AIBU to think tourism can ruin places we once loved?

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We visited Tiblisi several years ago, and liked it, but have just returned. What a disappointment. It's absolutely overrun with tourists (and I am aware that I'm part of the problem).
AIBU to think that tourism destroys destinations?

Cavtat is a beautiful little town, I agree. Hope it doesn't get "discovered" by the masses. It's 5 min from the airport. 30 min by local bus, or a short boat ride that costs 10 euros and takes you straight to Old Town.

Over the years, I've noticed how much Dubrovnik has changed, it has become busier. Many locals dislike tourists from cruise ships because they hardly spend any money and typically use their own tour guides. Our local guides should be telling tourists about our rich history, including the war and the experiences we, as locals, went through—not guides who can’t even pronounce the name of our town correctly.

Most cruise ships don’t have their own guides for every port, they do use local guides and local transport and the excursion will often include a lunch or at least refreshment of some kind or a break for people to buy their own refreshments.

The world is overpopulated. Everywhere is feeling more crowded, more built on, more stressed.

Unfortunately, that’s not what I’ve heard from my tour guide friends. They have been expressing their concerns to our mayor about this issue. To become a tour guide, you need a license and knowledge of local history. It’s disheartening when someone from, let’s say, Spain tours tourists around and shares information about our history without any passion or true understanding of us as a nation.
I agree, some of them do take a local guide but it's not common.

The highlands is the same. I am so sick of campervans and rental cars.

The highlands economy certainly isn’t reliant on tourism money, but it’s a nice bonus.

I remember in 80s, wow the tourism was booming. And it was great. We had a war so it slowed down. 2000 ish it went mental, after the COVID, oh dear me.....
People from Russia, Germany, and England have been buying properties with cash, inflating property prices. Let me just say, so many people were or still are, laundering the money, so I blame the Government.
Luckily, I have a few properties in Dubrovnik (thanks to my parents) but looking at the property prices now, they are more expensive than properties in Surrey. And that is wrong.

I don't know where this is heading, but we need some kind of adjustment so that local people, on local salaries, can buy their own home.
Everything is turning into rental.

Like many things it's a question of degree. Any historic city etc will benefit hugely from a manageable influx of tourists providing money, making certain businesses viable. As a Londoners I enjoy all sorts of London attractions that are partly viable because of tourists. But past a certain point it's an issue and a place becomes a bit of a theme park. Plus the seasonal aspect can be very difficult to deal with.

Yes Cavtat is great for the airport.
A few years ago me and my partner were having a beach day on the rock beach at Cavtat. We went for a late lunch at a restaurant called Rokotin nearby and a glass of wine turned into 4. It was a very pleasant afternoon!
I have so many good memories of Cavtat, Dubrovnik, Trogir, Plitvice Lakes, Krka Waterfalls, Split, Zadar and Slatine.
I was very emotional when I went to the war museum at the top of Mount Srd in Dubrovnik.
Your country is beautiful.
Sorry to go off topic!

I live just outside Edinburgh and my PILs live on the NC500 route in the Highlands.
Every resident of the city breathes a big sigh of relief when August ends and the festival is over, but it does bring a lot of money to the city.
I think a lot of people were pissed off thie year that because the schools went back earlier than usual, residents and their children weren’t able to access events. Makes it feel even more that the festival isn’t for us.
The rubbish and detritus left by tourists ‘doing’ the NC500 is appalling.

We were in Salzburg a couple of years ago and I bought a copy of their Big Issue and there was an article about their efforts to encourage the 'right' type of tourists (ones who stayed locally, ate out, went to the concerts) and those less beneficial (day trippers on coaches, who bought a sandwich at most). They'd restricted coach access to the centre to make it much more pleasant for the locals and visitors.

I have been to Rome in March and December, busy but not crowded with plenty of places with nobody around. I particularly liked December, very Christmassy, tasteful lights.

St Ives, only a lunatic would go in the school holidays. March and September are ok!

There's always been tourism but it's the Instagrammers that ruin it for me. Previously you'd have stood and taken a photo then moved on. In Rhodes two girls must have taken 30 photos of each other at an archway as a queue built up. When I asked if they could hurry up, they said, "It's for our content". Nobody gives a shit - stop being so selfish.

Yes it has but we are all part of the problem if we visit somewhere

easy to blame those who just won’t a photo opportunity but it’s the numbers that are the issue and of course some are disrespectful but it’s really down to numbers

and I don’t think tourists are any worse today I went to see the Mona Lisa 25 years ago and everyone wanted a picture in front of the painting

im pleased I have been able to visit many places when there were less tourists but I am still part of the tourist problem

It's interesting to hear from a Dubrovnik resident, thank you. We were so disappointed by the city. It feels totally denatured (like Tiblisi), as though it only exists for tourism..
Kotor, further along the coast, is even worse in a way, as it's small, and the moored cruise ships literally dwarf the town.
Part of the answer must be to limit the number of cruise ships. But they probably make the local mayor rich.

The income thing is mixed though.

Sure there's some employment, but it can also create some significant costs, parking, traffic and other types of infrastructure, and especially wear and tear on the environment.

Plus in many cases locals can be driven out altogether. I was speaking to a woman who lives in a World Heritage Site, she leaves June through September. You caught around town and services aren't easy to access. So who is the town even for at that point?

It can get to the point where it doesn't seem like a real town but instead is like one of those fake historical recreations.

I had a terrible time when I visited Oxford from overseas. We ended up not doing anything in town at all, it was too busy.

Yet they’ve survived for hundreds of years before they were “ over run” with tourists

It must all be in the mind - there’s a financial crises at the moment and fuel costs very high - Gov intent on relieving poverty - are we all being conned?

Georgia (and Uzbekistan) are two of the big current insta and travel blog trends, so will probably be noticeably busier than a few years ago, or five years from now. And if you go almost anywhere from mid July to early September, you are asking for it to be overrun with tourists.

I did the north coast 500 before it was invented, back in 1978. We had hired a camper van

i looked at returning last year, but the prices of camping were pricey. I eventually decided to stay around Pitlochry and Aviemire instead. I stayed in hostels.

it’s basically cheaper for me to go to Normandy and stay in bed and break than it is to camp in Scotland. Possibly because I choose out of the way places that are not popular.

nobody on the beach in July, bar half a dozen dog walkers

The issue is that locals want to turn the tourism tap on and off and who can blame them?
Most of Europe is only attractive Jun-Sept for weather and daylight reasons and people with kids have a small window in July and August. Yet a perfect scenario is to spread the tourism out over the year.
The big cities like London and Paris are workable all year around but it’s rare.

Sharing on social media is exactly how places are discovered. I have started to keep my favourite places to myself. If you don’t want it to be discovered you might be better to keep it offline.

I first travelled 35 years ago, through Europe, China, Russia, Japan….ive fairly recently started travelling again (Russia pre Ukraine war). Bloody hell there’s a lot more tourists! And it’s Chinese and Korean tourists as well. Who do tend to travel in large groups and in the case of the Chinese, stay in Chinese run hotels.

And I know I’m part of the problem, but I try and stay on locally owned hotels , use local guides, …etc etc…

I live in the SW Scotland and the last train from Edinburgh, even during the festival, is 8.10pm and 6.10 pm on the Saturday - Festival definitely not meant for us. Of course you can drive a couple of hours but driving and parking in Edinburgh during festival is hard work.
To add that many of the trains to Edinburgh are fully booked so you must book well in advance. Surely an extra carriage or two would be possible.

Does that mean you want everyone to be amazed you're so exotic you go to Tsabulko? Probably not, you probably just wanted to share some interesting information about another destination. I was interested in both posts, and pleased to learn about another city. It's not helpful to make negative assumptions about the motivation for other people's posts unless you'd like everyone to view yours with the same level of meanness.

Where I live, in Edinburgh, there is a pretty little place on the river called Dean Village. It’s on one of our regular walking routes that we’ve been doing for 20 years. We’ve seen a big change over the last few years and it’s now absolutely rammed with tourists posing for photos on the bridge and in front of the old buildings. They go to that spot, take photos and leave. The rest of the river path is fairly tourist-free. They just want the photo for instagram.