Greece, Europe and tourism!

[Jennybeans401]

Greece now joins most of Europe in anti-tourism protests aimed at the British.why? Surely tourism is tourism and why focus just on the Brits?

We are booked to go to Greece,I'm shocked.

@Whenwillitgetwarm but can Spanish/ French/ Italian tourists all order in their own language, safe in the knowledge that the waiters/ shop assistants will understand them and reply in their own language?

I feel for the natives in these places but surely a tourist ban will damage their local economy? Surely there’s better ways to deal with this?

I probably shouldn't say this, but in light of all the anti-Scottish comments on MN, I will...

It's not "Brits" that give British tourists a bad name. It's English.

It's the lager louts draped in their St George's Cross flags.

As a travelling Scot, stumbling through the native language when abroad, and asked "are you English?", upon replying "Scottish" it is always met with a laugh or a cheer and a derisive comment about the English.

As I say, saying this against my better judgement, as I know many won't like it, but there you have it.

However, I do think this particular issue is more an airbnb / affordable housing issue and I do see their point.

It’s overtourism that is the problem, damage to the environment from literally too many people visiting, London is like that now and it is heaving and awful when I think back to what I was like growing up there. I take my DD and niece to the haunts I went to as a teenager and it is a different world.

I don’t agree with your point because it is blatantly untrue the Scottish yobs don’t exist and don’t drink?? On package holidays. It doesn’t matter if you are respectful or a lout if overtourism is a problem like for some of the Greek Islands it is still an issue regardless of if you are Scottish or English!

@annabofana I submit this for yoiur consideration.

https://www.mylondon.news/sport/football/football-news/boozy-scottish-football-fans-set-20854326

To be honest there is very little cultural difference between the English and the Scots when it comes to drinking or going on holiday. You get good ones and dickheads on holiday.

Visiting a music fesitval abroad last year, the bigggest, drunkest, most obnoxious dickheads were a group of Irish lads. I don't think all Irish people are like that.

If they want to improve behaviour why not just start locking people up for drunk and disorderly and fine them ?

Why not suspend the licences of bars selling cheap alcohol and refuse to grant business permission to restaurants serving fried breakfasts ?

No. It is easier to blame tourists than it is to put your own house in order.

The locals want to make money of tourists, but they don't want the consequences that brings.

The protests are not calling for an outright ban on tourists. What they want to prevent is over-tourism - i.e. too many people coming that overwhelms the local infrastructure (roads, parks, beaches, water supply, sewerage systems, hospitals and healthcare facilities etc) and means locals are priced out of the housing market by (often illegal) holiday rentals.

They want to prevent the type of tourism that spoils the very thing that the tourists come to see. For example, Hallstatt in Austria is now so overrun by tourists that the visitors see nothing other than the back of the head of the person in front, and the village grinds to a halt as thousands of people arrive in coaches, take a selfie and then drive away again.

It is not just an issue in Europe. Places like Cornwall and the Lake District also suffer from this.

@GasPanic - well we don’t manage to lock up our own criminals because we don’t have enough spaces in prisons, so I suspect Greece given it almost went bust and is a poorer country may have similar political -ahem- issues! Our Government cannot provide public services properly for all so I doubt they can. Our Government cannot provide enough housing, good health and education etc etc either so why expect a poorer country to do more than we can?

Brits are no longer liked in much of Europe post Brexit and post loutish/hooligan type behaviour which has been going on since the late 80s. Couple that with British exceptionalism of not learning local languages or customs. I actually think the Americans are viewed far more favourably than the Brits/English/Welsh/Scots whatever. It is what it is.

Fair point, but you always got a minority. Maybe not painted slogans in London, but some anti migration graffiti in parts. But it’s not all about signage as attitude.

Great opportunity to make some easy money fining people then.

I'm pretty sure that when given the choice between 3 months in a Greek prison and a 200E fine most of the yobs will go for the fine.

That's exactly what the protesters are proposing.

They want the governments, at national and local level, to clamp down on bars selling cheap alcohol, on loud music until 3 a.m, on unlicensed holiday rentals and on the unlimited building of ever more hotels and resort complexes etc.

The media in the UK (and Germany and the Netherlands) are spinning this as a "ban on tourists" which it isn't. The campaigners want to regulate and better control tourism - something that the big businesses that largely control tourism and who lobby the local politicians don't want to happen.

The Greeks need to increase the daily tourist tax to a level that deters all yobs.

Overtourism in London is a problem though just like in other parts of the world that experience overtourism, it is unsustainable. I was born in London and grew up there was there until my mid twenties and it is a completely different place now. I do think London is quite good at managing tourism but the crowds! When I was a teenager or even early twenties many streets and places were empty, I would regularly be taken to galleries by my Mum and we’d go for food in town, never a problem getting a table.

To add to this a vast number of big businesses that control the tourism sector are not Greek owned.

You can’t just lock people up - having enough police to do so and places in prison is very expensive. If you were to charge 20Euros per adult per night in Greece no yobs will show up. Make it a mandatory tax including for Air BNB - job done. They have already introduced the tax anyway and it is meant to go towards climate change. So not sure why there are still protests. I think the tax hasn’t filtered through yet or is set too low and needs raising.

Utter bollocks and I say that as a Scot.

No one is protesting british people eating a roast dinner or not trying the local souvlaki. They aren't protesting british people not speaking Spanish or even the loutish behaviour

They are protesting against over tourism. The current level of tourism in places such as tenerife or lanzarote is very destructive to the environment. Rents are extortionate as so many properties are either bought for airbnbs/second homes or bought by big hotel companies to demolish for large complexes. This makes it very hard for locals to afford to live. There are water shortages and the infrastructure cannot cope with the increase in tourism in recent years

Big hotel companies also buy up large areas of land as people want bigger and better hotels. The workers are then not paid a wage that affords them to be able to rent I'm the area as everyone also wants cheap holidays

They want stricter controls on tourism to prevent it destroying their island. No one cares that british people eat a fry up (and actually many people eat their own cultural food on holiday)

It's not sustainable in London any more. We need to start charging overseas visitors to visit our galleries and museums. The queues are insane. I passionately believe they should be free for our citizens, especially children, but places like the National Gallery are full of people taking selfies who are not interested in the art. I was actually pushed out of the way when looking at a painting. It's all about showing you were there on Insta and Tik Tok.

I was in Athens recently and the queue of people to get up to the Parthenon was ridiculous and dangerous. A disabled woman asked me to help her down the steps as she was so worried about being knocked down from behind.

Something has to change.

London should also charge a tourist tax then. Wouldn’t that be simpler than charging for museums? Somebody would have to be employed to check every persons visa etc. I have been to countries like India and Russia where locals pay far less than foreigners but these are all countries where you have to show up with a visa and carry your documents on you. We are not that kind of country, people here even reject ID cards. It is a liberal society we live in here with more of a live and let live attitude.

Seems like tourist taxes could raise some money. If the burden for collection is placed on hotels and air BnB owners it could work with less admin hassle for HMRC/museums.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/tourist-taxes-in-the-uk/

You can also get a Wurst und Pommes pizza in most places around Lake Garda. 😂

Actually coming to think of it, Russian tourists tend to be even more despised than British and German tourists. So we are not the worst…

Yes, I agree with this. As a child we frequently visited the national gallery to would have cake and coffee following our tour of favourite works or exhibitions.

I am now in London by the sea and overtourism has started to ruin it for residents. We live in a fairly residential area where urban meets green space and it had a real community vibe, now there are quite a few flats that are just Air BNBs and it has ruined it a bit. We never would have thought this family area would turn into tourist place. Quite bizarre.

This is true. The rudest most arrogant bastards I have met, as a guest and as a former employee of the hospitality industry was Russians. The English and Germans are sweet violets in comparison.

Same here. I’ve gone right off air bnb, we book hotels owned by locals now. We go to Greece every year (different islands or parts of the mainland), we’ve always found the Greeks polite and welcoming.

I worked for a Russian company for 15 years and they are without doubt the strangest, rudest and most insular people I’ve ever met.

And seeing their behaviour on holiday in Cyprus where they went one step further than towels on sunbeds - they actually picked up the sunbeds and took them back to their apartments 🤣🤣 and argued like mad with the owner who stopped them