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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really hate tourists?

124 replies

SheikYerbouti · 08/08/2008 13:04

They are the bane of my life.

Yes, yes, yes, I KNOW they plough millions of pounds into our local economy and that they have the right to invade my home town EVERY DAY OF THE FARKING YEAR.

But WHY do they have to stand in the middle of the pavement in their shorts and backpacks holing maps and getting in the way. I saw one today in pissing hiking gear - in the centre of Bath fgs. I know it's hilly here, but one does not need crampons and a walking pole for scaling the dizzy heights of BHS. (he wasn't really wearing crampons, btw. I am exaggerating)

They get off the park and ride that I use to get to and from work and they just STAND THERE. Never do they step aside.

Yes, I know IABVU, but I just had to get it off my chest because they all stand in groups squinting up at things and getting in the way

OP posts:
Blandmum · 08/08/2008 18:35

Ohhh we were in bath on Saterday!!!!!

But were dressed in toning colours.

I would have parked in the Park and ride but the daft thing wouldn't let me as I had the roof top box on top and there is a six foor limit! How daft in that.

I do like your Pigs though!

and having left your part of the world, I'm off to irritate scorpio1

Flightputsonahat · 08/08/2008 18:48

Oh I hate them too. Only en masse mind. Individually I'm sure they are all lovely.

We are overrun, I tell you, completely, all summer.

French kids with silly string in enormous crocodiles so you have to push pram on the road,

people walking v e r y s l o w l y in front of you with a camera

worst of all, shops shutting to be turned into tacky coffee shops or such and the city council thoroughly supporting this as all they care about is the economy

It sucks. Our city is all tourist and student led. Transitory, migrant bunch. Not fair.

pointydog · 08/08/2008 19:53

I hope you all go abroad on holiday and are prodded and jeered at

wb · 08/08/2008 20:00

I grew up in a tourist town. YANBU - french exchange students are the worst. I once trampled one blocking a doorway cause he just wouldn't move...

Flightputsonahat · 08/08/2008 20:09

I don't go on holiday, I would hate to be one of 'them'

Tourists are like big toddlers, no idea where they are going, speak rotten English, crap pavement positioning...it's just the way it is.

sickofthisrain · 08/08/2008 20:21

Try living in Cornwall at this time of year, can't even get out of the end of our blardy road for most of the day.
But we do get the entertainment of watching pissed up tourists in England shirts scrapping over beer in Asda's foyer. Or watching them miserably staring out of their caravans into the driving rain..

chefswife · 08/08/2008 20:32

i lived in London for 4 years. because i come Victoria, BC, a capital city of about 80 000 in the metro area but with approximately 2 million visitors a year, most coming in the summer. i did the touristy things in London but knew that you need to flow with London or get the hell out of the way. i yelled at tourists lots of times on the tube. so frustrating.

in the summer in Victoria, the tourists usually fill three types; the fat, lumbering american family eating while they aimlessly waddle around; the large groups of photo snappy japanese that move as a swarm, regardless of traffic signals; the vacant looking school groups that come from anywhere in the world. then there are the cruise liners that port. we lived in James Bay, an area down by the ocean. there was always these horse and carriage buggy's going by the house but it wasn't so bad. then one day, a big one came by with about 30 people on and a guide with a megaphone. they came from the ships, started at about 7am, every half hour till dusk. obnoxious. i had a friend that worked for tourism Victoria and we asked how to get these things to stop. she said, if your house/yard is unsightly, they'll detour. too bad for the other residents, but we were not having it. we started parking our truck on the front lawn, threw our beer cans around it, yelled profanity, blew horns on the front porch so the guide couldn't talk... it was very funny. the neighbours were behind us too. the final straw was when we spiked the pigs head on the front lawn for a few days. that was the clincher. they've never come back... its been a few years now.

and if i hear one more American say, 'i don't understand your funny money' i'm going to rip them a new asshole. (the dominations are exactly the same)

slng · 08/08/2008 20:36

I live in London. I love tourists. They have nothing to do all day but to have fun. They are happy and give the town a nice atmosphere. And it's nice to know people want to see your town. (I don't like those ones who don't believe you when you give them directions though.)

pointydog · 08/08/2008 20:37

"the final straw was when we spiked the pigs head on the front lawn for a few days"

What is this pig's head? Sounds like it's a permanent pet or piece of furniture or something.

minouminou · 08/08/2008 20:42

here it's bloody students (I SWEAR, i wasn't that irritating), then, when they bugger off and i can finally buy soya milk because little Tarquin, who went vegan for the year/term/week has pissed off home, the place is flooded with tourists
for some reason, great big gaggles of them group together on street corners, at the crossroads in the city centre, and i've given up saying (and saying, and saying again) "hi, can i get through?/ scusi/ beep-beep" in a chirpy kids tv presenter voice and just bellow "MOVE", or, once "RAUS!", while making great sweeping motions with my arms
just fucking shift, will ya?

JulesJules · 08/08/2008 20:44

We used to get loads of tourists about 1000 years ago, but they mainly came to rape and pillage (bloody Vikings). Tis not so bad now, I think a lot of them just go to the MetroCentre...

NigellaTheOriginal · 08/08/2008 20:47

yup - nother touriste hater here. we get em by the coach load - either oldies who dodder about then fall over outside the tea rooms or gangs of marauding barbarians americans doing the 'ancent britain' tour. and i make it my business to grin behind groups of them into their photos then imagine them tryimng to work out who i am when they get home.

AuntieMaggie · 08/08/2008 20:47

don't you think that people feel the same way about us when we go to their countries as tourists?

minouminou · 08/08/2008 20:48

pig's head on a spike to scare tourists?
you are my hero
i bow down
i am not worthy

NigellaTheOriginal · 08/08/2008 20:53

of course when i go other places am interesting traveller as opposed to taurist. there is a huge difference you know.

chefswife · 08/08/2008 20:57

we had a pig roast in the back yard and decided it would be a great idea to 'lord of the flies' the pig head on the front lawn for the tourists... well, the company anyhow.

chefswife · 08/08/2008 21:02

man it was so funny, right out there at the sidewalk... sorry, just thinking some more on it. wonder how many pictures of there are.

not because most on this site is english, but i found that the english tourists to victoria just seemed to get what it means to be here. relax and lay back, chill, enjoy the scenery... victoria is known to be quintessentially english, even moreso than england.

pointydog · 08/08/2008 22:05

where is victoria?

unknownrebelbang · 08/08/2008 22:10

YABU (as you acknowledge).

At least you have tourists!

Junkies and drunks are more likely to hold me up (tis great walking through town with DH, trying to do our shopping, to be greeted by "Ey Up Sarge!" can in one hand, spliff in the other...

And shoot me now, for I will be a tourist on the underground in a couple of weeks.

Spidermama · 08/08/2008 22:15

I'm fuming here with you. I'm in Brighton. They flood out of the station in mobs, often all wearing the same coloured cap.

I'm always amazed at how anyone can want to be in a group that size. It's slightly scarey.

I was once on a bus on my way to work which had about five people on it. It then stopped outside a museum and around 100 student tourist types, all in one group, got on. There were no seats. People were even standing in the upper deck. It took ages to get them on. There was no room for anyone else and the next bus wasn't for 20 minutes. I was pissed off with them and yet guilty for being pissed off.

pointydog · 08/08/2008 22:21

You enjoy yourself, rebel. Give the locals a swift kick in teh shins on your way past.

unknownrebelbang · 09/08/2008 00:29

Might just have to pointy.

TwoIfBySea · 09/08/2008 01:20

You know when you are all going on holiday, the minute you step into the airport, the check-in staff have a nickname for you all; the herd. And that is for when we were being polite.

So it works both ways.

I don't mind the tourists. Worked in the industry long enough to not mind them and if it wasn't shift work I would be back there working, prodding the "herd" onto the aircraft again

chopchopbusybusy · 09/08/2008 01:24

Are we not all tourists when we visit somewhere other than our home town?

I used to work in Central London and was annoyed by tourists!

Worked in Central Glasgow and was annoyed by tourists.

I live near a major beach resort and am annoyed by tourists.

I live in a popular country area frequented by tourists.

Some of the houses in my street are holiday lets! - say no more.

Yes, it's feckin irritating, but unless we live in a sealed bubble we're all irritating.

Califrau · 09/08/2008 01:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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