Aint no way 😡

(midwest.social)

diffaldo to General Memes & Private Chuckle

To be fair basing an entire economy around tourism tends to make a city shitty. I live in NYC and its a city that people actually live in with an actual economy, when tourists come they stick to the shitty parts that people here tend to avoid so they're mostly out of the way.

Usually people already live there and have normal jobs. Some big attraction is commercialised, a company (often but not always from outside the community) profits off of it. People like it so more and more keep coming, causing prices to jump. Slowly but surely people can't afford housing. Normal businesses that do normal work can't remain competitive when their offices get much more expensive, so they depart too, leaving only more tourism-focused companies to be profitable. The locals have to choose between leaving their home or joining the companies that ruined it.

Mass tourism industries do provide a lot of income for businesses that profit off it. But to do so those businesses have cannibalised the actual life and economic activity of the location. Nice for the businesses, less so for the people who just wanted to live and have a normal job in their home town...

"I make your life possible, peasant. Grovel."

Everybody hates a tourist.

Yea god forbid you don't want your town turned into a playground for wealthy foreigners. Yay! High rent and plenty of dead end service jobs

The area I grew up was known for partying in the summer. Tourists would wander around local neighborhoods drunk af and piss in people’s front lawns without a care. They’d drive drunk and our cops hyped up on everyone as a result. The very first time I was pulled over was in such an area, allegedly for running a red light (I turned right, which is legal. So the cop changed gears and said I didn’t stop fully before turning. This was before dash cams were standard, so it was his word vs mine.)

He asked me three fucking times, “Have you been drinking? ARE YOU SURE?” I was like 18, on my way to work, and had yet to even touch an alcoholic drink in my life. I’d say he went from 0 to 11, but that’d be generous. He initiated the situation already determined that I was a criminal. Add on, the local police department building was on the same street we stopped on, so a crowd of officers ended up standing around watching us. The guy might have been putting on a show for his buddies. It was such an aggressive experience that afterwards, I pulled over somewhere and cried.

I know, I got off lucky with those American cops. I can’t imagine how it would’ve gone if I’d had a darker skintone. ACAB, but especially cops in tourist areas. They clock in with a bone to pick and a quota to fill.

They're fine, as long as they don't make more than 30% of the regions income.

Any quantity can be bad if you have to deal with them directly.

You only get the bad kind?

Get enough of the bad kind over a long enough time, and you stop seeing the good.

EDIT: In anyone.

I think that really depends on the amount of tourists.

You'd think. But usually it's just one or two entitled pricks at the exact wrong time.

Nah in reality big majority actually loves tourism.

Except people who have to deal with tourists. You're lucky enough to never have to understand that.

Nope grew up in a tourist town and still live in tourist towns most of the time. It's the best place to live unless you're clueless loser.

Fuck you too. You don't know what a burger tastes like without spit.

Dude what's your problem

I'll try to help.
Basically you were dismissive of everybody else's points of view.
Then gave your one anecdotal opinion about you growing up in your one town, and it being great
...then, and this is probably the crux of the matter, stated that pretty much everyone else are clueless losers. All because their experiences with tourists (who have been noted as shitty for many decades) weren't like yours.

Nah the research is pretty clear here - tourism is almost pure good for most places. People just don't want to believe it because they're just hateful toxic losers of "get of my lawn" boomer kind.

Again I'm not saying tourism has no negative externalities but a good governing body can minimize it to almost nothing and it's much better than negative externalities from other industries like manufacturing or even farming.

The Impact of Tourism on Local Communities: A Literature Review of Socio-Economic Factors Shows how tourism increases income, employment, and infrastructure in host communities. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373644263_The_Impact_of_Tourism_on_Local_Communities_A_Literature_Review_of_Socio-_Economic_Factors
Social Impacts of Tourism Perceived by Host Communities – A Review Paper (2021) Finds that tourism promotes cultural exchange, social cohesion, and improved public services. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357139679_Social_Impacts_of_Tourism_Perceived_by_Host_Communities_-_A_Review_Paper
The Economic and Social Impacts of Ecotourism on Local Employment and Income (2025) Case study showing ecotourism boosts jobs and income in rural areas while supporting sustainability. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1757780225000101
Tourism and Its Socio-Economic Impacts on Local Communities Demonstrates that tourism stimulates small businesses, improves infrastructure, and raises living standards. https://www.researchpublish.com/upload/book/Tourism%20and%20Its%20Socio-Economic-2434.pdf
The Role and Impact of Tourism on Local Economic Development Comparative study showing tourism contributes to GDP growth and helps reduce poverty. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287645318_The_role_and_impact_of_tourism_on_local_economic_development_A_comparative_study
Exploring the Impacts of Tourism on the Well-Being of Residents in Host Communities (2025) Shows that tourism can improve residents' well-being, community pride, and access to better services. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/5849
Tourism Development and Its Socio-Economic Impact on Local Communities Reviews evidence that tourism improves employment, diversifies income sources, and leads to infrastructure growth. https://www.geojournal.net/uploads/archives/6-2-9-955.pdf
The Social and Economic Impacts of Tourism Development on Local Community Satisfaction (2019) Finds residents perceive tourism as increasing economic opportunity and enhancing city services. https://www.sciepub.com/JCD/abstract/10306
Challenges and Opportunities in Local Sustainable Tourism: A Systematic Review (2025) Shows how community-based tourism preserves culture, empowers locals, and strengthens local economies. https://posthumanism.co.uk/jp/article/view/636
Role of Tourism in Sustainable Development (Oxford Research Encyclopedia) Explains how sustainable tourism supports economic growth, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation. https://oxfordre.com/environmentalscience/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.001.0001/acrefore-9780199389414-e-387

You don't care what my problem is. You just want me to stop being a problem for you.

Well I hope that what's bothering you will stop bothering you then 🙏

Tbf tourists very often treat locals like zoo animals so...

Is being curious of their way of life considering treating people as zoo animal ? (Legit question, I often am very curious of specifity and often end at a local church event or village events sharing a meal with peoples)

You can definetely join public events. I was talking about taking picture of random people at the street and also littering problems, mainly.

There is also tourists who visit for "pickup artistry" and those guys pretty much always push it into sexual harrasment territory when rejected. Just wanted to mention that.

Tourism is fucking awesome - it connects people from different worlds, connects economies and opens up niche areas like cultural preservation and ecology. It also provides flexibility and seasonal work for entire extended area giving people opportunities to temporarily relocate or migrate long term.

Tourism is the best - don't listen to the angry entitled boomers.

opens up niche areas like cultural preservation and ecology.

Niche, you say?

Old women get thrown out of their homes so they can be rented to tourists, you know.

He knows. He considers homelessness to be a public good.

Landlords throw old lady's out of their homes, not tourists. Its always possible to build a shitton of housing like China, but then landlords would make less money.

Conflating two entirely different issues

No, one is the result of the other.
You're either a troll or a moron.
Bye.

Tourism is fucking awesome

If you're a tourist.

Nope grew up and still live in a tourist town. The opportunity and cultural exchange of a big city in a small town is awesome - that's how the world should be. If everyone was more accepting and mobile we'd have less hate, cruelty and misery in the world. Connection is the key not isolation.

If everyone was more accepting and mobile we’d have less hate, cruelty and misery in the world.

Don't like it? Just be rich! Just be able to afford travel, then all the people who abuse you at work don't exist!

Nah travel is not that expensive and economic activity and connection makes everyone richer, literally. Don't be a whiny loser and live a bit.

Nah travel is not that expensive

Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to afford the luxuries you take for granted.

It's a myth that travel is expensive but if thats the case the ethics of tourism is the least of your worries.

It’s a myth that travel is expensive

[Citation fucking needed]

Talk to some of the people who are paid to put up with you sometime. Ask them when the last time they had a vacation was. Ask them if they can afford to see a doctor. Ask them if they have insurance, a car, stable housing. And then tell them how great it is that travel is cheap and watch their eyes.

Yeah, the cost of travel is the least of my worries, because I actually have worries. And I don't need some privileged asshole telling me that.

because tourism is a gentrification economy. it represents that we built something for us that now someone else gets to enjoy while we stand outside cold and shivering. tourism requires colonialism to work

tourism requires colonialism to work

If this were true, why do people go to any of Spain, England, France, Belgium, for touristic purposes? Why wouldn't they exclusively go to places like the Carribean, the Americas, West & South Africa?

who's

whose

For starters, there are no cities "whose economy is entirely based on Tourism". The closest to 100% Tourism are large resorts made specifically for that.

Further, this opinion of many locals about Tourism is from cities which used to have little or no Tourism and now have very large numbers of tourists.The reason for it is that, before Tourism became a large fraction of the local economy, such places used to have a far more diversified and robust Economy that didn't just crash whenever some volcano in Iceland had a burp or something such, neither did they have the overcrowding, high prices and disneyfication of shops, restaurants and attractions that Tourism brings.

Unless you're some third world shithole, without limitations Tourism lowers quality of life, makes everything more expensive (pushing out the locals) and destroys the vibe of a city - you don't need to be that much ahead of 3rd World status for mass tourism to actually make the quality of life for the locals worse: Tourism brings gains to only a fraction of the population but the costs are borne by almost everybody, in a similar way to high polluting industries.

Further, Tourism is very much a Tragedy Of The Commons situation - the side effects of too much Tourism destroy the environment that attracted tourists in the first place, at the very least over time reducing the quality of the tourists that do come (i.e. as Tourism degrades the place you get fewer high spending tourists interested in the local culture and culinary tradition, and more cheap mass Tourism) - and thus invariably those places where governments and local authorities bet heavily on Tourism are either places that used to be dirt poor (and thus have nothing to lose from even excessive Tourism) or are badly managed and thus, driven by pure greed and "we have found a silver bullet" delusions, never impose the kind of restrictions on Tourism needed to avoid the Tragedy part.

As it so happens, I live in such a place - Portugal - and come from a city which has suffered exactly what I describe - Lisbon. The government of an European country with high average levels of Education betting on a low value added industry which mainly employs people with low levels of specialization is literally choosing to stay at "just above 3rd World" level even though the population's level of Education could yield far more than that, which is probably why Portugal has fallen back to being one of the countries with the lowest GDP per-capita of the EU as almost all countries of Eastern Europe have surpassed Portugal in the last 2 decades even though when they joined the EU their GDP per-capita was in average around 70% that of Portugal.

Tourism is great if you're a 3rd World shithole because there no matter how much it becomes it will only make things better than before, but the more ahead a place is in terms of Education and Quality Of Life the lower the level of Tourism beyond which for the majority of people living there things actually become worse than before.

there are no cities "whose economy is entirely based on Tourism".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canc%C3%BAn

Cancún is a planned city, created to foster tourism.

In other words, a "large resort made specifically for that"

I mean I live next to one that barely counts as a "city". It has a state run organization that exists specifically for developing the area for recreation, tourism, and training athletes. They've been doing a lot of good for the community, and I think they're the largest employer in our county. But they've been really bad about building affordable housing (except for the j1s).

Oh, there are places like that in Portugal too - for example Albufeira in Algarve.

They're never large living cities which transformed into pure touristic cities but rather custom made from the ground up Tourism places or places that started as small villages with some small-size primary sector activity (fishing villages being quite common) and were discovered by tourists and just exploded in size catering to Tourism, crowding out the original economic activity of the place.

Personally I see them as basically Large Resorts (since either there was not even a village there originally, or the built-up area for Tourism vastly exceeds the are of what was originally there), but I'll grant you and @criticon@lemmy.ca (who mentioned Cancún) that it makes sense to call them cities, in which case I explained myself incorrectly in the first paragraph of my post - what I was really thinking was that there are no places which were originally cities that turned 100% to Tourism and that's not what I wrote there.

I mean, this has been a tourist destination for over a hundred years making it more organically a tourist town, but I totally get what you're saying

As another Lisboeta, preach!

Your efforts to educate failed the moment you pegged GDP as a measure of happiness. You sure you're not American?

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.

And this is before considering the side effects.

The high real-estate prices and high cost of living mean high business costs and high personnel costs, so Tourism will actually push out or kill other Industries, even the kind that employs highly qualified people.

Choosing Tourism as the backbone of a country or city is choosing a 2nd World status of having a low value added Economy that employs only people with little or no specialization or formal Education (about 4 of years of high-school is enough to qualify for even a customer facing job in a non-English language country) - in other words, eternal mediocrity. That might be a dream come true if you're a dirt poor place whose only product is natural beauty and were people were just fishermen or doing subsistence agriculture, but for a 1st World nation betting on Tourism as a pillar of one's Economy is choosing to become worse rather than better.

To add insult to injury, Tourism is a highly variably industry prone to massive and very fast crashes - all it takes is some volcano to start spewing dust in the the athmosphere and stop flights, a Terrorist attack or just an Economic downturn and suddenly the number of tourists coming in collapse to near zero.

Or the Strait of Hormuz closing and jet fuel suddenly skyrocketing in price. According to someone I know who’s taking a flight to the UK next month, it’s really not clear if it’ll be affordable or possible for her to come back. Apparently a lot of flights have already been canceled.

Well spotted!

I hadn't noticed that incoming Tourism shitstorm yet.

Who knows, maybe house prices in Portugal won't go up 17% for two years in a row...

Yeah, but blame capitalism not tourists.

I once dealt with a hotel guest who was genuinely upset because shuttle service was suspended due to an active shooter across the street, and he had a tee time he was going to miss.

This is the sort of entitlement people in the service industry deal with every single day. I blame capitalism because it incentivizes this sort of behavior, but I do not absolve tourists.

Whynotboth.jpeg

Tourists are annoying AF especially cause they don't know the local roads and they end up slowing down all traffic because of that. Fuck 'em. I just wanna get home after work in a timely manner, hate being stuck behind some ancient murican that doesn't know their way around town.

this is the truth right here

If it wasn't for tourists I would have nobody to sell Quokka eggs to.

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.

As opposed to economic and cultural deserts? Just look at US' midwest: no tourism, no anything - just misery. Now take a look at tourist areas even in developing countries that are far ahead of the richest country in the world because people are not fucking stupid there and choose prosperity over exclusivity.

Somebody got a business degree from their local community college (no disrespect to community colleges, major disrespect to business majors). You're like a rich man telling the poor to count their blessings and pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Fuck off and maybe learn to read before you go trying to lecture me about how great living in a tourist economy is.

Nope started with nothing but thousands bucks and a laptop, traveled all around the world working remotely and saw how life changing tourism is all around the world and how many wonderful people work in tourism and most importantly how connecting tourism is in our society. You are free to disagree with me but I gain nothing for argueing in favor of tourism (I don't work in this niche) other than fight against this injustice and misinformation hateful losers spread online to justify their own bigotry.

Wow, please continue to tell the person living paycheck to paycheck, working in houseless services, living in tourist town, and has never had the money to even step foot outside of New England, how great tourism is. And you very much have stake in the game Mr. "I've travelled the world." You're literally the person the economy of these places is catering to.

no anything

Well besides absolute shitloads of farms, which some correct people might consider less than glamorous but which still have to go somewhere - and which every developing nation also needs many of. Seriously, this is a deeply apples-to-things-that-aren't-apples comparison.

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.

Reminds me of when I ran into some international students and they asked me “what is in Indiana? Who would ever live there?” Sometimes people just are born or end up places and social ties, debt, or whatever keeps them there. Moving is easy for some, remarkably hard for others.

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?

Yes, but you do realize that the people that live there work at those businesses. If tourism doesn't exist in those areas, those jobs that they rely on wouldn't exist. You don't have to own a business to profit from it. In many of those areas, there isn't any other real industry.

Yes, but you do realize that the people that live there work at those businesses. If tourism doesn’t exist in those areas, those jobs that they rely on wouldn’t exist.

Trickle down economics on Lemmy, Christ.

I suppose I should expand on that, my understanding of trickle down systems are those that benefit the rich at the expense of their poor. My argument for why it benefits the rich: your comment on the benefits of tourism. My arguments why those benefits come at the expense of the poor: their comment listing all the expenses those benefits come at.

Trickle down economics on Lemmy, Christ.

You seem surprised.

Honestly, I was, a little. More surprised it wasn't immediately called out for what it was.

You know any of those people can start a business a well. Right. Right? It's not about trickle down. It's about people choosing A job. Shit I got tired of working for people years ago and started my own company. At one point I couldn't afford a screw to finish a job. I had to talk a Lowe's employee into letting me have one. Last year I made a pretty great wage. I'm not rich, but I'm not suffering any more. Maybe. Just maybe, get off Lemmy, and everything else and stop feeling sorry for yourself. No one is going to hand you shit. Tourist town, big city. Small town, whatever.

You still need demand. You can’t just start a company that does whatever you wanna work in whereever you want. Though there are things you can do pretty much everywhere as long you have electricity and internet

You just go to the capital tree and get the startup money!

That's my point. I started mine with about 100$. If you can't get that. Go sell Kool aid. Shit it you can't afford that ask anyone for a dollar, go buy some, and start making something. People want to be handed everything.

That's a nice anecdote, but it's not the argument for tourist towns you think it is. You're merely arguing that they should aspire to join the ranks of the advantaged, at the expense of the poor. Not that the rich aren't advantaged at the expense of the poor.

"Just start a business lol" is also an argument used to defend trickle down economics. But you know as well as I, it's no panacea.

Just maybe, get off Lemmy, and everything else and stop feeling sorry for yourself. No one is going to hand you shit.

How arrogantly presumptive of you. If I told you I'm comfortable, and have no want or need for people to "hand me shit", would you respect my opinion more? Would you like to try again without the failed economic policy, anecdotal non-sequitors, or the classist ad-hominems?

Dude let me tell you this. I was poor like dirt poor for years. I've been homeless with my kids more than once. I have suffered I have seen it all I have been to the food banks I have relied on churches and people to pay my rent just so I could have a place to live. Don't fucking talk to me about being poor and being privileged and suffering. Shit when I started my business I literally quit my job took my paycheck that I had for 2 weeks and that's what I had for my business and pay my rent and to pay my bills I didn't even own a car when I started my business. So don't fucking tell me what a poor person can or cannot do if that person is fucking motivated and can actually get off their fucking ass still fucking do it. I come from a small goddamn town I know what it's like to live in a small town. Tourist towns are no different than anywhere else they just have more opportunity to have people show up. Shit if I lived in a tourist town I'd be out there selling Kool-Aid on the side of the road I'd be making t-shirts and printing them. Depending on where I was at I'd be doing something local and making people hand over money hand over fist. You don't got to be privileged you don't got to do anything you just got to understand that you're hungry and that you got a fucking make money. People are so fucking privileged they don't know how to do shit anymore. Fuck all of you people that think they got to be handed everything fuck all you people that think that you got to be fucking rich to have anything in your fucking life. you guys are all just fucking assholes when it comes down to it. And fuck you people that live in tourist towns that think you would be better off without those fucking tourists and their deep pockets coming through. I've seen all of the towns in Utah Wyoming Nevada Colorado Idaho Montana Arizona New Mexico that don't have tourism industries those are the poorest fucking towns in the world and there ain't shit to do in any of them and there ain't fucking work to find anywhere. I literally drive through towns where there's two families and that's the population of the fucking town. Because nobody lives there anymore because every fucking person knows they have to move because you have to feed your family you have to have a place to live you don't just get handed something shit even if you handed a house how the fuck are you going to pay for it when there's nobody else to bring in any sort of money. Fucking people don't know shit and it's fucking hilarious thinking that they could go out and do any of that fucking shit without that money coming into their fucking pockets. It's not about being rich it's not about the people that own the businesses God damn all the people work in the cashiers all the fucking people working at the fast food places all the people waiting tables at all those places they're making fucking money they got money coming in and they get paid better than most of the people in the big cities get fucking paid. Yeah they're having issues paying the rent but guess what everybody in the cities are having issues paying the rent also people are having to live with other people because rent has gone so fucking high and that's because greedy fucking people at the top are charging more and more and more and they don't fucking care anymore. But that doesn't mean that we can't fight back that doesn't mean that we can't grab a little bit of that money for ourselves and try to fucking make as much money as possible. So fuck you guys for thinking that you can't fucking do it fuck you guys for thinking it's trickle down economy shit it ain't trickle down economy it's grab whatever the fuck you can economy if that starts as trickle down and then you end up making money out of it that's what it's all fucking about.

only because tourism in these places crowds out all other industry, often on purpose

gotta keep local labor cheep for profits

What industry happens in those areas? Would you prefer a factory, maybe an oil rig. Or how about a mine. Great alternatives .....

you ever actually live in a ‘tourist’ town?

name it

Hawaii had a major IT project to be an international hub, thousands of jobs. This was early 2000s. State tourism lobby killed it.

Moving to Hawaii is far different then moving to say rural Arizona.

once again the common brain dead take

it never fails

this idiot right here is why locals hate tourists

So tell us your take o wise one.

it’s already been made by others with obvious experience living there, you replied to it even

then you handwaved all local suffering away with the argument locals should be thankful because money

big douche energy there

Not over person has mentioned any other alternatives. It's simply complaining.

and?

do we suddenly need alternatives to justify very real problems?

Everyone needs a job to survive in this world. Workout actually, yes. Because it's not a problem. It's people complaining about their way of life. Most would not be able to live in those areas without something like that.

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 there 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.

Locals who live in a city who's economy is based entirely on a private prison when they see a new thing being made illegal:

Tourists are fine, it's the assholes we don't like. The ones that drive like fucking maniacs, and blast music in their Airbnb's.

The worst are the people who buy vacation houses and fuck the locals over with extortionate rent and houses too expensive to consider.

Fuck vacation houses. If you own one of these, the locals fucking do hate you.

Look you'd be pissed too if you had to deal with some of them

Look, I am NOT a bigot

But think about it. . . . Would you want your kid to marry a . . . a tourist?

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

Fucking god, ugh I'm in a bad mood now

Oh are you afraid of the whole "well fancy that, we're from the same country! Let's be besties" spiel?

I would lie until they took a hint. "I'm from Antarctica. I got this accent from a door to door salesman. What do I do? I'm a prominent actor in tapeworm kink."

Haha dw you guys aren't that bad

Meh, I saw an American tourist get up and scream at a waitress "why don't you speak English!"

See what I mean? You can't be too careful, lots of Americans are nutters.

Oh, yeah I know... Objectively. It's a familiarity breeds contempt thing I guess lol

It's always funny to see local waiters pamper American tourists because they know they'll get tipped well. But also, from what I've heard from US friends, for many it's cheaper to literally fly to Europe and vacation here than take a vacation domestically.

Spent a weekend in Paris last year. Meals were €40-€100 for two with wine.

Can’t get out of happy hour in America without spending $40 for one.

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 sorry you had to go through that, hopefully all of Epstein’s associates eventually have to face justice for the things that they did.

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.

So aim for prison?

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

Hey. We have more than tourism!

Like oil, and slop, and a third thing!

This, but for college towns

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

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.

Dude, I LIVE here. Nothing is "corralled." We have three major theme parks literally IN the city, as well as the 2nd biggest convention center complex in the country. And they are each surrounded by massive commercial zones of restaurants, hotels, B attractions, time shares, malls, etc.

I regularly drive the East Coast between Miami and NYC, and Orlando is literally the worst traffic on the East Coast, with the possible exception of the DC/Baltimore corridor at rush hour. But Orlando is that busy literally every moment of the day, until about midnight. Rush hour, bumper to bumper traffic, is normal at 10 pm at night.

NOBODY drives around without being affected by it every single day. The tourists are EVERYWHERE!

I don’t know that you really read what I said. You agreed with me while ignoring the differences I offered.

And there are plenty of cities with shitty traffic, and many of those cities have shitty traffic because we Americans love single-occupancy cars, sprawl, and barely token public transportation.

I understand that ALL cities have traffic, and I have driven in the traffic in every major city on the east coast, and with the possible exception of the Baltimore/DC corridor I mentioned, nothing comes even close to the terrible traffic in Orlando that is just routine, any time of any day. It doesn't even get better in the off season, just slightly worse than normal.

The difference between a tourist city and an abandoned ruin is that people want to visit tourist cities even when the original economy of the city collapsed. Imagine living in poverty while your community and culture relies on a combination of accepting pity and serving entitlement from strangers to continue existing. It can make one bitter about the situation.

Aint no way 😡

Rules

Chat Room

Communities

Donations