Sick of some Cornish people bleating on as though they are the worlds only tourist destination

[Endlesssummer2022]

Just read the article below and found a few gems such as these:

’ have you ever wondered where the local people live? Or have you noticed that many of your holiday neighbours are recognisable in the narrow lanes of the pretty fishing villages because they are the same people you live near in London?’

and…

‘Despite what you may have read, we Cornish do welcome visitors and are happy to share our love of our land with you. But it might help if you do a bit of research – Cornwall is fiercely independent and has a proud and unique history and heritage…* *And try not to be rude to local people. If you’ve been asked to not drink from a glass bottle on the beach, there is a reason for that. Don’t forget to tip waiting staff. ‘

What patronising bollocks. So Londoner’s (as those are apparently the only people who visit Cornwall) are so untraveled and boorish we need to be told not to be rude to people, pay tips, not to smash glass bottles in sand, that we’ve bought all of their houses, that it’s ‘their’ land and we’re the ones who are rude?

I’d already decided I wouldn’t go back there after how some of them carried on during Covid but this article has pissed me off. Why would anyone go there when they can go to equally lovely places in the UK/World and not be treated with contempt?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/29/welcome-to-cornwall-please-dont-ruin-it-for-us-local-people

When is peak season someone please? June, July and August? Want to avoid...

Me too. Tourists are an important part of the economy but some of them are a challenge. Camper van parked up in a layby yesterday which is fine but when they departed they left a bag of rubbish at the roadside to be strewn around by wildlife. Multiply by x number of thoughtless tourists and the lovely place they come to see looks like a tip by the end of the season.

Sadly that is not unique to Cornwall - NIMBYs are everywhere

In 2021 there was a huge influx of people who would normally holiday in Benidorm. They were awful.

We had tourists shitting in bags and leaving them on the beach etc. Drinks bottles, cans etc.

Whining that the beaches didn't have parasols and sun beds and that the sea wasn't warm enough.

They moan about 2nd home owners, yet block plans for affordable housing?

Shame on them.

Not Cornwall, but I live in another tourist area. I don’t object to visitors at all, but unfortunately a large number do need to be told how to behave. The rubbish left on the beaches is utterly unbelievable. A lot of people genuinely treat places they visit like trash.

I've always found the people of Cornwall very welcoming and friendly. I'm from Yorkshire.

They’ve got a point though haven’t they. People actually DO need it spelling out . The English on holiday are just awful whether they are in Cornwall or anywhere else in the world and it’s bloody embarrassing.

Currently in the car on the way home from Cornwall.

Were treated well.

Several times over the last few days I've pointed out littering and antisocial behaviour from visitors, and said to my partner that I don't understand what the fuck is wrong with people.

The local kids weren't impressed by it either.

How would YOU feel if you lived somewhere like Cornwall and had to endure people coming and treating it like a toilet.

I expect the people who make a living from tourism are very happy to have us.

But for everyone else it's a PITA that they have to endure.

I hope I am a considerate tourist but can understand the need for a polite reminder about the rules. You say it shouldn't be necessary but the very fact that someone wrote it means that it probably is. Can't you just assume it's intended for boorish, inconsiderate people and not you?

You seem to have taken serious offence for someone who claims to know how to behave as a visitor to a UK tourist hotspot. If you don't do any of the things described in the article then the article isn't directed at you but clearly some people do not know how to respect the places they visit and need to be told. If you behave in a civilised manner you will be welcome.

I live in an area that receives quite a few visitors in summer and in the last few years some of them have behaved in totally unacceptable ways, shitting in bus shelters and allotments is not OK. Hopefully most sane people will not think I have assumed all tourists are thick boors by saying so.

Or be properly prepared for walking our hills! Don’t get me started on the camper vans.

Still I'm not suprised,they think they own all of Cornwall just because they live in a semi in Truro.

What kind of person who shits on a beach is going to read an article banging on about how inconsiderate tourists are and then go, ok, I must remember not to do that again.

I think all this hostility to tourists does make them feel a bit unwanted, but then I felt that vibe visiting Cornwall in the 90's and vowed not to go back on holiday for a long time!

I live in a touristy area and just accept that's the price to pay for living on a small island in one of the nicest bits. People are being dicks at the moment, but that is not limited to tourist areas, people in my city are a bit rude, sweary and not as pleasant as they might be lately, although of course, most people are quite nice.

Many popular tourist destinations struggle with overcrowding and poor behaviour from tourists during peak season. The Cornish are entirely in line in their views about tourists when compared to other places like Venice. I am surprised that people seem to trot out the "but your economy is reliant on it" line as if locals in other tourist spots are happy.

Just because your regional economy relies on tourism doesn't mean that you should just have to accept however those tourists choose to behave or the fact that the local infrastructure is not set up to deal with the numbers of tourists that visit there. Also, there are many people living and working in Cornwall not in the tourist trade who know that the likelihood is that their children won't be able to afford to stay there when they grow up.

I'm not Cornish but do have to work occasionally in the South West so get a bit of a snapshot of the differences between the off and peak seasons and it is quite stark. I'm sorry to say, but I have seen some atrocious behaviour in bars and restaurants from what I can only assume are tourists (mostly southeastern accents) in the way they speak to staff. I much prefer visiting in the winter or early spring as a result.

I haven't seen it myself when in Cornwall, but I can well believe that urbanites don't know how to behave in the countryside - this is just as true in the Yorkshire Dales as Cornwall, but that doesn't mean it isn't annoying in either location.

I really confuse people because I'm born and bred Cornish but have lived in London for 20 years and am just as much of a Londoner these days. People behave like idiots when they come to London too. Plenty of Cornish have sold their house to the highest bidder.

The blame has to (mostly) lie with Cornwall council who have totally failed to introduce any progressive taxation on holiday homes and tourism which leaves the locals struggling with a total lack of infrastructure. It is completely beyond me why they haven't levied a tourist tax.

I don't live in Cornwall but I do live in a touristy area.

We have had to clean human poo up off the pavements and from in flower beds in tourist season. Human poo. Not the rest of the time though.

Not all the time. Just during that period when people weren't going abroad. There were some awful tourists with some awful behaviours then.

Unfortunately like many things, the few who are a nightmare ruin it for the rest who are lovely. But on the plus side at least the nice tourists also won't be walking on broken glass on the beach.

In 2021 there was a huge influx of people who would normally holiday in Benidorm. They were awful.

This has definitely exacerbated the problem in the last couple of years. People who would usually do a different type of holiday ( not just Benidorm) going to UK destinations and expecting it to be like wherever they usually go. Or to behave in the same way they would wherever they usually go. It's not just Cornwall, though it may be worse there. Massive problem in the Highlands now, the campervan and NC500 brigade. Different type of tourist to what the Highlands are used to seeing.

The problem is that the UK is full of arseholes and the summer makes it even worse. It is a bit patronising but I'm not offended because I know im not the one lighting fires in moors or pissing on peoples doorsteps, we're curtious on the roads etc but the issue is that SO SO many people aren't. And of course it's not a Cornwall exclusive, ask any coastal city or tourist town and they'll have the same stories. So in order to try and get the arseholes to act a little less arseholey they have to write articles like this to try and get them to change their arseholey behaviour.

How about a nice promotional campaign "Don't come to Cornwall! We don't want your money, we don't want you here. Cornwall is ours, for us, not for you, so fuck off out of it. Stay away!"

This is giving the wrong message, clearly.
Visit Cornwall | Official Tourist Board

Feeling quite pleased I live in a northern former mill town that isn't likely to become a tourist destination, though.

It's pathetic isn't it? You'd think that Cornwall is the only destination like this, you don't get people whinging like they are something special in Devon and yet year after year, on it goes. It's not at all that the bad behaviour is acceptable, it's the moaning exceptionalism and the fiercely independent bollocks. Go to Wales instead, it's nicer and you don't have to put up with this load of tosh about being different when in fact it's just like everywhere else in England.

If there weren’t a noticeable proportion of tourists behaving unacceptably - leaving broken glass on beaches, burying still red hot BBQs, shitting and pissing in people’s gardens or on the beach, and littering to name but a few - no-one would need to write articles like this, @Endlesssummer2022.

Can you not understand why the behaviour of some tourists is completely unacceptable, and makes life unpleasant for the locals? Frankly, your ire would be better aimed at the boorish tourists who are behaving so badly than at someone who is venting about that bad behaviour.

I found people in Cornwall to be friendly in general. I wouldn’t be put off going. I do hear anger and frustration about second homes, and the effects on local communities and services.

I’m a Londoner. 3/4 of my grandparents were Cornish born and bred. My parents retired to Cornwall. I love it there. But there’s no way I would consider moving there. The attitude against Londoners is appalling. But in reality Londoner= ‘someone who has more money than me’. Often the people complaining about not being able to afford a house in hot spots like Polperro or St Ives would never have been able to afford the houses even without tourism. Or they wouldn’t have wanted to live there as cramped or no parking.

It's the number of tourists too.

I work in property and the number of rentals that have now turned to Airbnb's is insane. The amount of pop up campsites too.

Some locals are cross because tenants have been evicted for no fault of their own for their home to be availed for tourists.

The market was completely flooded and luckily some of them are now changing back to longer term rentals.

Most people don't have anything against tourists, it's the sheer numbers and bad behaviour.