This article is primarily about MALAGA in Spain, near Gibraltar. The organizer is a bartender who got kicked out of his apartment, because it was converted to a tourist rental.
It also mentions other cities such as Amsterdam and Kyoto where the local government is dealing with losing its local character.
I am kind of glad i live in city and country, that does not get that many tourists. I can understand that people in countries and cities that get a lot of tourists get annoyed with tourist. I mean its almost like tourist don’t understand that people are living in the places they visit.
It is just hilarious that the bar owner’s last name is Drunko. Drunkorama sounds exactly what a tourist trap in costa del sol should be named.
The campaing also sounds like the brainchild of a borrachera: It is just ridiculous that now somehow the tourist’s should be the ones to blame. It is politics’ to decide how many hotel licences should be granted, to find a way to stop airbnb conversions, etc. etc.
Get rid of AirBnB-type rentals of entire apartments/houses.
Revoke large cruise ship access to ports (if the city is coastal).
And require tourists to obtain a “tourist pass” (issued by the locality) before they can access any tourist sites.
Which have a limited number issued per month, equal to the number of tourists the locality can handle (without impacting local quality of life.)
Malaga native here. We are tired of the mass tourism overall. This type of tourism brings very questionable types of tourists (looking at you, English hooligans), but they are not the real problem.
The real problem is the absolute LACK OF REGULATION on housing that allows real state company and private owners to set an inflated rent for only tourists or expats. Locals cannot longer afford to start a business, live on their own neighborhood or even go to the same places. Gentrification is a real problem.
Oh, btw, don’t respond to this comment with “it’s their businesses, they can do whatever they want with it”. These real state owners happen to be also racist in most cases, so holding an EU passport doesn’t work if your skin isn’t light enough. Still want to apply that logic?
I assume people who complain about tourists practice what they preach and never go as tourists to any popular tourist destinations right? They would never do that…
One thing that Covid did was that it gave everyone a brief taste of what their cities are like without tourism
And it turns out a lot of people liked it
I’ve been using Google Maps streetview to explore places I’ll probably never see.
From an outside perspective, much of Europe looks like a gigantic tourist trap now. And overrun with short term rental apartments…
It probably depends on what kind of tourist destination you want to be. Here in Finland we receive over 11 million tourists per year, and that is twice as much as the population, one of the highest numbers in the world. That’s amazing, because we don’t have much to see, except nice views after every few kilometers, but the nature of Finland is kind of fragile, and sensitive. There are a lot of holiday villages around the lake region of Finland, which covers is about 60% of the land area, but not that many visitors go there. Few hundred thousands per year, and about million Lapland taken into account. The capital city Helsinki receives 3-4 million visitors per year, which is quite much for a city of 670.000 inhabitants (1,3 million in the urban area, and 1,6 million in the region).
So what are 11 million visitors doing in Finland? I don’t know. But they don’t cause any irritation among the locals, because Finland is not a cheap alcohol destination, and the local culture doesn’t tolerate hooliganism. And one reason is, that most tourists come by cruise ferries via Sweden and Estonia. So their wild behaviour stays in cruise ship. Hotel nights spent inside Finland aren’t that many. About 3-4 million per year.
So we receive only relatively smart and very smart tourists who are interested in the story of Finland, Winter War, welfare state, happiness, close to nature culture, Finnish melancholy, design and all kind of mysterious vibes. They wander around a bit, maybe buy something, and then leave the country in good order.
Tourists go home, refugees welcome is such a comical sign.
Tourists pay a lot of people’s salaries in these places, parts of Spain would have a lot less money without tourists.
>Go f*cking home
don’t worry, I will… in a week. after spending loads of money that contributes to your city’s economy and pays your salary, you near-sighted dufus.
I will never understand overtourism. Just increase prices and or taxes. Income stays the same, tourists are throttled.
Buildings classified for residential use should not be available for tourists. This seems like a very obvious law to pass.
Go to a hotel or a hostel.
I can’t imagine living in Prague. Crowds of tourists so thick it’s actually hard to appreciate Charles bridge
My visit to Venice comes to mind. It was so beautiful but I felt a bit, I dunno, like I shouldn’t be adding to the crowds there? It was like me and other visitors just swarmed the place for our own amusement, making it much less livable for locals. I’m not a particularly conscious, eco-tourist or anything, but I wouldn’t go back. Then hearing about how cruise ships are literally damaging the structure of the place. It makes me sad.
I live in a part of Ireland, by the sea, where many locals have sold land and houses that their families have owned for generations, to people buying second homes, because the value has shot up enormously. Now the locals live on the back roads and the visitors, who spend a few weeks a year here own all the seafront property. I feel it creates a two-class society and to some extent, the spirit of this very small, tight-knit community is impacted.
local government and landlords cause problem, tourists spending money blamed. that’s a pretty big brain move.
Immigrants from the third world welcome. Tourists who want to enjoy your culture and spend money get out.
Brilliant bit of business by Europe.
Málaga sounds like it’s getting killed off to get taxidermized into a theme park. This is the predatory side of tourism few see – and it’s good to shine a light on that.
I wonder if there’s a way to visit the other places mentioned – Amsterdam, Tenerife and Kyoto – while being respectful and maintaining and the livelihood and dignity of the locals, or if it’s a full-on Hawaii situation like Málaga sounds like.
And “touristphobia” 🙄 Tourists aren’t a protected class, they aren’t discriminated against for something they can’t control. They’re literally people who choose to visit places for their own enjoyment, and too many don’t seem to care about the price it charges the locals.
blame Airbnb for this. just shut airbnb down, problem solved
Meanwhile Gent has too many Spanish tourists.
Or well not too many, there’s a big rise in tourism especially during the festival, but I guess the city can still keep up
just forbid airbnb. houses are for living there, not for vacation.
you want to go tourism, go to an hotel.
I’m from Spain, we not need more tourism, we need real industries that creates good jobs, not waitress, cab/uber drivers and cleaning rooms people that are bad paid (and just increase inmigration from poor countries that are ok with those bad paid jobs because is better that what they had at their countries).
Short term lets need to be treated as a commercial enterprise, and subject to all the laws, regulations, checks and taxes which that enatails.
I think it’s bullshit to blame tourism, practically everywhere is is expensive AF to live these days so it’s easy to look around to find someone to blame. Face it, Europe is declining, we’ve had our time and (like it or not) we can’t compete in the new global economy. How would Málaga thrive if there was no tourism? What industry would make everything better?
My city (Bristol) is still unaffordable but doesn’t get Malaga levels of tourism, who should I be blaming for expensive rent and general cost of living? It’s certainly not the day trippers.
I like the tourists in my city. They’re usually friendly and in a good mood, unlike the grumpy-ass locals.
A similar thing has happened where i’m from in Australia. Of course the leadership do nothing for the locals because they are making so much money off the tourists.
So I just got my austrian citizenship as a Canadian. Am I gonna struggle? I am going to start learning the language in downtime at work.
I’m not sure if I’ll relocate for good, but I sure plan to stand a good deal of time in the area. Canada isn’t doing it for me these days.
The answer to this is very simple: increase the tourist taxes on hotels and airbnbs until you shake out the unwanted tourists.
28 comments
Summary:
This article is primarily about MALAGA in Spain, near Gibraltar. The organizer is a bartender who got kicked out of his apartment, because it was converted to a tourist rental.
It also mentions other cities such as Amsterdam and Kyoto where the local government is dealing with losing its local character.
I am kind of glad i live in city and country, that does not get that many tourists. I can understand that people in countries and cities that get a lot of tourists get annoyed with tourist. I mean its almost like tourist don’t understand that people are living in the places they visit.
Nope, the invasion shall continue.
https://jomarbella.com/2021/05/20/swedish-invasion-of-costa-del-sol/
Already put up Swedish schools.
https://www.skolan.es/
(/j)
It is just hilarious that the bar owner’s last name is Drunko. Drunkorama sounds exactly what a tourist trap in costa del sol should be named.
The campaing also sounds like the brainchild of a borrachera: It is just ridiculous that now somehow the tourist’s should be the ones to blame. It is politics’ to decide how many hotel licences should be granted, to find a way to stop airbnb conversions, etc. etc.
Get rid of AirBnB-type rentals of entire apartments/houses.
Revoke large cruise ship access to ports (if the city is coastal).
And require tourists to obtain a “tourist pass” (issued by the locality) before they can access any tourist sites.
Which have a limited number issued per month, equal to the number of tourists the locality can handle (without impacting local quality of life.)
Malaga native here. We are tired of the mass tourism overall. This type of tourism brings very questionable types of tourists (looking at you, English hooligans), but they are not the real problem.
The real problem is the absolute LACK OF REGULATION on housing that allows real state company and private owners to set an inflated rent for only tourists or expats. Locals cannot longer afford to start a business, live on their own neighborhood or even go to the same places. Gentrification is a real problem.
Oh, btw, don’t respond to this comment with “it’s their businesses, they can do whatever they want with it”. These real state owners happen to be also racist in most cases, so holding an EU passport doesn’t work if your skin isn’t light enough. Still want to apply that logic?
I assume people who complain about tourists practice what they preach and never go as tourists to any popular tourist destinations right? They would never do that…
One thing that Covid did was that it gave everyone a brief taste of what their cities are like without tourism
And it turns out a lot of people liked it
I’ve been using Google Maps streetview to explore places I’ll probably never see.
From an outside perspective, much of Europe looks like a gigantic tourist trap now. And overrun with short term rental apartments…
It probably depends on what kind of tourist destination you want to be. Here in Finland we receive over 11 million tourists per year, and that is twice as much as the population, one of the highest numbers in the world. That’s amazing, because we don’t have much to see, except nice views after every few kilometers, but the nature of Finland is kind of fragile, and sensitive. There are a lot of holiday villages around the lake region of Finland, which covers is about 60% of the land area, but not that many visitors go there. Few hundred thousands per year, and about million Lapland taken into account. The capital city Helsinki receives 3-4 million visitors per year, which is quite much for a city of 670.000 inhabitants (1,3 million in the urban area, and 1,6 million in the region).
So what are 11 million visitors doing in Finland? I don’t know. But they don’t cause any irritation among the locals, because Finland is not a cheap alcohol destination, and the local culture doesn’t tolerate hooliganism. And one reason is, that most tourists come by cruise ferries via Sweden and Estonia. So their wild behaviour stays in cruise ship. Hotel nights spent inside Finland aren’t that many. About 3-4 million per year.
So we receive only relatively smart and very smart tourists who are interested in the story of Finland, Winter War, welfare state, happiness, close to nature culture, Finnish melancholy, design and all kind of mysterious vibes. They wander around a bit, maybe buy something, and then leave the country in good order.
Tourists go home, refugees welcome is such a comical sign.
Tourists pay a lot of people’s salaries in these places, parts of Spain would have a lot less money without tourists.
>Go f*cking home
don’t worry, I will… in a week. after spending loads of money that contributes to your city’s economy and pays your salary, you near-sighted dufus.
I will never understand overtourism. Just increase prices and or taxes. Income stays the same, tourists are throttled.
Buildings classified for residential use should not be available for tourists. This seems like a very obvious law to pass.
Go to a hotel or a hostel.
I can’t imagine living in Prague. Crowds of tourists so thick it’s actually hard to appreciate Charles bridge
My visit to Venice comes to mind. It was so beautiful but I felt a bit, I dunno, like I shouldn’t be adding to the crowds there? It was like me and other visitors just swarmed the place for our own amusement, making it much less livable for locals. I’m not a particularly conscious, eco-tourist or anything, but I wouldn’t go back. Then hearing about how cruise ships are literally damaging the structure of the place. It makes me sad.
I live in a part of Ireland, by the sea, where many locals have sold land and houses that their families have owned for generations, to people buying second homes, because the value has shot up enormously. Now the locals live on the back roads and the visitors, who spend a few weeks a year here own all the seafront property. I feel it creates a two-class society and to some extent, the spirit of this very small, tight-knit community is impacted.
local government and landlords cause problem, tourists spending money blamed. that’s a pretty big brain move.
Immigrants from the third world welcome. Tourists who want to enjoy your culture and spend money get out.
Brilliant bit of business by Europe.
Málaga sounds like it’s getting killed off to get taxidermized into a theme park. This is the predatory side of tourism few see – and it’s good to shine a light on that.
I wonder if there’s a way to visit the other places mentioned – Amsterdam, Tenerife and Kyoto – while being respectful and maintaining and the livelihood and dignity of the locals, or if it’s a full-on Hawaii situation like Málaga sounds like.
And “touristphobia” 🙄 Tourists aren’t a protected class, they aren’t discriminated against for something they can’t control. They’re literally people who choose to visit places for their own enjoyment, and too many don’t seem to care about the price it charges the locals.
blame Airbnb for this. just shut airbnb down, problem solved
Meanwhile Gent has too many Spanish tourists.
Or well not too many, there’s a big rise in tourism especially during the festival, but I guess the city can still keep up
just forbid airbnb. houses are for living there, not for vacation.
you want to go tourism, go to an hotel.
I’m from Spain, we not need more tourism, we need real industries that creates good jobs, not waitress, cab/uber drivers and cleaning rooms people that are bad paid (and just increase inmigration from poor countries that are ok with those bad paid jobs because is better that what they had at their countries).
Short term lets need to be treated as a commercial enterprise, and subject to all the laws, regulations, checks and taxes which that enatails.
I think it’s bullshit to blame tourism, practically everywhere is is expensive AF to live these days so it’s easy to look around to find someone to blame. Face it, Europe is declining, we’ve had our time and (like it or not) we can’t compete in the new global economy. How would Málaga thrive if there was no tourism? What industry would make everything better?
My city (Bristol) is still unaffordable but doesn’t get Malaga levels of tourism, who should I be blaming for expensive rent and general cost of living? It’s certainly not the day trippers.
I like the tourists in my city. They’re usually friendly and in a good mood, unlike the grumpy-ass locals.
A similar thing has happened where i’m from in Australia. Of course the leadership do nothing for the locals because they are making so much money off the tourists.
So I just got my austrian citizenship as a Canadian. Am I gonna struggle? I am going to start learning the language in downtime at work.
I’m not sure if I’ll relocate for good, but I sure plan to stand a good deal of time in the area. Canada isn’t doing it for me these days.
The answer to this is very simple: increase the tourist taxes on hotels and airbnbs until you shake out the unwanted tourists.