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?

We took our kids (21 and 22) to Rome in early May, as we’d been promising to take them for ages. I’ve been to Rome several times but DH and I last visited Rome in May 2001, exactly 25 years ago and we couldn’t believe how much busier it was this year. Kids thought we were making it up until we showed them some of our photos from our 2001 visit - DS remarked they looked as if they’d been taken during lockdown, there was so much space. Rome is still beautiful but I won’t go again. Of course I know we were part of the reason it was so busy.

I think it's fair to say Tblisi is getting a lot more popular - flights from UK/EU were up 30% in Q1 this year. That's a huge spike. Understandable with the increase in direct flight and publicity on travel shows etc. You'd expect a further UK bounce from this year's Race Across the World.

It is tiring ascribing negative motives to other people's statements and actions? I've always thought that it must be incredibly tiring to always be looking for and believing a constant stream of negativity about others.

I went in early Feb last year and it was quite busy, but not mental. Also quite warm in the afternoons. My friend went at Easter and was mildly traumatized by how busy it was.
Was a proper amazing place to see.

It's certainly ruined the place I live in, especially in spring, summer and autumn. We used to get respectful visitors who were interested in our culture and language and exploring the scenery. Now we mostly just get rude, entitled idiots who can't drive and just want the Instagram, bucket list shot. I could go on but I have got to go out and face their erratic driving and go to work...... don't even get me started on campervans/ mobile homes! The vibe of my home place is sadly so different from what it was. We are considering moving somewhere even more remote to escape this madness.

...and another thing anyone who says we depend on tourism for the economy, we can't even get accommodation for key workers and medical/clinical because tourism has driven house prices to an unaffordable level. I wish they would just feck off to previous, sustainable and enjoyable levels. I have already ranted about this on a previous thread, so I will go away now!

Its entirely possible for a large number of people to be struggling while other people are doing fine.

I'm in a position to be going on long haul holidays. Some of my family are perpetually struggling to make their rent.

No, we're not being conned. There are 7bn people on planet Earth and some are doing nicely while others aren't

I live near the Cotswolds and what is striking is how awful a few places are, like Bibury and Bourton on the Water, but you drive a short way away and they're totally peaceful, and just as beautiful.

It's not tourism. It's OVER tourism. Too many people all wanting to go to the same places.

Massive issue in Scotland, every overseas tourist wants to do the same Edinburgh - Loch Lomond - Glencoe - Skye - Inverness - Edinburgh circuit and there are huge issues with traffic and parking on Skye and at Glenfinnan viaduct. Tourists seem to want to tick the "been to Skye" box rather than thinking about whether they would be better going to Mull, Islay or Lewis for the island experience.

Lack of imagination and too much reliance on instagram inspo.

I can well believe it is true in the Lake District.

Similar issues on the North Coast 500 or on Skye in Scotland.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crlwj7z7481o
https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/no-one-should-deal-with-the-hazard-of-human-waste-390614/

I live in the Austrian alps. I'm not in one of the major ski resorts but in a smaller one not too far away from a couple of large resorts. When I came here 20 years ago there wasn't that much tourism where I live but it has spread out over the years and now we are also completely overrun in the winter and summer. The shoulder seasons are quieter but gradually people are starting to come then too.

The infrastructure just cannot cope with this amount of tourists, not just in my village but in the larger places too. The hospital is overrun in the ski season and now that they have started a big push to attract mountain bikers the rest of the time the problem is now year round. The hospital has been in crisis talks because they can't cope with the number of accidents.

In the ski season on Saturdays there is a traffic jam all the way up the valley from 7 in the morning until 7 at night so I don't do anything on Saturdays any more.

We have a campsite in the village which has so many guests it doubles the size of the village for the entire summer. The campsite guests shop in the local supermarkets, obviously, but this means they are often out of stock of a lot of products, especially bread, milk, cheese and eggs.

Local buses and car parks are overrun. The local council has introduced charges for parking which are expensive and we have to pay them too.

Someone mentioned Salzburg wanting to attract the "right kind of tourists" - what they actually mean is rich tourists who will spend a lot. That's happening here too and while they are putting more money into the local economy it means the price of everything is going up. The locals can't afford the restaurant prices any more.

This summer the petrol station has been constantly rammed for some reason. The queues are phenomenal and people waiting have been blocking roads and also the access to local shops. I've had to go out at midnight to get petrol.

It's having a massive impact on the lives of the locals. It's "overtourism" rather than just tourism. It's gone beyond what the local infrastructure and locals can cope with and it's damaging to the environment as they build more and more tourist attractions including more lifts and the downhill bike trails (which are the worst because they trash the mountains). And then there are the snow cannon running all night every night in winter.

I think part of the problem is wealth funds rampaging round the world, buying everything up and ruining it. We went to the island of Flores in Indonesia two years ago (sadly its been affected by an earthquake since). Half of the high street was charming local businesses , like dive shops, the other half was a glossy development of the sort of high end shops you see in airports aimed at the business class customers. I don’t imagine the profits from these go back into the local economy.

This also highlights the lack of planning by the local government and businesses though. Nothing stops your local government keeping parking free for locals and charging tourists, or shops ordering more stock during tourism season. Or restaurant managers not getting greedy and raising prices. Many countries around the world have reduced entry fees to attractions, museums and hiking trails for local residents and charge tourists substantially more for the same activities.
I live in a tourist area myself so I totally get it. The town I am in is vastly more expensive to live in than the rest of the county which makes no sense as it suffers from the same deprivation problems as many other coastal areas in the UK. But my blame is placed squarely at the door of the local government, not tourists.

I think the problem is when tourism results in generic catering to the tourists. If I go somewhere different, I want to see the difference, IYSWIM.

I saw a documentary recently about the Balkan region. There was a beautiful old town featured. A man who had lived there as a child was interviewed about how the town had changed and he spoke about the 'Disneyfication' of it. He specifically remarked on the Harry Potter shops that had sprung up. Harry Potter has no connection whatsoever to the town or region. It just has a certain aesthetic that people associate with that.

It's not just the sheer volume of visitors, it's the erosion of the very thing which made a place somewhere you might want to go to in the first place. Its difference, its culture, etc. Everywhere starts to look like everywhere else. Fewer and fewer of the places to stay and eat out are owned by locals. So you end up staying in a generic hotel room that looks like every other hotel owned by that chain, and eating in a generic restaurant that's got a branch in your local high street. The locals might get work, but it's poorly paid and they've no investment in their own area. It doesn't belong to them any more. It's a 'tourist town'. Before long, nobody local lives there any more and it's basically a film set you can stay in.

Yes some of it is poor planning.
We used to have a locals' tarif for things like the lift and attractions but the EU put a stop to that when guests complained. EU citizens have to be treated the same wherever they come from so you can't charge Austrian locals a certain price for a ski lift and Germans more.

I would agree that the restaurants are greedy as are many other businesses.

I was coming to say this.

I am north Scotland. Our quiet little village has been added to an app, so we are becoming over run with 'wild' campers. I thought the appeal of wild camping was the solitude. But they're parked closer to each other than if they paid for a pitch on a site. They even park up on the main road. So I guess the appeal is it's free.

They use the fields and beach as a public toilet. Some of the vans with toilets have emptied them into the sea. They have wild fires and barbecues. Leave rubbish behind. We don't have facilities in the village, so they aren't creating jobs or adding to our economy.

My friend lives on the NC500 route. It's an absolute nightmare for her over the summer. People hiring big camper vans, struggling to drive them down narrow country lanes. And god help them if they need to reverse to a passing place!

Somebody told me that the Mayor of Dubrovnik was trying to lessen the amount of cruise ships that attended. I can't remember who told me and I have no idea if it's true or not.

It was me talking about Salzburg @rjfiih . When we holiday in Austria, we pay tourist tax which gives a visitor card. This gives discounts to attractions and FREE Public transport. The cost is minimal as a percentage of the accommodation, never mind the holiday but I don't understand why other countries including the UK don't do that.
Of course getting it from Air BnB guests would be tricky but it might incentivise better investment in public transport in places like the Lake District? Eg give you access to a free shuttle bus to the start of popular walks where parking is limited. Or from the railway station to your less well connected town.

I also live in a UK tourist area, but not one of the vastly more expensive ones. I agree with what you say, but would add that some of the tourists themselves don't help. I live in a working seaside town. It's not a living museum. The harbour is a working harbour, not an attraction. Working people need to be able to get to it. The parking rules are there for a reason. Great that you want to have a look. Not so great that you have chosen to ignore the signs and block the vehicle access.

Same as the Lofoten islands in Norway. What was once a paradise is now jam-packed with caravans parked all over the place and people wild camping and doing their business in nature. Most of them aren't contributing to the local economy at all because they bring all their food with them from abroad because Norway is expensive.
Some people invented a hike called the "Lofoten crossing" from one end to the other but it's not an actual hike on proper marked trails maintained by the DNT in Norway, it's just people tramping over sensitive areas causing erosion and shitting in nature.
There are now discussions about whether the "everyman's right" which Norwegians treasure will have to be removed in Lofoten. This gives the right to roam, to camp in nature at least 150m from a building in "utmark" (ie. not cultivated land), to pick berries and mushrooms etc, to "move on foot" where you want (ie. on skis or hiking). This is being abused in Lofoten. Tourists know about it and think it means you can do what you want. It doesn't.

I have just come back from Norway. I was hiking and wild camping in one case somewhere near Lofoten. There was absolutely nobody there because they were all heading to Lofoten instead. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. I followed the rules of "everyman's right", left no trace and had the most wonderful time. Then I went to another area further south - there was nobody there either but it was nowhere near the well-known tourist locations. It's not the sort of place which will end up all over instagram because it's tricky to get to and once you get there you are on your own in the mountains with only a few DNT cabins dotted about. I spent 7 days hiking, saw about 3 people, had a great time and then stayed in a wonderful local town which would be overrun with tourists if it wasn't so out of the way!

"Everyman's right" was meant for that sort of thing, not for rocking up in Lofoten and pooing by the side of a road or pitching a tent in someone's garden.
There's a facebook group in Norwegian called "Overturisme i Lofoten" and you can see pictures and posts there which really illustrate the problem.

I'm afraid, that's just not the case in other countries. For example, there are reduced rates for local residents when entering some museums in Italy. When the UK was part of the EU, I used to live in a town which had reduced rates of entry to attractions for local residents. I can absolutely believe that a citizen of Austria should be treated the same as the citizen of Germany, but it is not against the EU law (as far as I know) to provide subsidies to actual residents of the local area.
So this is probably something you collectively need to raise with your local government.

Yes of course. The visitor card is good. But the locals don't get it and we end up paying more for public transport because the buses are transporting tourists very cheaply because the tourist tax has to be shared out with all the providers and it isn't enough to cover the cost of extra buses etc.

In the mountains around Salzburg the vast majority of tourists travel by car (German and Dutch) and while they make use of the public transport (if it is convenient) once they are here, the travel to and from causes issues and there are still many who prefer to drive to an attraction and park rather than have to drag 2 or 3 children on overcrowded buses.

I don't know how they get round it. Perhaps no one has complained. But this has happened here and all the local tarifs on the ski lifts and attractions had to be removed.

@EmeraldRoulette same in the Yorkshire Dales...and some villages are now completely dark most of the winter (except Christmas) because all the houses are airbnb's with no one living there full time, just visitors. It's horrible.

And yes of course some places rely on tourism, it's over-tourism that's the problem, when there's nowhere for locals to park near their homes...even if they can afford the houses...and all the shops are gift shops rather than anything useful...and the traffic can be terrible in tiny places with narrow streets...

We want and need visitors, of course we do, but we need them to respect that we live here too.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/302/oj/eng

Here is the EU ruling on this. Paragraph 27 mentions this sort of thing.

If other countries have been doing this then they must have found some kind of loophole because it is not allowed.

However, apparently the EU are looking into this again and there might be a change to the law.

You do know these places existed before lots of tourism? Often for hundreds of years.