I hate my customers too. I get it.

Can't say I blame them. Tourists can be obnoxious, especially in swarms.

It's not "a" tourist, it's "a milion" tourists they don't tolerate

I always hated the whole “local economy good” schtick. Not everyone in that city personally benefits from the things the local economy is supposed to be dependent on, and to expect them to be stoked when, say, oil is doing good, or lots of tourists are coming around, but only bad things happen to you as a result of it while rich people around you become richer and the wealth gap increases is just irritating.

Also when I worked in a tourist town doing construction there like 9/10 of the tourists were rich, fat, rude Americans that just made a mess of the beautiful town I was in and were super ignorant to everyone around them. I was so glad to be finished that project man.

Comments in this thread are weirdly one sided. I get the airbnb shit, mass tourism, and all that, but to me it's more a symptom of late stage capitalism.

At which point do you stop becoming a tourist yourself? Has nobody ever been to another city or region? Are you not sometimes a tourist in your own city, region, or country? You always stay home and never go anywhere?

As a Montrealer, am I a nasty tourist for going to Québec City? Should I stick to my own city? Am I a bad tourist for going to another province? Is Vancouver too far or too rich? Is Toronto too far too? Would I be a bad tourist for going to visit and spend a night in Toronto, coming from Montreal? Am I a nasty tourist for going camping in Ontario? Should I stick only to local campings?

Is it only bad when we go to what... 10 km away from our home? 100? 1000? Where is the line? When we need hosting?

I don't really understand the logic of "fuck tourists", unless they just want everyone to stay home and never go anywhere.

While not a city, tourists have ruined the town I work in... It used to be a working town and the surrounding area was where people actually lived. Then the area got popular for rich people to come walk around in the summer... They bought all the housing for their vacation homes/air b&b and the bought up local businesses, turning them into seasonal shops...

Locusts...

The locals who dislike tourists are most likely not the same locals who profit from tourism. Wealth is too concentrated, that's also true for e.g. big hotels or shops in the picturesque old town. If every second or third resident had a room rented out to a tourist that'd likely be a different story. But same as always, some people profit, but all the people suffer the increased traffic, noise, waste, rent etc.

Daily experience in Hawaii. Litterally had a neighbor whose entire ability to survive is based on his wife's business doing wedding photography complaining about "immigrants and tourists"..

Like bruh. You are a kept man and a poorly performing house husband. Maybe just have the grace to accept things as they are?

This is why the Airbnb ban comes up super controversial too. From an unanalyzed/ outside perspective, the narrative "we need homes for locals" makes sense. Then you find out the entire campaign was pushed entirely by the hotel industry lobby in Waikiki (the counsel member who pushed the ban her husband was litterally on the payroll of the hotel lobby). Then the ban went into effect and it killed thousands of small, pop up businesses that had been cleaning, landscaping, maintaining the rentals. And it didn't do one iota of good in terms of reducing or stabilizing rent; if anything, it made things worse. The airbnb' almost all went down one of three tracks: either the owner kept it going illegally (the highest end with wealthiest owners), the owner stopped renting and has left it vacant, or the owner remodeled or sold to a flipper, in which case the house resold for a price quite litterally no locals can afford in rent.

What people don't want to hear about Airbnb bans is that that they significantly hit the non-corporate, local economies far, far harder. It moved tourists out of local neighborhoods and back into Waikiki, meaning that the dollars those tourists might spend on breakfast, grocery, something on the side of the road in some community outside of Honolulu. It further consolidated power into the very already very small number of hands who own all the hotels in Waikiki, while it did basically nothing to stabilize rents.

In my experience economies based around tourism have much greater inequality, with a few wealthy landowners/business owners raking it in, scumbag tourists throwing their weight around and any non wealthy locals forced into low wage service work and treated like shit in a high cost of living environment. Fuck tourism and fuck tourists.

That's because that city's economy didn't start dependent on Tourism.

Tourism was just some kind of "silver bullet" that the local incompetent politicians chose because they were incapable of managing the place properly and make it better.

Further, Tourism isn't exactly an activity that can bring a place to the forefront of Economic and Technological development: almost by definition you have to be behind those who are at the forefront and have cheap enough prices to attract tourists from those other, wealthier places - Tourism it's the ultimate "second" World activity.

I'm from one such city, Lisbon, and it's become a joke of a place, sort of an open air entertainment park on top of an historic city, slowly losing character and with the locals getting priced out of buying a home there which is pushing all other Economic activity out, especially things that rely on younger people (who are the ones most hit by the housing costs) such as Tech.

The country spent tons of money in training people to be Doctors, Engineers, Architects and so on and now the Economy is ever more based on cleaning rooms, making beds and serving drinks - literally half of the students graduating from University leave the country.

Betting on Tourism is betting on Mediocrity.

There really is no better proof of the profound incompetence, mediocrity and provincialism of Portuguese politicians than their bet of almost 20% (and growing) of the country's Economy on Tourism.

That said, it's not the fault of tourists.

Whose*

Lived in Banff for 18 years. Some days those tourists are just the fucking worst; feeding animals, littering, having fires anywhere they want. I got real possessive of my home. But the many are decent, outdoor lovers who don’t suck.

It's not that we live in a direct democracy where the people have a say in the decision to turn the city into a tourism place. More often than not people are born there or moved there long before tourism was so big

who's economy

I don't know. Who IS economy?

I grew up in San Diego. I can't afford to live there anymore and had to move halfway across the country because of those tourists. Comic Con would be the worst. Just fucking shambles. And then all the people who feel like Comic Con is their home leave their "home" covered in fucking garbage and piss soaked streets. And then some of those tourists started to enjoy San Diego so much, that they all started moving there with their trust funds and high paying remote jobs. By the time I left 5 years ago, I'd meet people and they'd almost all ask, "Where are you from?" to which I'd reply, "From here" to which they'd reply, "No, but where are you from originally?".

Yep. Fucking tourists.

Traditional fishing village, no fishermen can afford to live there anymore because of tourists, air B&Bs and holiday homes pushing the price of houses up.

OP after being kicked out of his home so that the landlord can rent it in airbnb: “well at least the economy is booming!”

Had 3 or so americans in the train. The kids screaming and even came up to my ear to yell in it! They didnt have their kids under control.

Or american "woo!"-girls in the inner city talking so loudly you could hear them 2 streets down about how "its so primitive here.", we "should have a parking spot for them in the center." So they "dont need to walk so much".

There are lots of respectful people tourists. But i have yet to meet a respectful tourist from USA

I mean they often only want the place they live to be affordable and focused on catering to its residents and not people coming a week or so every year being the focus of the local amenities and that's a fair opinion to have.

I’m like this as an american who lives in another country. I get that face when i hear english being spoken because the tourists are usually jackasses.

Tourists frequently treat the laws as though they are suggestions instead of the law because they'll be leaving and won't deal with whatever they did.

They drove my mother off the road and the tourists walking nearby just watched and did nothing even though she needed medical help as she was on a bike. Luckily she was fine.

Others would argue with me, a kid, about where shit was.

"How do you get off the island"

"One way on and off, it's the way you entered"

"No, there's a way off here"

"There is not"

"Fuck you" they'd say, to a kid, before driving off and finding no no. Kid is right.

Whenever we traveled we were slammed into us to be polite, follow all local laws, be kind, and I just. It feels like a lot of the shoobies just were raised in a fucking barn.

St Lucia seemed generally excited for their tourism. There's a million all inclusive resorts, but youre encouraged to walk the island, visit the locals, shop anywhere. Every single person i met was pleasant and generally excited to speak with me. I never felt unsafe like they warn about at other tourism destinations

Honestly tho, it felt weird.

Yeah, I'm sure the average person living in a tourist town gets tons of dividends from the extra taxes and capital earnings. It "trickles down" or whatever the kids are calling it these days.

A few years ago I was hanging out with an elderly friend of mine and group of tourists walked by and one of threw threw some flowers at my friend's face and called him 'f*g' and just walked away with his friends. Nothing I or anyone could do about it besides just watch and feel humiliated. Another time I was smoking a joint outside (as long as you don't do it near as school or some shit the cops don't care because there is typically a DV going on just around the corner and a needle in every fourth arm in my city) and this dude who probably was a cop back home (he just had that look in his eyes) out of the fucking blue started staring me down. Or tried to because by the time I realized what he was doing his friends where already pulling him away and he was just staring at me with such anger like I had just called him gay or something.

At least where I live there is enough cross over of touristy areas and the really bad areas that I get to watch tourists be made uncomfortable when something happens like a homeless woman squats on the sidewalk and takes a piss waving an empty plastic bag in one hand and screaming.

Maybe they lived in the place before the landlords turned the economy over to tourists.

If I lived in Barcelona and got kicked out of my apartment so it could be a peak-season AirBnB and stay 75% vacant the rest of the year I'd be pissed off too.

I don't really care about tourists hanging out in the tourist areas. But could they just drive the speed limit. I get that it's beautiful, pull over and take some pictures you've got 3 cars behind you. They could also make sure their tires aren't bald when they drive up in the winter, yes good tires are a must around here. Also if they wouldn't litter out in nature that would be great too. Or if they would start hikes early in the morning instead of it getting dark out and calling 9-11 for a rescue because they're lost now. Or just learn how to use caltopo, it makes orienteering trivial.

P.S. if you have to shit, walk off the trail somewhere out of sight. No one wants to step on that.

Yes. 100%. Every time I see a tourist in SF blocking traffic to take a picture from the top of a hill in the middle of the street, I want them to get hit by a bus.

Ah, Ive seen you've been to Paris.

As always it's the amount that makes something healthy or lethal, Tourism is fine, Over-Tourism is not. And while on normal levels of tourism, many people profit, over-tourism brings money to a few big places, and leaves the rest suffering the consequences like unaffordable rents.

I visited a town that is in a great spot for cycling trips. The locals painted 🚳 on every sidewalk, hung up posters and give cyclists on sidewalks a talking-to while the main roads often lack even dashed bicycle lanes and feel really dangerous to ride on. At least there is no free car parking.

People usually talk to me in their native language. No matter Spain, Greece, Sweden, Britain, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Germany… I just don’t behave like the typical tourist lol

Well I did get talked to in English while in Thailand… must’ve been my nose

Florida in a nutshell.

I'm on the memes side.

While tourists can be assholes.

It's amazing how many of these "locals" bitching, either made their money off the tourists or recently moved to town...

I have no sympathy for either type.

Sitting in Cape Cod right now, lol

Looking at you, Kyoto

It would be fine if they would simply drive the speed limit instead of 10 under, and stopped littering.

I don’t understand why those two things simply aren’t a given.

Remembering how insufferable the American tourists are, I wish my city would find a way to learn how to earn money without depending on those idiots.

They should go back to their country and stay where they belong

In the Netherlands they want to spread out all the Amsterdam tourists around more. There are increasingly more tourists coming to my city now... I hate it. Leave them in the shitty Amsterdam, don't ruin my city. Amsterdam is a city full of self centered assholes and it's a tourism theme park. No harm in leaving it that, way.