[Travel] Tourism Backlash

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The good old days when only the rich went away, and the poor got a week in Blackpool if they were lucky?

Would regenerate the UK seaside bigtime overnight rather than chavs be jetted en masse into foreign climes for the price of a bus ticket

 

[Erics cigar]

Not sure about Swansea but nearby Pembrokeshire has a problem with second home owners.

I have a second home in Pembrokeshire, it’s attached to my primary residence and the council class it as my holiday home, and presently pay 3 x council tax on it. It’s on same title deeds and attracts 3x as not let for 182 days so far this year, my mum lived in it until moving into rest home last year.
Nonsense policy that has no flexibility.

 

[abc]

Having recently returned from Majorca I was amazed at the aggression and anger put towards tourists.

Apart from a few extremists, people’s anger in Mallorca is aimed at the government not tourists. People want some controls on numbers but are not anti tourism.There is much talk of wanting to raise the ‘quality’ of tourists and their average spend whilst having some sustainable limits in numbers during the peak season. Cruise ships are a good example and a big focus of the protests - they flood Palma with thousands of day trippers who might buy a fridge magnet but nothing more and so contribute nothing else to the economy.

Mallorca (like everywhere) has a housing problem but that’s because the gov do not build affordable housing and there are precious few plans to do so. There is less concern about the ownership of holiday homes as most holiday home owners (Germans dominate) buy at the very top end (€millions) which impacts little on the more normal house/flat. But rent levels are far too high and there is a strong campaign to ban air b n b.

Local people on the island have genuine concerns and they need gov action. There is also huge concern as to how the protests are being reported in the Uk and Germany. Mallorca is not anti tourist and they need tourism. They just want some balance.

 

[hart's shirt]

It's pretty insane that you can fly from, say, Gatwick to the Arctic Circle for fifty quid return.

I did that last year when I tried to become an Eskimo.

Turned out that I really wasn't all that Inuit.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

This is a huge issue in Portugal, that led directly to the election of a far right government.

In Lisbon you're looking at London property prices on less than half a London salary.

Why? Because the property market has been flooded with airbnbs and also Lisbon is one of the top global destinations for digital nomads with high salaries. It's a real issue that needs looking at, not simply an attitude of "but tourists bring in money!"

Barcelona has recently decided to ban Airbnb in the city, on a staged transition to allow the owners to find other income streams. It really needs more regulation and control, it's become a real problem in cities with a lot of tourists.

That's interesting. Mrs WS and I were looking for a weekend break later this year and looked at Lisbon. The cost of both the flights and the accommodation was daft. Unbelievably we're going to Geneva for less than half the price of Lisbon.

 

[zefarelly]

And areas of France

What have you done now?

 

[zefarelly]

Not really a tourst backlash is it... more of sheep one.

If people had some sort of individuality and were psychologically capable to go somewhere else than where EVERYONE is going, tourists would be greatly appreciated in most places.

If the Svensson family thinks "oh the Hanssons went to Mallorca, lets go to one of the thousands of nice islands available to us" rather than "we have to do the exact same thing because I'm programmed that way", everyone could be happy.

FOr the last 8 years ( a few odd ones out for obvious reasons) I've been going to a Scooter rally in Brittany. Its great for all sorts of reasons, the best being that every year it's in a different location.

Next year it's in the same place. I'm not going. For the same reason I rarely do UK scooter rallies . .ther same places for over 40 years, most of which are crap and the routes there way worse than ever.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I did that last year when I tried to become an Eskimo.

Turned out that I really wasn't all that Inuit.

I once moved into an igloo. The housewarming party was a disaster.

 

[portlock seagull]

They have every right to be angry. entire regions and islands have become the preserve of the wealthy only. It should never have got this far but it has and hard to see how it can be stopped by market forces only. A few house burnings should help put millions off.

 

[portlock seagull]

I have a second home in Pembrokeshire, it’s attached to my primary residence and the council class it as my holiday home, and presently pay 3 x council tax on it. It’s on same title deeds and attracts 3x as not let for 182 days so far this year, my mum lived in it until moving into rest home last year.
Nonsense policy that has no flexibility.

If you own it and don’t live in it, surely it’s a 2nd home and proximity has nothing to do with? As the government have viewed it by sounds of.

 

[portlock seagull]

Would regenerate the UK seaside bigtime overnight rather than chavs be jetted en masse into foreign climes for the price of a bus ticket

Ahh but chavs like their sun. You can get everything else here granted including Eastenders, Corrie, Egg and Chips, Sky Sports etc; but not the sun to burn and dry their skin to a mahogany leathery look that has to be treated with Mr Sheen.

 

[VAL1850]

Interesting. The cheap flight carriers could market that idea. "Visit the Arctic Circle and get eaten - from as low as £25".

Interesting. The cheap flight carriers could market that idea. "Visit the Arctic Circle and get eaten - from as low as £25".

With main advantage of only having to buy a one way ticket....

 

[Bodian]

This. I live in a small mid-Sussex village and there is a prominent dick head who has been complaining loudly for years about Londoners moving down and driving up prices so ‘locals’ like him can’t afford to buy. A couple of years ago he inherited his Mum’s house up the road………..and sold it to a family moving down from Wimbledon……..

I lived in a small village, and a house came up for sale. The owners 'really really wanted' it to go to someone local. It would have been our first non-rented home. We made an offer just over the asking price.

They sold it for <£5k more to people from 'away' who then used it for two months of the year as a holiday home.

So much for the seller's supposed principles!

 

[Bakero]

That's interesting. Mrs WS and I were looking for a weekend break later this year and looked at Lisbon. The cost of both the flights and the accommodation was daft. Unbelievably we're going to Geneva for less than half the price of Lisbon.

As I mentioned above, the average rent for a one-bed flat in Lisbon is over 2 grand. It's one of the most expensive cities in Europe despite the low salaries for locals (minimum wage is 740 euros)

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Would regenerate the UK seaside bigtime overnight rather than chavs be jetted en masse into foreign climes for the price of a bus ticket

Don't worry there's still loads of chavs on Swansea beach, the litter they leave is disgusting, send them away to Maguloof

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I wouldn’t describe spending a week in Blackpool as lucky, far from it. My abiding memory of the place is seeing a heavily pregnant girl smoking and drinking and the whole place smelling of fried bacon on Sunday morning as I tried, in vain, to find an Observer.

Why did you need someone to watch you with a heavily pregnant girl? Seems a strange fetish but each to their own.

 

[virtual22]

Maybe the answer is to put an end to the stupidly cheap-as-chips budget flights. Whack up the associated taxes til demand falls away. It's pretty insane that you can fly from, say, Gatwick to the Arctic Circle for fifty quid return. Like I've done. Twice.

So your solution is to price out the people other than those likely to be able to afford second homes that have, according to a lot of the posts above, caused this issue? Why does everything always come down to stop poorer people doing what richer people can afford to do and let them carry on as they are?

 

[abc]

So your solution is to price out the people other than those likely to be able to afford second homes that have, according to a lot of the posts above, caused this issue? Why does everything always come down to stop poorer people doing what richer people can afford to do and let them carry on as they are?

I don’t know how you would do this in practice but a solution could be for everyone to have an allowance of say two ‘climate change tax free’ flights p.a. and any more would attract a significant tax premium.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

Thousands of people in the Spanish city have been taking part in demonstrations against mass tourism.

www.bbc.com

 

[wunt be druv]

For what it's worth, my wife, Mrs.Wunt be druv, and I are in Meñorca, she, the wife,is bilingual in Spanish and we have been chatting with the locals down here in Punta Prima, they are sh**ting their collective pants about the loss of tourists, they would have nobody, NOBODY, visiting apart from tourists, they may not particularly like them but they pay their bills....incidentally, for what it's worth, they actually like the Brits over everybody else as we spend more and are, on the whole friendlier and funnier, than the rest of the visitors they have...except when the football is on...however, in a local bar, they took more in one evening when England played Switzerland, than they take in a whole month of mainland Spanish/French/Germans/Italiens who buy one small beer and a coffee which lasts all evening.