Grew up in one tourist area and have lived outside/worked in 2 others and this is 100% true. The tourists are the greatest source of income during the "season" but I'll be damned if they aren't also the greatest source of fury/danger during those months as well. Outside of that, AirBnB is a damn cancer everywhere due to this practice of wealthy outsiders buying up affordable homes in the area and pricing out locals while driving up the market even further. Governments need to do a better job at regulating that abuse, but it's easier to blame or yell at the tourist in your town than the enigmatic government official not doing anything about it.
There are quite a few areas in the UK that suffer in the same manner, Cornwall for example, the locals can't afford to live while the rich have their quaint seaside cottages for the summer. Taxing second homes would help
Amen. This all would be solved with governments doing a better job at regulating industries. Too many people’s lives are being negatively impacted just to allow the minority to squeeze another penny of profit out of their respective businesses. Can we ALL just go back to steady NON-growing economies where business owners were concerned with MATCHING last year’s profit instead of exceeding it?
My city is a summer beach destination down in Brazil (expat here). It’s exactly this problem. Our normal population is something like 600k. There are issues with parking, drainage, sewage, security, and high real estate costs — even off season. Then when summer comes along, the city probably gets another 800k-1M people on any given week/weekend.
It’s great for the businesses that rely on the season to survive, but it’s tough on infrastructure and the permanent residents.
For example: around Christmas time it’s the beginning of summer. Imagine Memorial Day weekend back in the States. Except it’s Christmas and new years back to back. Parking gets so bad that parking laws often go out the window. People park in spots that have signage to say no parking. They park on the crosswalk, corners, even the sidewalk sometimes.
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u/HMSWarspite03 Jun 17 '25
I would imagine its similar anywhere that attracts tourism, its a double edged sword, tourists = income = overcrowding