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?

The problem is because these towns/cities take so many tourists, the shops start to cater to them and not residents.

I think this can certainly be true. I am very lucky in my town that there is a good mix of full-on tourist shops and independent shops that still cater to locals as well. I run a bookshop, there is also a butcher, a toy shop, a chemist, a couple of arty/gift shops and some clothes shops. I should work for the tourist board!

And it also has no impact on other amenities like schools, doctors, opticians, chiropodists etc etc.

So you end up living in busy bustling town, with shops that only sell the usual tourist tat, ice cream and fish and chips. Nothing of any use!

You end up having to travel to other destinations for everything else.

Oh, and more and more houses are being given over the Air BNB's or Holiday cottages, lowering the number of locals living in that community, until there isn't a local community... Although that does tend to be the seaside villages rather than the towns and cities.

Oh dont hold back say what you feel😀We have foreign tour groups where i live also student/school groups. where English isn't their first language and yes they are ushered around but I think that is better for them than milling about getting lost or not seeing the attractions.

Yes it is like this in my town too. Used to be fairly quiet most of the year except the summer and only rammed on hot summer days. Now it’s rammed all year round and it’s really hard to even get a bus June - Sept. There are lots of language schools that take students all year round now instead of just the summer, plus people take in foreign students in the suburbs too so there are more people travelling around.

Local natural attractions seem to be heavily advertised in other countries as there are more coaches than the car parks can accommodate and new signs about local etiquette like how to use the toilets. It has always been a seaside tourist town for British people so I wonder what changed for it to become an international destination. I avoid the big town now as it’s just too busy all the time

I live in Cambridge and it's non stop tourists all year round, the worst being the big groups of European teens who never seem to be supervised and whose behaviour leaves a LOT to be desired

Add that to the students (a significant proportion of whom treat Cambridge as their own personal theme park, rather than a real city with real residents) and it makes actually living here a bloody nightmare a lot of the time...

We get hoarded if drunk teenagers coming to our area as we have some nice coastlines this will out the area but there are fights and a young lad was stabbed to death last year. I could do without it all.

I think mass tourism is awful and creates as many issues as it might, apparently, solve. I particularly dislike that cities such as Venice suffer so badly from the effects of mass tourism, and I’d welcome efforts to restrict tourist numbers there.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/13/occupy-venice-alternative-to-death-of-city-activists-tourism

i don’t think anyone has any sort of entitlement to travel and experience other places, either. It’s like we’re all of the opinion is some sort of ‘right’ to be a tourist.

The advent of things like AirBNB has absolutely destroyed the ability of so many who were born and grew up in popular tourist areas, or who need to remain there for family reasons, to afford decent places to buy or rent. That’s just a terrible situation.

I live in a national park and I hear you, but at least our attractions are more weather-dependent.

I don't think YABU to feel the way you do.

Probably because local people were not going to those shops to buy supermarket foods.

Move to Wigan! No tourists, I promise, and the town's amenities are still all nicely preserved for the residents: tattoo parlours, vape shops, mobility scooter showrooms, nail bars...

I will add Cambridge to my list of places to visit. Thank you😊

I think the root of the issue is more people with the money to travel - the global middle class.

Some areas are completely overwhelmed by it. It’s awful.

I think some places will have to start limiting visitor numbers, but that is of course quite hard to control.

Airbnb is such a disaster - yes it’s great for when you go on holiday but it is SO BAD for places.

I don’t really mind the hordes so much, but I hate hate hate the impact of everyone’s cars. We have just been in the Peaks and every day I thought how badly they need to have a real proper bus service, and to charge a fortune to anyone who still insists on driving.

More places need to learn from Rwanda and the gorillas - you really can charge visitors A LOT. And that’s fine…

Sort of related... we went to Dubrovnik recently (yes yes we were part of the problem) and it was a very strange experience. It doesn't feel like a town. It feels like a Disney experience. The cruise ships dump thousands of people every morning, the shops almost exclusively cater for rich tourists, it's very very hard to find food that isn't burger and chips, and there is someone taking a selfie or having their photo taken everywhere.

Everywhere.

You can't walk for ruining someone's shot.

So you don't really get to see Dubrovnik.

I've heard Venice is the same these days.

And actually I feel the same about York, which is quite near to me. I don't like to visit any more as you're just shuffling along at the pace of a zombie hoard and you don't get to see or experience anything that feels bigger than the massive crowd of people you're in. The Shambles isn't as magical with 1000 people standing in it.

Whilst ever accommodation is open to tourist they’ll keep coming I guess……..good for the town/city shops and business but not so good for the locals, amenities etc. There are places in the UK that I wouldn’t visit during peak holiday periods simply because of the crowds but off peak does make a place a little more attractive - think the North Sea coastal areas and dramatic weather conditions (not everyone’s choice I know) but the power of the sea and crashing waves is great IMO. Wouldn’t do for us all to be the same.

Many village/town centre shops lie empty because the trade of people occasionally putting their duvet in for a wash is not a sustainable business. Post offices have closed because services are available elsewhere. Our local high street is full of betting shops, charity shops and empty units and is largely. Tourists are not taking away your village high street, they are making sure your high street is surviving. Nobody turns a thriving retail business into something else, just for the fun of it.

Is it unreasonable to resent how our City has changed?

You can't help how you feel but you did know it was a tourist town when you decided to live there or keep living there.

I live under a flight path, it's annoying but not much I can do about it except move. It wouldn't help me to resent all the emissions.

Edinburgh has it's quieter times but I was in town a couple of weeks ago and had to escape the madness. We don't go onto town these days to eat and tend to go to smaller local restaurants that are quieter. I hate when I can't move in a city.

We live in a tourist town but it’s only ever seasonal and we stay at the ‘quiet’ beach and not the main town beach so mainly increased traffic or in town issues.

I lived in central Paris for a few years, but more towards the west side of it, and yes I know Paris is like marmite, but I enjoyed it. Unless you went to the main city attractions there were almost no tourists.

I think coach tour and in particular cruise ships are a massive problem. It’s not just that they disgorge thousands of people on a place, but those on organised trips - especially cruise passengers - do not spend money .

If you’re on a cruise you eat a hearty included breakfast and get back for a multi-course included dinner. Few are going to cough up for anything more than an ice cream or cup of coffee ashore. I look at “CruiseTubers” (although I doubt if I’ll ever go on a cruise!) and many of them even take snacks with them so they can have a “free” day trip to Venice/Guernsey/St Ives. Ditto coach parties - hordes of people not looking right nor left and certainly not going to restaurants. As for school parties - they’re just chatting etc and certainly not interested in architecture/museums.

This.

Tourism supports local businesses which leads to local jobs.

I stay very centrally in Edinburgh and I'm dreading August. Especially now due to the fire busses are a nightmare 😫

I recall in Cambridge starting to cross a one way street, all clear and stepped out into the path of a cyclist going the wrong way. Apparently the HIghway Code doesn't apply in Cambridge.

I don’t think you are being unreasonable. Just trying to go about daily life when the supermarket looks like it been raided by locusts. There are no parking spaces even going to the chemist is a nightmare. Noise slamming doors screaming and shouting. Second home owners who lock the places up all winter so there is no affordable housing for locals. Litter on the beaches, water restrictions for residents but full swimming pools for the tourists. It wasn’t like this before Covid and I resent it too a lot. It’s like an invasion and I think you are entitled to feel like that 🥰