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A Summer Rite in Spain: Coping With the British Tourist Invasion
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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I lived in Barcelona for a decade. recently I moved to small town (also in the Mediterranean cost). I agree with the sentiment. I am not fully onboard with the "tourists go home" feeling, but I do get where it comes from. After a while it does become annoying seeing people using the place you live as a party location. A group of people come, get a cheap airbnb and buy a lot of alcohol in some supermarket. They don't bring any value to the city.
In my current town it is not so much the British, but German and Benelux people. It is frustrating not being able to go to a supermarket to get food because the place is crowded by people who got a cheap bungalow somewhere in a camping location.
You should check up on what percentage of the economy is tourism. I think you might be surprised.
The value of living somewhere isn't only about GDP, it's also about the quality of life. Touristy places are loud as the apocalypse, everything's expensive, finding a house is hard because of all the B&Bs, there's shitty drivers everywhere, parking is a nightmare... and all the infrastructure built to accommodate tourists is used only for 4 months a year, for the rest of the year the burden of maintenance is payed by the locals.
And if big corporations like Airbnb are involved, most of the income generated from tourism gets siphoned out of the city for some foreign shareholder to pocket anyway.
When most people make their income in an area due to tourism then yes their QOL is directly tied to the industry.
Regardless of the issues it has the QOL is higher for residences due to it. You don't need to look far to see the effects of tourism on these places, just look at how these places fared during covid. Surprise, it was really fucking rough for most people in these high tourism areas.
There is also a reason the local government isn't working to prevent tourism. And it's because it generates a huge amount of money for the locals.
they make their income out of tourism because that is what government decisions have fostered. after the 2009 crisis, it became a quick and easy way to reintroduce people into work. Unfortunately it is an exploitative industry that allows little possible grow to people working in it.
Most people in that industry are not making a living out of it, they are trapped in it.
Im talking about a very specific kind of tourist. Im well aware some do bring value, but far too many only take it away. additionally, the fact that tourism is a big chunk of the economy does not mean we should pander to it. it is absolutely possible to redirect investments into other economic areas to make them grow.
I dunno, I live in a little Catalan village that has suffered a bit from "España Vaciada", life here is good and both me and my other half have integrated pretty well ... but the house next to us has been bought by a German who rents it out on Airbnb and TBH it's rather shit.
I'm fully on board with "tourists go home". If we get more holiday let's in the village we're thinking of moving more inland.