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 main shops in Edinburgh are in St James Quarter or George Street. The Royal Mile is just museums, tartan and whiskey. I’ve lived here over thirty years and it’s always been that way. It’s really easy to avoid big also it’s a sight to behold in August with all the street performers doing their thing. Great vibe

Aw, lovely Wells.

But the dust when they were loading fertiliser and grain onto boats from the granary building when it was still a working port for such things was horrible. (I worked at the Maltings for a while in the v early 80s , when it first became an arts centre)

I live in London.
I love the visitors, it is our capital city and it belongs to everyone in the UK.
I love the international visitors, seeing their enjoyment, always happy to help them if they are confused on the tube etc.
And appreciate their income - they fill our theatres - 'culture is to London what sun is to Spain' in terms of attracting visitors.

The foreign property investors who buy huge numbers of flats off plan and leave them empty - I don't love them.

Why not do what the Spanish do and squirt the tourists with water pistols whenever you see them?

I live in Edinburgh and love it. I moved away for work but moved back. Most locals I know go to a few shows each year. World class performances of all genres on our doorstep! It's easy to find quieter parts of town.

Surprised no one has mentioned the council's crack down on Airbnbs.

The cheap flights started in Europe 30 years ago, but now they are going to more and more places. People in countries with huge populations like China and India have increasing numbers of people who can now afford to travel internationally.

I agree about the performative aspect of it for photos and socials. It seems like box-ticking tourism. It’s very annoying when you’re just trying to enjoy something or see a place and not create content.

I remember when there were posts about people accessing the countryside near my house from areas round about and I say the same with respect although you live there it doesn't make it yours. People who aren't as fortunate to live in such a place have as much rights to be there as you do.

I agree. I grew up in Canterbury, then lived in London, then Edinburgh.
Air BnBs price out locals. Tourism is irritating. BUT it's an economic lifeline.

Agreed, tourists can be annoying anywhere. Anyone who has navigated the tube in London with tourists propping their suitcases against seats which prevent others from sitting will tell you that.

Most people just roll with it, it’s inevitable.

Ok, fair points, also to do with rising incomes and access to debt though?

I’m not sure about the debt part. It’s definitely a thing in the West, but I don’t know enough about personal finance in other parts of the world to comment on that.

I"m sure if you search for country of origin of the many different people you see on the street capturing "experiences" on their phone there will be similar stories, it is a global disease, the debt thing and the performative me me me thing, the bankers love it, where they live the tourists don"t get onto the private beach or into the private club.

https://stanfordeconreview.com/2025/06/13/commentary-indias-growing-debt-trap-how-rising-credit-card-defaults-reflect-a-deeper-crisis/

It’s wrong to blame loss of local shops solely because of tourism though.

There is also a significant change in shopping habits of the local population in many places. People are shopping on line as opposed to visiting high street shops. And those who do use actual shops are opting for out of town shopping centres with parking rather than using their own local town centres.

Do you holiday anywhere?

In fact, tourism helps keep local shops open because of the extra footfall/custom generated. There are lots of "quaint" little towns/villages that are still vibrant because of the tourism, where there are plenty of shops, yes, a lot of the shops are gift shops, sandwich shops, cafes, etc to cater mostly for the tourists, but such towns/villages would be ghost towns and have barely any shops otherwise, and because there are "some" shops it helps support the non-tourist shops too as it maintains their "high streets" as somewhere for locals to shop too, where, say, the post office/newsagents doubles up as a souvenir shop, or where the sandwich shop also sells stuff like bread, cakes, etc that locals would also want.

I know of several places that don't have tourism, that are basically ghost towns with hollowed out town centres full of empty shops and money laundering shops, even though they're similar in lots of ways to town with tourism in terms of population, etc. Trouble is that the people living in tourist towns don't appreciate what their town would look like without it. Ditto university towns, etc.

TBH I like the tourists coming in. I've lived in Marylebone before and now in Richmond. Plenty of tourists coming in and always busy. I'm used it now. My hometown in the NW of England is no different.

There are no ‘quiet’ towns or cities. We are over populated, which means people will just spill out into other places. Obviously people like to visit nice places, so you can’t really complain. No-one owns a town/village/city. Living there doesn’t mean ownership.

Don't move to a university city. We are heaving with students most of the year and the noise and other unpleasantness that brings.

Be careful about major sporting venues too.

Its a bit like car drivers complsining about traffic jams. You are part of the traffic jam

It doesn’t really work like that.

It must be everywhere then. We are near to a beach town and we used to get a reprieve from about October until Easter, we could actually park in town and go shopping in what shops are left on the hughstreet. But now it's a fight for a spot year round. God knows why, the weather is bloody freezing in winter.

One unloved seaside town is Lowestoft - historic centre of town, less than 1 in 10 occupancy. I was chatting to a local councillor and he said it's like everywhere... er no, our 'village' part of Hertfordshire urban sprawl, 9 in 10 shops occupied.
Tonight in London, Southbank and the Globe, friends, UK visitors, tourists - packed. After Brexit, and the Euro being strong, the UK is very affordable.
An Italian woman we met whilst there, jumps in her car with her kids and drives to the UK for the summer holidays as the summer months are so hot there and they can't do anything.
And a bit of schadenfreude for the Japanese who are heartily fed up of being mobbed in their own country, but were notorious for being intrusive, peering into people's windows back in the 90s when the yen was strong.

G-G-G-Galway?

Overtourism is a problem in many European cities and communities.

Last year there was a news report on the issues which tourism had caused Whitby. Sure there’s plenty of shops that are open because of tourists but they’re not necessarily shops that a local wants or needs. Numerous alternative type clothing shops, etc.

The issue was things like people on holiday don’t use a hairdresser. So many properties are now Airbnb that the proportion of locals living in the town has plummeted. So not enough people to keep the hairdresser going. So not only does the hairdresser go bust but then local people don’t have a hairdresser in town.

same issue with the school. A primary school shuts down because there’s not enough pupils as over 50% of the local houses are Airbnb. So the kids who do still live there have to travel further across town to a different school.

So when the local school, hairdressers, beauty salon, diy shop, garage mechanic, butchers have all shut down I can see that as a local you don’t give a shit that there’s 20 coffee shops, 20 chippies and a some independent goth clothing shops.

Maybe the locals are partly to blame for not supporting them enough but if half the year round population has been decimated it’s a lot harder for the remaining ones to keep such businesses afloat.