I’d really love you to try and live in one of those cities. Not just spend some days there, but actually live there.
Housing prices, thanks to fucking airbnb are the highest of your country so buying a house is impossible, but even renting is nearly impossible because nobody wants to rent to a local when they can earn 3x or more by scamming tourists.
Want to work here? You either work in services (bars, restaurants, or other kind of touristic slavery) or need to look for work out of the city. You might be lucky enough to work in something that’s not tourism related, but it’s pure luck to find one.
The city centre? Yeah… Don’t go there, you’re not gonna find other than a tourist theme park. Tons of shops created exclusively with the tourist in mind and don’t you dare trying to look for something to eat. All you’ll find are tourist traps.
I’ve seen this city become the shithole it is today thanks to tourism.
Yeah, but blame capitalism not tourists.
I grew up in a town that the population tripled in the summer.
I hated it because I was a kid and had no choice where I was. Adults would stop their cars to ask me questions as I played in the front yard, I’d answer them fully and truthfully only to be told I must be lying for them to peel away.
There was still only one way on and off the island, you passed the thing you wanted to visit if you were here, and the thing you wanted was half a block away. They all found that out eventually, but no one ever apologized. Even the ones who had to double back (to get off the island usually)
I’m in Central Florida, so it may be the top tourist center in the world. NYC and Vegas give it a run, but that’s about it. I’ve been here for 25 years, and it kind of made me lose any interest in touristy vacations. I’m surrounded by it, so I’m getting the commercial vacation vibe every day. I’m long over it.
These days, I don’t really want to SEE things or places on vacation, I want to be in the woods, or an island, or somewhere away from people.
It’s different. Orlando’s tourism is concentrated at the theme parks and beaches. If you go someplace like Barcelona or Venice, the tourists could be at your doorstep. It would be like living in apartments above Disney’s Main Street. Having been all three places multiple times Orlando’s tourism is more “corralled” than major tourist cities. Sure, volume-wise Orlando has a shitload of tourists, but the dynamic is not the same.
Also, American real estate is stupid money thanks to corporate real estate squatters and air b&b, but at least there was room to grow in the ‘burbs. European cities have no such luxury when investors buy up flats for vacation rentals and squeeze the locals out.
Who is economy. Baby don’t hurt me. No more.
Also:
Europeans: “Americans never travel anywhere. Get a fucking passport!”
five minutes later…
Europeans: “Americans?! Here?! Fucking hell!”
Me, an American while in Paris: oh shit, Americans. Don’t make eye contact. Fucking god, ugh I’m in a bad mood now
Haha dw you guys aren’t that bad
Oh, yeah I know… Objectively. It’s a familiarity breeds contempt thing I guess lol
Thats because the residents didnt choose to have their town be economically dependent on tourism. Tourist economies tend to really fuck over local residents. Be it insane housing prices due to airbnbs. Or lack of necessities like grocery stores, affordable restuarants, etc due to all the stores being knick-knack and commodity shops or gentrified tourist centered restaurants. Lack of decent jobs due to everything being targeted towards tourism (really shitty if its seasonal tourism, cause then you are out of the job for the off season). Not to mention having to deal with the roads being congested with tourists, be they pedestrians or drivers. Plus so so so much more. My take, a place should NEVER base its economy around tourism. I got no problem with tourism, but it should be a byproduct or consequence of having a place worth visiting. Not the whole point of the town existing. An economy around tourism is like an economy built around oil. Yeah its a great boost to income for the place, but it comes at the expensive of QoL for the residents, and eventually the well will dry up and youll have nothing to fall back on.
There are so many places that without tourism, there isn’t a reason to be there. I drive the Western US pretty thoroughly and the difference between small towns where tourists go, and those that have nothing, is stark. They love to complain about it, and hate on tourists, but damn do they want that money. You go am hour down the road and get to the next town and it’s dead, no grocery stores, no real business, most the main streets are boarded up from failed attempts at building something. People are fucking stupid, you have have some reason your town exists, or you end up with those towns in Wyoming I drive through that have 20 population, and won’t last another generation.
What a strange take. The people that run businesses are almost never the entirety of the town. If they are, you’re likely in a theme park or a carnival. And of course the businesses want your money.
Have you interacted with someone that doesn’t run a business there?
I definitely have some contempt for the fudgies but it aint all that bad. There is more nuance here to how tourist towns go about managing their population booms.
I live in a state that is very tourism centered, and I’ve lived in and near towns and cities that are tourist economies or trying to be. Speaking from that experience, whatever good they bring is outweighed by the problems they cause. Tourism is nuanced, but tourism economies I don’t feel are. I’ve never once heard a resident of a tourist town talk positively of tourism unless they are a business owner or otherwise have some stake in the game, like landlords or airbnd owners.
Some economies can naturally gravitate towards tourism without local intent. If your town is building kitsch then you are probably on the sour end of that spectrum. Here tourism is inevitable, its in the lay of the land. Our town doesnt suck at managing it though, no more than two air bnbs per city block downtown. We have plenty of Inns and Hotels built out to accommodate for short term housing so tourists aren’t competing against locals for space. I would also argue (all be it with some bias) that renting out short term rooms is distinct from being a landlord in a few key ways. A lot more time and effort and care is required from an innkeeper than a landlord, they provide real service to somebody rather than just cornering a resource to sell it back to the community.
Fair. Here, they lean way into it. “Vacation land” being the state motto. Camden, Bar Harbor, and Ogunquit being the three worst towns that I am aware of in terms of tourism, but theres plenty more. Lots of homes here are owned by snowbirds (rich people who own summer homes up here and then live in their homes in Florida or whatever in the winter). The economy is already fucked because of the large elderly population, and then its further fucked by all these rich vacationers who each up the housing. All the recreational stuff around here is very tourist adjacent or targeted like skiing, hunting, hiking, etc. Which the lack of third spaces, non-outdoor recreational activities, and most industry being catered to sustaining the elderly or tourists leads to all the young people moving out of state for better opportunities. Which obviously just makes all these problems worse. The place I live, most of the housing is owned by like one or two huge landlord companies too.
That is to say though, I feel like an economy that drifts to tourism like you say, while yes is a tourism economy, I feel it also kinda leans into tourism as a byproduct rather than the goal. Unless you feel thats not the case, idk.
I had a funny feeling you were talking about Maine. Hi from Boothbay, another tourist shit hole
Yeah we have a disproportionately elderly population and many snowbirds too. Our economy used to be highly industrial, and we do still have a lot of operational factories outside of town which provide a lot of stability for the winter months. We also have a huge state park which soaks up a lot of the tourists as they go camp their instead of staying in town, as well as being a favorite spot for locals to go. If we didn’t have these things then tourism would be a lot more damaging to the area.
I lived like 5 months in spain, about half an hour from barcelona by train, you kind of get it after a while. You wanna buy some stuff to eat and you have to go to the edge of the city to buy something thats not some overpriced touristy bs. At the same time its understandable that someone would want to go to barcelona or spain in general cause its really nice so yeah
Yes because all income in the city gets pooled and distributed equally among all residents… People that post memes like this think it’s some big gotcha but you’re just showing your ass how ignorant you are about how the economy works.
I mean… sure, but maybe aim that contempt at the people hoarding all the tourism money instead of the tourists spending that money.
Don’t care. Will visit no matter how angrily you stare. Here is some pocket change. Bye.
Probably because the “tourist economy” only benefits a 5-10% (being really fucking generous with that) slice of the population that’s petty bourgeois, actually owns the businesses being used, and benefits from the revenue while their workers are paid like they’re at walmart
Hey. We have more than tourism!
Like oil, and slop, and a third thing!
Also, Customer Service when a customer needs service:
See also: Cornwall.
