Tourists 24/7 365 days a year..

[IsawwhatIsaw]

I have lived in a tourist town for several decades.
And we always had tourists but it felt manageable with a quieter time during the winter.
But now there is no quiet time at all, and I actively avoid the centre as so many coach loads of people arrive daily . It’s so busy it feels oppressive.
So it feels like there is no let up at all. I spoke to a friend in Edinburgh who had a similar story - she is now looking to move out.
Just wondering if other cities experience this?
we are wondering about moving elsewhere, but like where we live.
Is it unreasonable to resent how our City has changed?

I love living in a university city. I’m under no illusion that some of the big shops in the city centre may not be open if it wasn’t for students. Primark, H&M, etc. I might not shop in those very often myself but I appreciate having the option to do so.

Air bnbs and holiday lets are a different problem to tourism in general.

I went to university in York. I lived close enough that I commuted in from my home town every morning. I loved walking through the city first thing in the morning to get to university because it was quiet and it’s a beautiful city, but OMG I found it unbearable from about 10am onwards because it was absolutely rammed with tourists, and this was at all times of the year. I grew to really hate the city because you can’t enjoy somewhere beautiful if you can barely move for crowds. I feel similarly about Chester and Edinburgh.

I have lived overseas for 25 years and our island has grown from being quaint with mostly Summer tourists to being very busy most of the year and incredibly technological if that makes sense! Rents are extortionate due to the number of 'digital nomads' choosing to spend time here and the rustic historic feeling is being slowly erased and we don't like it as much as we did but where to go?!

My husband is local and so we have lots of family here and our daughter was born here plus he has his own business and customers here etc....

We live in a very popular area of the Scottish mainland Highlands ( I won't give the place name in case it encourages even more visitors!) and tourism has become unbearable in the last decade. The roads and infrastructure weren't designed to cope with the influx. Campervans on the single track roads are a nightmare holding up locals who need to be places, work, school pick up etc, emergency services are forever attending accidents caused by bad driving ( including impatient locals). Can't book an MOT or get work done on your car, because guess what ? the garages are too busy hauling visitors out of ditches. Some visitors are rude and abusive when pulled up about parking in random places ie in front of farm access gates so that they can photograph a sheep! They defecate on the verges ( visitors not sheep, though they do too!) They clog up the small towns walking at a snails pace and all over the road when you are trying to rush to the pharmacy before it closes. We need them for out economy? Yes, but this is madness. The communities are divided by those who profit by providing Airbnb and those who don't. Young people can't get on the property ladder easily, and vital workers ie health care can not find accommodation to live and work here because it has all been rented out to visitors. I avoid leaving my house and garden at this time of year, can't get parked anywhere and I am in danger of committing an atrocity towards the next visitor who gets in my way. So yes OP, you have my absolute empathy. I wish they would all just fuck off. Highland hospitality hahaha.

Why wouldn’t day trippers be spending money in your city? Surely over the course of the day they’ll be buying coffee, lunch, a few drinks, some souvenirs? The same as a tourist staying in an Airbnb, if not more.

I was reading about Mallorca and the anti-tourism protests. Obviously there are those for and those against.

But the overriding point was there are just too many people now. I noticed this elsewhere, but there are increasing cheap charter flights from Canada and the northern Midwest, plus cruise megaships disgorging thousands of passengers at a time.

Otoh some of the protesters are activists with “refugees welcome” signs. I suggest they mount a fact-finding mission to Bournemouth if they think migrants are preferable to tourists…

I've moved from a tourist city and I think it is really telling when people say it is lucky because the high street is struggling in so many places. As the OP describes, coach loads of people arrive 365 days of the year to look at the famous buildings. They aren't interested in small independent shops or eateries, they mostly want cheap international chains that they already know. So the high street is full of Costa, Starbucks, McDonalds, Pret etc. and no actual shops or amenities for the local population. Independent restaurants and the likes have realised that they don't need to attract return visits when a new coachload of people arrives on the hour, so the standards slip and the prices rise. Infrastructure grinds to a halt, there's litter all over the place and there's no longer an out of season time for everyone and everything to recover.

That's down to the council. There are VERY few of those chains within the Lake District National Park because of planning restrictions etc. The nearest you get to the big chains are Booths supermarkets and Greggs! I can't think of any McDonalds, Burger Kings, KFC, Costa, Starbucks etc in the honeypot places like Keswick or Ambleside or Bowness. (Maybe there's a Costa or Starbucks in Bowness, I'm not sure, but maybe I have a recollection of seeing one). Mostly the cafes, restaurants, takeaways are small independents. Quite a while since I've been over, but I think the same applies to Whitby, Thursk and Pickering in North Yorkshire - again, all "honeypot" tourist places.

Chinese seem to have a thing about filming people now, like filming the area and it"s natural wildlife or something? I tend to make faces or hold one or two fingers up behind a book and cover my face if it is in a library, or one day sunbathing and reading and being aware of being filmed for example, it embarasses them and spoils the content.

Those international chains are not cheap though, and the food is shocking!

It’s a big problem. Nobody really wants to live surrounded by tourists. Those that are unsympathetic are just unable to imagine what it’s like. Yesterday I felt at the end of my tether , just desperate to hear an English person. I wanted to cry.
I don’t know where to move to, but I know I will move. It’s a slow death, to be swamped by foreign strangers day after day.

The cure is coming.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/us-treasury-yields-rise-30-year-yield-at-19-year-high-dollar-falls/ar-AA290hbM

True! They are cheaper than a decent restaurant where you would get a proper cooked meal but they are a different playing field. That is my point though, the tourists in my old city don't want to risk trying a nice independent restaurant and spending more, they want to stick with the familiar whilst looking around somewhere new.
From a lot of comments on here it sounds like there are parts of the UK that are fighting against this and keeping their identity, which is great but definitely not the case for the southern city that I lived in.
Incidentally, I lived in a nice little area off of the beaten track with its own little high street. I rarely went into the city during the last 5 years of living there as I didn't need to and I did not move away because of the tourists.

Yes, it is about saying they have been to X.Y and Z and making their little social media content more than actually exploring local eating places etc. they might as well just stay in the airport and copy and paste some stock photos because they all film the same stuff and as you say eat in the same places.

I was at a really nice restaurant in Europe and read the reviews. One 1* review said - I kid you not - “Beware - the food is “home made” and they don’t include food such as burgers or a steak on the menu”

Conversely some independent places get completely overrun because they are a “must do” on Influencers’/Tiktokkers’ lists.

That sounds absolutely horrendous, is there any move to try to reduce tourists?

I sympathise, as this is kind of where I’m heading as well.
It feels like zero community, endless strangers . I think as I get older it concerns me more.

I think the issue is a lot of areas have become increasingly popular but the infrastructure hasn’t kept up. So there is a lack of parking/public transport etc and other things like hotels and cafes to service the tourism industry, but then locals are reluctant to allow changes to these things (for example closing a bank and making it into a cafe) which would ease the pressures elsewhere.

Someone recently asked to convert an old Methodist church (not listed) into a holiday cottage and it was refused, because they were frightened of what type of people it would bring to the area. The thing is, they will come regardless of if the facilities are available! They will just cause a problem when they arrive because there is nowhere for them to stay/park/get food.

I grew up in San Francisco, California. It was like this before the pandemic and Trump kind of killed tourism (though it's slowly rebounding). I loved growing up there and expected to live there forever. But the combination of tourism and influx of Silicon Valley types made it impossible to go anywhere or enjoy anything without always encountering massive obnoxious crowds. I moved away about 10 years ago and though there are things I miss about living in a city, I'm much happier in the suburbs. Quality of life is insanely better. But that's me, I'm a homebody anyway haha I hope you can find some peace for yourself.

I don’t mind the tourists so much although they do walk so slowly especially the yanks! It’s the Spanish and Italian students who drive me insane! They travel in packs of about 50 and just stop dead in the middle of our narrow footpaths blocking them so you literally end up walking in the busy road to get past them!