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?

Tell us the city OP!

Swings and roundabouts - my dd is making a nice little wodge of readies in return for hosting a couple of Oxford’s foreign language students.

I miss the days when the city emptied out after the festival. There was a breather then until the Xmas crowds. But, I also remember the restaurants etc being deserted which was hard for them, taxi drivers too.

There’s no denying that tourism brings multiple millions of pounds into the Edinburgh economy.

Some parts of norfolk amd suffolk are still quiet

Edinburgh now has a tourist tax.

I live in the centre of Edinburgh. It is not unbearable. Far from it. Edinburgh will be heaving shortly for Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Film Festival and the Tattoo. I love it. It's a beautiful, historic, cultural city, of course it's going to attract visitors.

If you (general you) don't like that the UK has plenty of dreary places you can move to.

I agree with you. I find London really pleasant as a visitor. When you have to get somewhere in the city regularly on time, for work, less so. But I expected nothing less when I moved there. I’ve also done the obligatory one off visit to the major attractions before I moved away!
I recently saw an influencer doing a full photo shoot at a major tourist location; it was quite the spectacle.
I do agree that the instafication of cities is adding to the problems for locals but without tourism these places are a bit doomed.

Exactly. That's how I feel about Edinburgh. I'm lucky to live here.

Tourism brings in money, but it also makes it a very expensive place to live which is driving young people out. I'm concerned that it's becoming more of a tourist attraction and less of a liveable city.

Agree that the quieter months are few and far between. I've found in post-covid years it's been very busy from Easter until after New Year, but particularly difficult to navigate the city centre from July to September.

It’s actually probably a massive exaggeration. I can think of many gorgeous tourist towns it could be, Windermere, Bowness, Bourton. All of which have a decent Sainsbury’s, Co-op or Booths. Of course she can get a tin of tomatoes

One thing we do well in this country is supermarkets!

Having recently holidayed in the Cotswolds I can see it must be awful for residents in the more popular villages. I found it full on as a holiday maker and we spent our time doing the walks, finding quieter places.

Be careful what you wish for. My local county town is an example of a nice quiet town centre - there used to be all kinds of shops and pubs and cinemas and cafes when l hung around there with my teenage mates back in the day, now it looks like the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse - everthing is boarded up and empty apart from the odd vape shop. Even the charity shops have moved out!

I live in a tourist town in Yorkshire and although they can be annoying (standing in the middle of the pavement to take pictures, driving erratically at 10mph on country lanes) when I go to other places and see how most of the country seems to be made up of vape shops and HMOs, while we’ve got lots of lovely cafes and trinket shops, it does seem worth it. I’m originally from a very run down town on the Wirral and it’s sad to go back there.

I’m a Londoner so used to tourists and day trippers.

Are you in Burford or Bourton on the water?

Do you not find going about your day to day business frustrating because of the crowds? I commute into Edinburgh for work rather than living there, but I things that annoy me include having to queue for ages to use the toilets at Waverley Station (and not being allowed to use the side entrance which is closer to where my train comes in), struggling to get on the pavements after crossing the road because they're so crowded (particularly bad around Picardy Place), it taking longer to get anywhere due to the crowds so having to factor that into my commuting time, almost getting run over by an out of control oversized wheely case at least once a week - honestly I would ban the things from the city centre because they are worse than e-scooters! I quite enjoy going into the city at the weekend and enjoying the atmosphere when I can move at a slower pace too, but I do find travelling to work really annoying.

"Other residents, who just happened to have moved there" - not everyone who lives in Cambridge moved there, though they are an increasingly invisible and overlooked portion of the population.
The vast majority of students live parallel lives to residents, with their own facilities, urban geography and rhythm of life. Not a problem per se but note the continued expansion at both CU (now 25k students) and ARU (10k) in a city of 150k total population.
And to bring it back to tourism, as far back as 2019 the city council reported that residents were avoiding coming into the city centre because it was unpleasantly crowded. After the COVID hiatus, tourists have come back in bigger numbers than ever and what the city has to offer skews ever further towards fast food and tat which is of no benefit to residents.
There may be places where it's possible to argue that tourism is a necessary evil to boost the economy, but in Cambridge over tourism (plus ever increasing student numbers) is undermining quality of life, and it's completely reasonable to comment on that. The city council keeps very little of the business rates raised here, but still has to pay for negative externalities of litter etc

Cambridge just dreamy though

The place I'd absolutely hate to live in only because of the tourist is bath
Foreign language schools, annoying huge groups of tourists
But the worst is the Hen dos

Trouble is there'd be no shops at all if it weren't for the tourists. Lots of towns that don't have tourism or Unis are ghost towns these days.

Everyone is at tourist at some point so we are all part of the problem

Totally understand
When the ignorant americans arrive the lower class whinging aussies and rest crusie in no they dont buy enough they use our resources, shit tonnes of rubbish..
Seems to be a selfness of people today.
Then the camper vans and rental cars...how many are smashed up...shocking drivers on Nz roads.
Least they are no longer crapping on our parks!
Yes it can be a huge nusiance
Glad im no longer in tourism
Self entitled people make me sick...move over qnd be considerate... shaz on the cruiseship thinking she is a cut above is the best...cracks me up.
If i hear a asian hocking in our tpilets again soon I may loose my shit

This is what a busy shopping street turned into once the tourists stopped coming! Those whinging about tourists need to be careful what they wish for!

The students in Cambridge have earned their right to be there. They have as much right to be there as other residents, who just happen to have moved there. It's the oldest and most famous university town in the world (with Oxford). You can't really complain about students in Cambridge 😁

I didn't move here, I'm from here

Cambridge University may be old, but Cambridge itself is older. Over centuries the university has basically suffocated the city so all anyone ever sees or hears or thinks is university related. The history and people of Cambridge itself get forgotten, and funnily enough that rankles for many.

Students who tip up for three years, treat the city like its just a massive campus (and the people who live here like staff) then skip off without a backwards glance have just as much of a right to be here as families who've lived and worked and died here for generations? Don't make me laugh.

What do you think Cambridge would look like if the University had never existed? Shops? Amenities? Businesses?