A unique way to disencourage tourists

[MMDown Under]

Spain

Just saw on the tv news, locals using water guns to spray visiting tourists with water "telling tourists to go home".

Seems too many tourists in too small places, such as our beautiful South Pacific islands, is a universal problem.

 

[MicCanberra]

not that different than some people throwing tomatoes at tourists, or others letting bulls loose on to the tourists.

[arxcards]

It is a worldwide issue. Those with a job in hospitality or tourism are all open arms to tourists. For most other locals, they would rather you stay of their lawn.

[SinbadThePorter]

5 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Just saw on the tv news, locals using water guns to spray visiting tourists with water "telling tourists to go home".

 

Those locals of course are never ever tourists themselves. Never gone on a holiday in their lives. 🙄

[cruiser3775]

To be fair, sometimes thousands of tourists arriving on one of the huge cruise ships, all at once, to a small place, can be very disruptive.  And if they have paid for a ship's shore excursion, they may not contribute much to the local economy generally, in the way of spending cash on the day. Sometimes, huge ships parked right in front of beautiful scenery is a blot on the landscape. That's one reason Venice decided to ban them.

As a person who lives in a "tourist area", I know I make my own share of grumbles when I can't get a parking spot at the local shops in peak season.  But I'm not about to start flinging tomatoes or water around.

[joejoe 59]

I watched the story, didnt it have more to do with the lack of affordable housing for locals, rather then cruise tourism. Rentals are put on sites like Airbnb, where of course the property owners earn much more money. 

It's a constant gripe here where we live on the coast.

 

[colourbird]

When we were in Darwin last year we were in the chocolate shop and a woman walked in and called out to the saleswoman that there's another ship in the port and there's a plague of tourists everywhere. We said, yes we're from that ship and we're buying chocolates from this shop.

 

I'm sure they love getting our money, but maybe they prefer us to place online orders and have the stuff posted out rather than turn up in person.

[MicCanberra]

A plague of tourists, I think it is more like tourists with the plague. Lol.

[colourbird]

45 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

A plague of tourists, I think it is more like tourists with the plague. Lol.

 

it wasn't all that long after cruise ships started sailing in Australia after the shutdowns so quite a few passengers would have been infected!

[possum52]

4 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

I watched the story, didnt it have more to do with the lack of affordable housing for locals, rather then cruise tourism. Rentals are put on sites like Airbnb, where of course the property owners earn much more money. 

It's a constant gripe here where we live on the coast.

 

It’s a constant gripe from the locals in most tourist areas I think. I know people moving into the towns on Victoria’s Surf Coast have trouble renting as all the former long term rentals have become short term rentals. There have been reports of people who are badly needed in towns such as nurses, teachers etc just can’t find a place to live. 

[lyndarra]

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

A plague of tourists, I think it is more like tourists with the plague. Lol.

Correct term is a flock as in sheep.😄

[MicCanberra]

hence the sheep dip?

[ilikeanswers]

The problem is always about finding the balance. A lot of these places when they started encouraging tourism most likely never expected the number of visitors to get this big. More people than ever can afford to travel now and in the future there will be even more people who can afford to travel. Everywhere has a breaking point and realistically we are probably expecting too much from some of these destinations to constantly host this mass of humanity😬. 

Edited July 12 by ilikeanswers

[martin jenkins]

same in akaroa before lyttleton reopened, it was more locals as opposed to the hospitality sector who loved the business, never being to alaska but don't some of them ports have 3 and 4 ships at any one time.

 

[aussielozzie18]

Junea, Alaska is trying to limit visits from the large 6000 passenger cruise ships which is understandable imo.

[colourbird]

54 minutes ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Junea, Alaska is trying to limit visits from the large 6000 passenger cruise ships which is understandable imo.

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. I have been looking at cruises to book for the end of 2026 and most of the large ships and the newer ships are all in the Caribbean or Bahamas. 

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, colourbird said:

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. I have been looking at cruises to book for the end of 2026 and most of the large ships and the newer ships are all in the Caribbean or Bahamas. 

The proposed restriction is to give the locals a days peace - they are proposing no cruise ships in Juneau each Saturday. 

[arxcards]

8 hours ago, martin jenkins said:

same in akaroa before lyttleton reopened, it was more locals as opposed to the hospitality sector who loved the business, never being to alaska but don't some of them ports have 3 and 4 ships at any one time.

 

Alaska, yes 4 ships per day in the main ports. Many Alaskan ports support cruise ships. Ketchikan & Skagway are very tourist oriented ports.

[NSWP]

This is the way to discourage tourists, lol.

[MicCanberra]

Or these.

[lyndarra]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

This is the way to discourage tourists, lol.

Or how to deal with the great unwashed😄

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

Or how to deal with the great unwashed😄

Saves the need for packing laundry pods.

[Bubbeh]

I live in the tourist precinct of a tourist area and come the weekend we are inundated with tourists, school holidays we burst at the seams.  Do I care?  Not one whit.  I think it's wonderful all the 'townies' coming from Perth to spend their money and get a glimpse of the good life before rushing back home to make ready for the working week.  Problems parking?  Nah, I have secure underground parking and limit my shopping and eating out to week days. 

[MMDown Under]

On 7/15/2024 at 5:47 PM, Bubbeh said:

I live in the tourist precinct of a tourist area and come the weekend we are inundated with tourists, school holidays we burst at the seams.  Do I care?  Not one whit.  I think it's wonderful all the 'townies' coming from Perth to spend their money and get a glimpse of the good life before rushing back home to make ready for the working week.  Problems parking?  Nah, I have secure underground parking and limit my shopping and eating out to week days. 

GREAT ATTITUDE1  The only time I resented visitors were drought times when they wasted precious water in free public showers on the beach, when locals were restricted to watering gardens by hand by bucket. 

[ilikeanswers]

On 7/15/2024 at 5:47 PM, Bubbeh said:

I live in the tourist precinct of a tourist area and come the weekend we are inundated with tourists, school holidays we burst at the seams.  Do I care?  Not one whit.  I think it's wonderful all the 'townies' coming from Perth to spend their money and get a glimpse of the good life before rushing back home to make ready for the working week.  Problems parking?  Nah, I have secure underground parking and limit my shopping and eating out to week days. 

 

The one thing I believe that makes it hard to compare with Australia is I don't think there is anywhere in Australia that gets the amount of tourists that you can experience in places like Barcelona and Venice. Barcelona was my very first mega tourist destination and the crowds really blew my mind especially since I wasn't even visiting peak season😂. The only time I have experienced crowds like that in Australia is when we have a special event but this was just a normal day for Barcelona. I've visited a few mega tourist destinations now and I can't think of anywhere in Australia I have experienced that level of extreme tourism even in peak season in popular locations here🤔.