away that sells travel pillows. Apparently this grown woman started screaming, crying and wailing until the receptionist agreed to let her take a pillow for free.
after she checked out we noticed she took 2 pillows. she also left a bad review.

Oh yes, the ‘are you really allowing your 5yr old jump off the pier’…. Yes, she’s wearing a lifejacket and has been doing it every day since April, and all of last summer too. Particularly fun is when no local kids can go pier jumping because visiting kids travel in packs from the campsites and block access to anyone else.
see also- rocking into the local shops and cafes in wet wetsuits without a care in the world for the puddles they leave behind.

I live near Edinburgh, and used to work just off the Royal Mile. Absolute nightmare. To be fair, I love the atmosphere in the city during the Festivals, and enjoy meeting people from other places.... however, going to run an errand in your lunch break was impossible.

I live near a seaside town, and a friend lives right in it. It's very popular for holidaymakers, and is quite wealthy in it's population. There are campervanners who come every summer, and park up by the beach for weeks. You wouldn't mind so much, but the human shit in the sand dunes is just disgusting.
I was visiting her on Saturday, and we went to a local beach. It's on private land, so you have to pay £3 to get through the barrier with a car (locals will know exactly where I mean!!) When we got there, a 4x4 (of course) had parked across the entrance, meaning no-one could get in, and also the narrow, single tracked road was blocked. When the offenders were found by a young woman from the local stables, they said they had just stopped for a look, and didn't want to pay.....

I worked in hospitality when I was a student, and also when travelling. The appalling behaviour I received on occasion has led me to ALWAYS be polite to servers.

Dd works in a hotel and swears the pensioners are lovely and the middle aged women are horrible.
otoh she may just be using it as a stick to beat me with…🤔

My very local beach. I've stopped going there in the Summer on a weekend. We used to go swimming every few days. It's been awful the last couple of years. I was talking to the ladies in the Cafe, and they were saying some people have been trying to do a runner without paying too. :(

Am currently camping in a very lovely campsite, our neighbours have youngish children where ours are 9+. Very sweet children running around all day from early hours, my children have entertained them whilst she sits smoking wafting our way, its disgusting.. 9pm our children our playing a card game laughing, woman comes over and tells us that we're making too much noise and we are keeping her children awake...

Am planning my come back for tomorrow....

I live near to but not quite on the NC500 route and it is beyond belief how people behave, from littering, toileting everywhere, attempting to take monstrously large motorhomes down single track roads, it’s shocking.
people who’s day to day driving experience is sitting for an hour commuting at 20mph or taking the family hatchback 2 exits on the ring road to get to the Big Tesco for the weekly shop hiring a vehicle they have no experience of driving and tooling along at 30mph with a tailback miles long behind them, blocking access for emergency vehicles, people who rely on the roads to make their living.
there are also anecdotal stories about tourists helping themselves to community food banks, parking in graveyards and generally behaving like dicks.