Has all this changed your opinion of tourist spots you used to love?

[Makeitgoaway]

There's one in particular that we used to visit for a few days several time a year. The last time was January and under normal circumstances we'd have been there this week.

Obviously we have no intention or desire to go there until the relevant restrictions are lifted but the venom being directed towards tourists and visitors by people fortunate enough to live in beautiful places is making me think it won't be comfortable there, we won't be welcome for a long time after restrictions are lifted. I understand people are scared etc but they also love to see us and our money in happier times and, I assume, do want tourists to return at some point.

Will you be rushing back to your favourite places to support their economies or will you wait?

I'm in the SW. Contrary to popular belief not everyone works in or benefits from tourism. Many, if not most of us, don't care about your money.

Having said that, polite considerate visitors are very welcome, there's room enough for us all. We're not so keen on the rude, inconsiderate ones.

@ineedsun, sure I am !

For heavens sake. Coronavirus is in the lovely country towns and villages already. The reason for discouraging visitors is that the NHS facilities are small and not local in these places, and with limited beds. There are only limited doctors for the population size. There are no A and Es for miles. We know for a certainty that there is health rationing, so you risk their families, but also your own, if you go

Exactly & really well put.

It's amazing that this still needs to be said. Surely people understand this by now?

It's nothing to do with whether those of us fortunate enough to live in beautiful places actually like you. Are you so needy as tourists that you need the locals to like you? That is so weird.

Yes, I live near the Gower coast and one irate person from there posted that " Gower is only for people who live there" It's made me realise how much they hate tourists, even local people, intruding on " their" beaches. I'll still go though when this is over 😂

Are you so needy as tourists that you need the locals to like you? That is so weird.

No, I just want to know the locals won’t be tipping paint over my car if the government say we can travel in September but they think we shouldn’t!

I keep seeing things like ‘Cornwall will see you next years. What will they do if the government lifts restrictions before that?

I think what rankles is that some, and I emphasise it's only some as I know it's not everyone, locals in beauty spots (and elsewhere sometimes) seem to have double standards.

A PP lives in London. She said she's not from there and most people she knows there aren't. Plenty there are from London so I'm not sure why she hasn't met any. I hope she doesn't think people from BAME communities aren't from London? They make up a sizeable proportion of locals in London. And what does she think happened to the born and bred Londoners who have left? Why is it not ok, as repeatedly stated by posters on this thread, for countryside and seaside locals to be priced out away from their families but it's ok for Londoners? Either it's not ok for anywhere or it's ok for everywhere.

Likewise the valid concerns about services and resources being unable to cope (be it hospitals, schools, housing, or anything else). Why is wrong to come to rural areas and put pressure on their services but ok to do that to London or other urban centres? Why was it ok for infected people to travel back from Italy ski trips and other holidays through London's airports, for infected people to commute to London? But not ok for Londoners to go to the countryside. It shouldn't have been ok for anyone to do that anywhere.

A major reason why London and Birmingham are hardest hit by Covid is overcrowding. So many people crammed into high density housing. Again I refer to the pp living there but from elsewhere who said most people she knows aren't from London. She and they are contributing towards the crowded housing. Yet, unlike other places, they were welcomed. Clearly London's hospitals aren't currently coping. Over four thousand Covid hospital deaths in London alone. If someone thinks that many deaths is coping, they have different (lower) moral standards. The high number is partly because people are only being admitted at very late stages when there's less chance of survival. Patients were turned away from the nightingale because of nursing shortages. Some have died as a result.

I'm not advocating an even spread of the suffering. It won't help people in the worse hit areas. I also don't disagree that rural services wouldn't cope. I'm simply pointing out that's not unique to those areas.

In short I agree that people shouldn't travel from badly suffering areas to safer areas, and I also understand valid issues over second home ownership (which is as I've said a problem in London too, where the housing crisis is most acute). It's the double standards that's a problem. It comes across as entitlement. They problems they speak of are not unique to their areas.

It would be interesting to see data on which hospitals nationally really are most struggling to cope with demand, whether it is the rural hospitals or inner city ones?

Let us not forget that some areas (Wales and Highland Scotland) have always had some people who were aggressively anti-English/in-comer. Corona virus has given them a way to legitimise this - for them it is not fears about a virus but a much more deep-seated dislike of English in particular but outsiders in general.

ToffeeYougurt
You raise some very valid points about the issues affecting both urban and rural communities but I don't think there is a double standard. I haven't seen anyone say it's OK for city locals to be priced out of home ownership. There is also a world of difference between relocating to an area to become a full time resident and buying a second home which stands empty for much of the year.

These things are however not the issue being discussed here. We are on lockdown and have been asked not to make non essential journeys and yet coastal and rural communities are still seeing second home owners arriving; bringing with them the potential to increase local infection rates and put additional pressure on local services. Some people seem quite offended by this temporary measure and are attempting to paint everyone in these communities as backwards yokels who just don't like outsiders, of course there are a few arseholes capitalising on the situation to behave appallingly but they almost certainly a minority.

If people haven't undertaken a non essential journey and decamped to their second home then I can't understand why they are upset about the anger directed at those that have.

There is also a world of difference between relocating to an area to become a full time resident and buying a second home which stands empty for much of the year

This.

And this
We are on lockdown and have been asked not to make non essential journeys and yet coastal and rural communities are still seeing second home owners arriving; bringing with them the potential to increase local infection rates and put additional pressure on local services

And to point out that many regional/rural areas (Cornwall, Cumbria, bits of Wales) have very low wages in comparison with, say London or Manchester. So when demand for second homes causes prices to rise, locals have comparatively far less purchase power.

That's why they have to move to urban areas, to chase better paying work, and a wider range of housing options - basically, housing within their budgets.

That's why a) second homers are resented, and b) people brought up in rural areas often move to cities.

A second home kept for single family use, is basically an important local asset being wasted, and dragging down the local economy.

Yogafaker it's not really so different in London. Many people are on average wages and buying a home, or even private rental, is impossible for many. People are forced to move out of London simply to afford somewhere to live and have to spend hours every day commuting to and from work.

Meanwhile new developments spring up which are bought by overseas investors and many of them lie empty. Or properties are bought by the rich as buy to let investments. It's changing communities in a similar way that second home ownership does in rural and coastal communities.

For the average person London isn't the land of milk and honey many people seem to think it is. It's my home and I love it, but it saddens me when I see the hostility towards Londoners by some people on Mumsnet. Many of us face the same challenges as people everywhere else.

Wales have now brought in new legislation that states people should not be visiting or staying in somewhere not their primary residence, or words to that effect -

gov.wales/staying-home-and-away-others-guidance

it saddens me when I see the hostility towards Londoners by some people on Mumsnet.

Can't say I'm particularly happy about the repeated references to The League of Gentleman because some entitled people think they should have a right to do as they please during lockdown. It smacks of superiority, seriously we won't miss you when lockdown is over if that's how you view the locals in the places you visit; no need to condescend to visit so we can benefit from your charity.

Staying at home is a temporary measure, people need to grow up and get on with it.

I'm in West Wales, and all the negativity i've seen has been directed towards second home owners, not tourists.

Believe me, the amount that thought they could sneak in during that first warm weekend before Easter, was scary! They obviously didn't give a shit about spreading the virus, or overloading what small facilities we have here.

For the average person London isn't the land of milk and honey many people seem to think it is. It's my home and I love it, but it saddens me when I see the hostility towards Londoners by some people on Mumsnet. Many of us face the same challenges as people everywhere else
True, but London is resourced for the permanent population of London.
If all the people who bought investment properties showed up from overseas in the middle of a pandemic then that would selfish and unreasonable and would place an increased burden on London services.

The same applies to people buying second properties in the country/coastal areas. These areas are resourced for their permanent population and so when arseholes from cities decide they want to toddle off to their holiday home because it's a bit quieter than their city, the locals have every right to be telling them to stay at home to avoid placing strain on local services.

I don't think anyone is suggesting London is some sort of idyllic oasis where everyone is loaded, just that people from London (and same applies to other big cities) accept that if they choose to make their home in a city, they can't expect communities that their second homes are dismantling to welcome them we open arms - especially if they've got the attitude that the locals should be utterly grateful for their custom, that these communities would fall apart without their visits etc.

Again.

Nobody is moaning about people being unhappy about being unwelcome during lockdown. They get that and as far as I can see, totally agree with that.

What people are uncomfortable about is the clear antipathy towards holiday makers in general which has been let loose during this situation.

A bit reminiscent of the way that racists suddenly came out of the woodwork with Brexit.

I think you will find London has the largest tourist population all year round and has permanent NHS access problems as London is also resourced for its year round population. There are tourists from the UK in London but also an enormous international tourist presence during normal times. Access to A and E and hospitals is severely compromised all the time. I have never heard any Londoner moan that the reason they have 24 hour waits in A and E is because that daytripper from Devon got drunk in Covent Garden and needs his stomach pumping !!

I think the NHS is under resourced and we need to reconsider all this, but we can't start having regional ring fences.

Why? Funding for these come from council tax and second home owners in Cornwall pay full council tax without using those services.

The NHS is not funded through council tax.

Toffee - you keep referencing a PP who lives in London, but you are missing the point. Regardless of where shes from, she lives there, of course she is welcome. Just like people who actually live in rural areas aren't being told to stay away.

The number of posters who can't distinguish between anger at people ignoring the rules in a specific set of circumstances and general hatred of tourists is quite shocking. I don't hate tourists but I don't want the area to be busy with visitors while we are trying to protect our nearest NHS hospital from being overwhelmed. And that's without even getting on to the raids on village shops by people from quite far away.

I’ve realised we spend too much, pollute the air, stress and take hours of travelling to get to places that are no more lovely than where we actually live. This experience will reduce my travelling and tourism in the long run.

I've realised what I always suspected was the case: that a number of second home owners think rural/coastal communities should be falling over themselves in gratitude at having their housing stock bought up, so that during a pandemic (when residents express concerns about irresponsible travel) second home owner is worrying that when they inevitably decamp within seconds of lockdown lifting the locals won't be suitably grateful for their presence.

For the average person London isn't the land of milk and honey many people seem to think it is. It's my home and I love it, but it saddens me when I see the hostility towards Londoners by some people on Mumsnet. Many of us face the same challenges as people everywhere else

My criticism isn't of Londoners (ie individuals who live in London) - I've lived there myself. But what is problematic, both during COVID-19, but actually all the time is the very uneven - and frankly unfair - concentration of a lot of national resources into London.

And I'm not really talking just about COVID-19 in this respect.

I think if you live in London, you don't realise just how much all the rest of England (Wales, Scotland and NI to a lesser extent) is invisible in terms of policy and resource distribution.

It takes living outside of London to realise this. I don't think Londoners see it or care about it really. But there is far more of England all lumped together in what we call "the regions" or the "provinces." But the rest of the UK is the majority of the population.

So we have the "National" Theatre, but really, it's the London Theatre, and so on. If you look at arts funding, for example, the absolutely huge majority of funding is focused on London institutions, and regional theatre, art galleries etc, really really struggle.

It's this sort of inequity, and treatment of the majority of the British population as second-class citizens in lots of national policy, which galls.

sluj
I agree London does have a huge year round tourist population and the NHS is under funded and under pressure across the country. I haven't seen anyone complaining about pressure on NHS resources from tourists to coastal and rural communities in normal circumstances but they are concerned about the ability of their local hospitals to cope with extra numbers during this pandemic.

London is also better equipped in terms of critical care beds.

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/huge-regional-differences-intensive-care-bed-numbers-threaten/

I can only assume that London crops up so frequently in terms of second home owners breaking lockdown guidance because locals find they are the ones turning up in tourist towns.

I wonder if people assume that the second home owners are from London. The few people I know with second homes are not from London, they live in places like Reading, Wolverhampton and Gloucestershire.
I know lots of people in London - and the owner occupiers I know are struggling to keep up the mortgage repayments on their bog standard 3 bed semis, valued at £1.2 million.

Yeah the second home owners I can think of are definitely NOT from London! Home Counties tastic.