Tourists Go Home!

I think this problem has been bubbling up for years. Venice often has more visitors than residents! It seems to have become a problem with the increase in large cruise liners. There was an interesting programme of the BBC about cruises visiting Orkney, see here Unless they are really punitive I can't see tourist taxes making a lot of difference. I have read that places like Venice want to limit the number of visitors, perhaps using a prearranged entrance permit?

David

I'd have thought that these places main source of income is through tourism. they will be the ones that loose out.

I am not surprised! Even Sheringham on the Norfolk coast gets fed up with the 'Grockles' but they at least realise that the tourists and holidaymakers bring much needed revenue to the area and we all go home eventually- unfortunately! 

We were in Venice recently (End May/earlyJune) and the initial area around St Marks Sq and the Doges Palace was absolutely appalling - it was a shuffle around sideways and forget joining the queues - I've got better things to do with my life. Similarly the area around the Rialto Bridge, so I can see why there may be visitors 'permits' or the like.

However, get off the beaten track, and it is possible, and it is an amazing place to see and explore. A beautiful and certainly unique place.

Like David I saw the Orkney cruise ship programme. I watched with interest as we were there one year when a huge cruise ship came in and nearly four thousand people descended on Kirkwall, it was like a tidal wave. I think the money they spend brings so much to the locals and boosts an otherwise poor economy. However people move to Orkney because it has a good quality of life, so it would be sad to see that change if there is future pressure from larger retailers set up there. Places like Venice, Dubrovnik etc are now being spoilt by overcrowded tourism which can't be good. Mind you that's always been said about the Lake District but some of us are still going there, me included and you can get off the beaten track there as you can on Orkney and no doubt Venice. 

Some strange attitudes coming out in all this about all sorts of places.

How many of the "locals" first arrived as tourists themselves, liked the place so much they moved there, and now hate to see tourists "spoiling" it for them?

Interesting comment from a young chap in Catalonia protesting about tourism. He claimed that it was because of tourists they had to work for low wages.  Methinks without the tourists there probably would be no job to pay any wages.

In my own country we know the expensive bridge (and the many miles of 20th century road to go with it) to Skye would never have been built if it had not been to serve the tourist traffic.

In my own country we know the expensive bridge (and the many miles of 20th century road to go with it) to Skye would never have been built if it had not been to serve the tourist traffic.

On another forum they are calling for something to be done about the amount of tourists on Skye, some suggest a Tourist Tax, while others say put the toll back on the bridge, charge more for the parking etc etc. It seems they like the money the tourists bring in but don't like them actually being there as they take all the parking spaces up, spoil local beauty spots (by visiting them) and drive prices up in cafes/restaurants. Cake and eat it springs to mind.

When we were in Bourton on the Water a couple of years ago, OH got talking to a born and bred local lady about how it must be horrible in the village nearly all year with the "tourists",  her answer was "my dear if we did not have the tourists we would not have such good local services and the village would die"

Tammy,   Completely agree with you. It is a very difficult and an almost impossible thing for the local authorities to get right.  The income from the tourist trade in popular places must be immense, but you can understand the locals getting a bit fed up.

But I'd bet that they'd be even more fed up if we all stopped coming!!

Look at that resort in Turkey, where the terrorists committed a dreadful massacre of UK & European visitors.  It also killed the tourist trade totally, and hotels have had to close etc.  The area is becoming bankrupt.

That is why these relatively peaceful demonstrators against tourism need to be careful, because what they are asking for, might be much worse than what they've got.

TF

Skye is lovely, but the facilities for tourists are almost non-existant, no decent public toilets for a start.  If they spent a little on some decent toilets at strategic intervals, and better parking plus more stopping places along the roads, the tourists would be much less of a nuisance to the locals!

There does seem to be a lot of "incomers" in some of the tourist areas of Scotland, and as Nav said, they came a while back  because they liked it, often having sold homes down south for huge amounts, then they want everything to stay the same forever.  What do they expect the locals to live on if there were no tourists?