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"What's this, then? 'Romanes Eunt Domus'? 'People called Romanes they go the house'?"
"It says 'Romans, go home'!"
"No it doesn't."
Other people are tourists; we, of course, are cultured travelers.
I recommend Enzensberger's seminal (PDF) piece on tourism to everyone. Here's where he slams two early critics of tourism whom he considers to be hypocrites:
Implicitly, they both demand that travel be exclusive, reserved for them and their like. They never say exactly what it is that distinguishes them from "sight-seeing-squirrels" or from the "cheap trippers." The luxury they appropriate without a second thought is considered sinful when consumed by the mob. [...] While condemning those who succumb to tourism's attraction, Shand praises the "splendid views" offered by the great peaks, the "playground of Europe" - Switzerland at that time - and the "sanctuaries" whose desecration is always somebody else's doing.
Some of my favorite travel photos are of other tourists. I love the one of all of the people holding their phones up to take the same bad photo of the Mona Lisa or the lawn filled with people all taking the same forced perspective shot of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
One of the greatest videos I've ever seen was someone running along giving a high five to all the dorks taking the same photo of the leaning tower.
The problem is that often that's not the case. There are plenty of people trying to do actual work in places like Lisbon, Barcelona, or Paris, and the economy would probably be better if people didn't require a two hour commute because the city center got taken over the with airbnbs.
Tourists don't buy up property to use as Airbnb's.
Locals do.
The local oligarchs can fuck off too.
That's more like it.
What about the local government who allows all this to happen? Maybe if put under pressure, or even voted out, locals could see some real change.
But it's easier to graffiti their own walls, and squirt tourists with water than to organize.
You donβt think they try to organise too?
Of course they do. Itβs very much a hard battle though because the upper class who gets rich off tourism is staunchly against it.
The graffiti and squirts happen because of a failure of the political system, not because affected people or whatever are too lazy or whatever to impact politics.
Same thing with climate activism. Itβs not happening instead of political efforts.
No, investors do. Some investors only buy property in the city they live in, but a lot of investors buy property wherever they think they can make a profit.
This person: "Tourists go home!"
Tourists: "That... that's the plan? Like eventually I'll have to. "
I wonder what this graffiti was meant to accomplish? Like, someone on holiday would see it and be like "Oh shit, guess I'm not wanted here, let me cancel all my reservations and leave early. Wouldn't want my presence here to upset the locals any further."
Well I wouldn't come back
And when people ask how my trip was, I'd say "oh they really don't want tourists there right now ... Check out this picture. I wouldn't plan on going there"
It accomplishes its goal of making tourists feel uncomfortable and less coming next tourism season. If their economy relies heavily on tourism, well, they'll figure it out. And if they don't, then that's on them. Be careful what you ask for and all that.
I generally don't change holiday plans because 1 person in a city of millions don't like tourists. If the people of the city don't actually want tourists, they'll make more official announcements about it. Until then, I'll chalk random grafity on the streets up as some teenager being stupid and annoyed.
Some poor schlep probably worked in a restaurant where they get paid $2.13 an hour and just pulled a double because the place was hopping and the owner refused to pay them for the tips they weren't getting.
Not me blaming the tourists, the businesses should pay a living wage, but it's not an unreasonable scenerio
US American here, just got back from a trip to Europe and saw graffiti almost like this. It said βGO HOME MAGAβ so, not being MAGA, I didnβt feel too bad about my tourism. I saw it in a couple places; on one of them, someone had added a T at the end; on another, someone added the anarchy A.
We need graffiti insulting MAGA in US too.
I see the same in my town in Canada. Largely I choose to think that most Americans vacationing in Canada are probably more sympathetic to why we dislike threats of annexation and economic warfare. And if not, at least they gave us their money and itβs my job not to send it back π€·ββοΈ
Sadly, the majority of the assholes make it abroad. Because the US right vs left is largely class warfare, the right ends up with more disposable capital to travel.
When I travel, I'm largely disappointed by the US tourists around me.
Absolutely right! One of our tour guides for something had to keep us entertained on a long bus ride and kept telling us all about the amazing progressive things that the country was doing andβ¦ yeah, weβre so backwards here. I donβt think she said a single thing that we disagreed with, but Iβm sure the MAGATs would have thought differently had there been any there to listen to her. But maybe they wouldnβt visit because of all of the (gasp) socialism!
Is this because of the whirled cup?
People in this comment sections really donβt understand the extractivism and displacement inherent to mass tourism.
As someone who had to move away from the place my entire family all my friends and community are because tourism skyrocketed the price and made it unaffordable, and am now isolated, I can empathise with this.
Strong Martin Paar vibes π
Edit: Sorry for the duplicate comment, my connection was unstable, I think thatβs why
If your city relies on tourism, imagine what will happen if something like covid happens. Wm
I don't think Barcelona went under on account of the lack of tourism, to be fair.
My sister worked in hospitality there back then. Massive layoffs, tens of thousands of people went into unemployment. Sure, the city didn't went under. But it strained the social security network to its limits. I would guess that places with less wealth accumulation and worse social welfare laws didn't fare as well.
im sure these idiots just chalk it up to RAcIsM too, privileged just cant understand that some people actually don't want their money and don't want they're country turned into a sideshow.
Eh, blaming tourists for your local capitalists reorienting the entire economy around them is missing the point. The productive response is to use your government to restrain the capitalists so tourists don't have a negative effect.
Tell that to a lot of 3rd worlder who can't afford local prices anymore, but it seems like many of you frequent fliers dont think or care about your consumerist behaviours.
Yep, this is a classic issue that could be solved if you have a government that cares about protecting you. You can control how many tourists you let in your nation.
This mythical government could exist
Napal, Tibet, Tajikistan all limit tourists severely. Meanwhile I buy breakfast in Hanoi from between <1USD and 15 depending if I go to a place that serves locals or tourists. In places where there's competition, I can pay like 2-10USD a night for a bunk to an entire apartment. In places where the local capitalists use the local government to increase their profits at the expense of the workers, I generally avoid because fuck that.
Those people literally might not even be tourists. Itβs absolutely impossible to know.
-the tourist part and you get an even worse problem. Locals (likely profiting of this) vs locals (who don't want the bloat and over competition of local supply to these higher earners who don't even live there) 1st worlders really are stuck in they're own little ideological echo-chamber, the downside of mindless consumerism and unchecked liberalism without a care for who actually facilitated the nation to begin with. It's gross.
Most of these places wouldnt exist without tourism. We see alot of population decrease and eventual vanishing of rural villages. So unless your place is a strategic trade hub or has some remarkeable industry, it most likely only exists because of tourism. The problem however is in these times, tourists money doesnt go to locals but to big international hotel/restaurant/shopping/cruise companies.
Tell that to the business owners who have families to take care of and are profiting off of tourism.
They'd just do something else if there was no tourism or it never existed, but I'm sure you didn't think about that
Everyone would do something else if there were no profits in what they were doing. If there were no profits in being a farmer then someone would be a plumber and if there were no profits in that then they would do something else. I think it mostly goes without saying that people want to earn money when they have bills to pay and they will do what earns them money
This comment sounds stupid and that's because it's replying to something stupid
yes, the idea that your actions dont affect other, it is quite stupid. you don't need others money to be happy but you definitly need it to buy food if you don't grow it or supplys if you don't make it. something many of these people stuggle with because people from out of the country out price you simply because they were born in a wealthier nation, something you definitely don't care about.

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