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

If London (a city of nearly 9m) gets 20m tourists per year, then it isn't even just off of the bottom of the scale, it's a very long way down. 2, to be precise.

Imo, that’s misleading. I lived in SE London for 10 years. I do not recall coming across many tourists on my local high street. I do remember loads of tourists in Central London (I worked in 2 offices, just off Oxford St). So saying 9 million tourists to 20 million residents, spread mainly around Outer London, is not the same as looking at the geographical areas, say the West End, Westminster and Mayfair, or wherever tourists congregate (mainly Central London?) with the local residents just in those areas?

Most of the areas where tourists do congregate in London aren't residential areas so the impact upon the population is much less.

All inner London is residential save for the city (with only 8000 inhabitants). Tourists primarily stay in inner London - population 3.4 million. That’s the number to calculate the true ratio of tourists/inhabitants. (I’ve already pointed out that that is only one way of analysing the impact of tourism, another factor is numbers per square mile.)

Visitors have increased by 44% in 10 years. In 2023 Tourists in London will spend 115 million nights here.

We can cope with it you claim. Can we? Our own population of 9.6 million, has increased by 3 million in 30 years. Not forgetting the unofficial undocumented population estimated to be around 400,000.

So London already has more inhabitants than its housing or infrastructure can cope with. Not just summer but all year round. 10% of people in London live in overcrowded conditions, rising to 16% in social housing.

In Cornwall the figure from the last available piece of data it was 2.5% in overcrowding and Cornwall’s rate is lower than the national average.

There are currently 15,000 households in Cornwall on the waiting list for housing. In London it’s 1.21 million - the average wait time is for council housing is 5-7 years.

I‘m well aware that areas of Cornwall are deprived and that the average salaries in Cornwall are lower than the national average. I’m also aware that Cornwall salaries are nonetheless substantially higher than the average salary in, for example, Greece, Spain or Poland - indeed £10,000 - £17,000 a year higher.

Cornwall, the Lakes and Skye are the only tourist destinations in the country - the Cotswolds, Devon, Somerset, Norfolk, Oxford, Cambridge, Bath and Edinburgh all attract their fair share. All these places have legitimate issues with tourist loads and its consequences. As of course do Italy, Spain, France and Turkey - the 4 top countries visited globally. However, much as it may be hard for these countries to deal with the volume of visitors, they are gracious and welcoming to tourists nonetheless.

@Mirabai it's pretty disingenuous to compare UK tourist hotspots to EU or cities. The vast majority of UK tourist hotspots rely on holiday lets, camping and holiday parks, transport is by car. The vast majority of EU and cities rely on dedicated hotels, transport is via public transport. UK hotspots suffer massive peaks, city breaks much less so.

Tourism is a key part of some local economies in the UK. But, the majority of jobs are seasonal and low paid. The majority of economic benefits do not stay in the local community. The costs to local communities of excessive tourism can very damaging and in many cases are unsustainable.

It shouldn't be a race to the bottom. Do you take communities seriously?

You’re just taking the piss now.

It's not tourists per se. It's just downright rudeness and ignorance of people, which has nicely been demonstrated by the thread.

I have been going to Cornwall for over 20 years, annually, with absolutely no problems at all. Absolutely love the place.

Maybe, you're just rude wherever you go? Perhaps, the Cornish are just brave enough to tell you.

Visited Cornwall on and off for the best part of 20 years (if I was holidaying in this country). However, then Covid hit and many of the locals were very vocal about tourists not being welcome.

We now go to the Lake District 🤷🏼‍♀️

But of course they wdnt want any visitors during covid . ..

That was exactly mu point . I was defending the areas tight ro protect itself!

I dont need to educate myself . I too live kn a rural area by the sea and we felt the same .

Born in Cornwall and still live here now.

I have to love the sweeping statements…all the Cornish…all Londoners etc,regardless of where you are from, I have always found that if you treat people with politeness and respect and they do the same to you.

Sadly I have witnessed some atrocious behaviour from tourists from all walks of life.

I have seen the results on a young child who stood where a BBQ had been moved from the sand but not watered properly to cool it down, they lost all the skin off their feet and it took months to heal.

It does get boring with the tagline…you all depend on our money…no I don’t actually and neither does my husband., not all our jobs are tourist dependent so yes the rude and arrogant tourists are a pain but that is same wherever you go.

It is a pain that my 20 minute commute can be up to around 50 minutes in the summer but it is what it is.

I live in Brighton and it is heaving when hot, in June when it was very hot, it added 2o minutes to my journey home from work as the main road in and out of Brighton is unavoidable. Plus there are lots of big events down here like comedy festivals, art and music festivals. I live near a station that is one stop before the central station and the litter in this leafy road goes up exponentially, the parking on the double yellow lines outside the station for drop offs and collections is infuriating as people actually live on the road they are blocking! Brighton Pier was the second most visited places in the country in 2021 which indicates how much footfall the locals have to put up with. That said, I enjoy the cultural offerings and living standards that are pretty good as a result of the 'London by the sea' label so tourism isn't all bad.

Cornwall (in the aggregate sense) is very poor compared to most European areas which is why it attracted so much in regenerarion funding..

Its pointless to sugarcoat this, specially now when the beaches and rivers around Cornwall are being covered in Sewage.

Without tourists, Cornwall is poor.

With tourists, Cornwall is about average.

I live at the other end of the country from Cornwall but have come across a tourist who had stopped his motor home in the middle of a single track road to have a jobbie.

In the middle of the actual road.

He had loo paper in his hand.

Some folk need telling not to do some really obvious things...

I love Cornwall, having lived here for two-thirds of my life, but I'm not blind to its shortcomings either, having also lived elsewhere from 18-36 in global cities. I have also never tried to earn a living from Cornwall. DH has a small but very bespoke manufacturing business in heavy engineering. We are based where we are because Plymouth has a major requirement for our skill set, but we work all over the world. I was always self-employed in a lucrative commercial creative capacity after I returned.

It's incredibly frustrating trying to explain to the world that actually tourism and leisure is only the froth. The tourist board have done well to extend the season, which charges at least mid season rates from Easter to November now. Peak season provides casual work for young people and others in summer. But people work in the public sector, as they do everywhere, as nurses and teachers and planners etc. In employment, agriculture and food processing is huge in Cornwall, from flowers to cauliflowers to pasties and pies. And there is a growing knowledge economy quietly taking shape here too. Hospitality and restaurants are of exceptional quality, although low paid locals can't afford to enjoy them. Mining and energy generation are small, but viable in a high cost world, so valuable and growing. So it's not all doom and gloom.

And it's hard to dodge the film and TV companies on location here in every picturesque corner.

I live in Cornwall, also work in heavy specialist engineering, waves at @EffortlessDesmond

DH is an academic at a top global uni.

I don't think any of our local friends are directly employed in tourism. A few have a holiday let as a side hustle or picked up extra hours when times are hard.
A lot of us work 'globally' in TV, publishing, IT, a large group instal those huge satellite dishes, they've been to Hong Kong, Singapore and every Pacific Island . All the worlds airport and railway station benches are designed and till recently we're manufactured in Cornwall. Special van racking systems are another local product.

All our kids work part time in tourism, very few teenagers have no part time job - mine have done tea rooms, farm shop, book shop, pub shifts.
A bunch of them are cleaning and we have a parent group which compares their standards at work with the reality at home. A local lad has been part time commuting to Padstow to wash up whist doing his A-levels , he's on his way to being a highly skilled chef.
Some people get trapped in this gig economy and it can be hard to gain the skills and transport to break out.

The tourism can actually hamper investment in the trading estates and start up business units that kick start our niche specialist business.

It has it's pros and cons but tourism is a very small but highly visible part of our actual economy with a disproportionate amount of anti social behaviour attached.

I'm surprised low paid locals can't afford to eat at restaurants, ours in Wales are very aware that they need to keep competitive to survive the winter. Maybe because we're more northerly, the tourists are more aware and won't pay the prices off season.

I appreciate what you're saying but tourism isn't a very small part of the Cornish economy by any definition.

I live in Cornwall and I loathe it, beautiful place terrible people

I think as a nation we do need to learn to behave better. People shouldn’t behave like arseholes when they are on holiday - litter all over beaches, dogs off leads where they shouldn’t be, driving like idiots - all unacceptable.

That said I haven’t been to Cornwall for a long time and wouldn’t do so during the high season now. Both the hatred for tourists and the behaviour of other tourists puts me off.

I also think the govt has a role to play in making sure there is the infrastructure for local people and perhaps putting some controls on the way certain housing can be used there, to protect communities. Having areas of the country where second homes aren’t allowed - or are taxed very highly - wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.

The way people living in beauty spots carried on in Covid will always stay with me I think- in a very negative way. “Don’t come here, it’s ours” and all that nasty business, blockading roads and all sorts. Then it turned out the Covid spread outdoors is minimal. Covid lockdowns were so utterly miserable for some people - especially people living in cities - and there was a real “we’re rural” attitude was so telling of how downright nasty some are. Would those people like a ban from theatres, museums and restaurants etc in cities now it’s all over?

I go to Pembrokeshire on holiday quite a lot and much prefer it there!

Oh and I learned to drive on country roads so I know how to drive on them - I agree so many are idiots! Both the inability to reverse and the miscalculation of how fast you can actually drive on them.

So do I, just as beautiful and not nearly as up itself.

Interesting news article on the impact of second homes, Airbnb and holiday lets:

www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2023-12-08/the-dark-empty-ghost-towns-of-cornwall