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For sure, it's the same thing, I think. They're effectively entrenched tourists; foreigners, and integration is not a quick process. A society and its culture o

For sure, it's the same thing, I think. They're effectively entrenched tourists; foreigners, and integration is not a quick process. A society and its culture only has a capacity to absorb and convert so many new additions at a time without being diluted and I think that's been exceeded in this case. The thing is that even seasoned travellers complain about this, remarking that many touristy places feel "like everywhere else", so it almost seems like nobody is winning in the end.

graderjs 4y ago
I think you're wrong about that. I don't think it's the same thing I think tourists and long-term stays are fundamentally different. Especially economically and I think that's a really important baseline that affects things a lot specifically for locals. Because the thing is like locals can invent a tourism industry to absorb and corral you know the herds of tourists around and kind of give them as you say exaggerated you know accentuated artificial view of the culture that nevertheless gives them some sort of experience and this is sort of how the tourism industry works and so it's able to absorb those numbers and and continue on. And I think the points you make about that, while common and a bit bland (you know the "Disneyfication" of things), are nevertheless interesting and you state them pretty well I think. But the article specifically, and the fundamental difference is, when people choose to live there they're no longer just staying to the tourist areas and no longer just shipped around by tour groups or tour buses or they're no longer sort of shepherded by the tourist industry and they're also pushing into like economic activity that affects locals specifically rents and buying up real estate right? and the landlords then realize, "oh s** I can make more money from all this demand on all these people coming in with all this extra money so I'm going to charge more." And I think that then has a whole lot of other effects for locals and it's just it sounds like a simple change you know, "okay well the rents get more expensive" but it's this fundamental thing that then really changes many things about a place, like in Hong Kong like in San Francisco and you can see it you know the locals are unhappy about this kind of stuff.

graderjs 4y ago

I think you're wrong about that. I don't think it's the same thing I think tourists and long-term stays are fundamentally different. Especially economically and I think that's a really important baseline that affects things a lot specifically for locals. Because the thing is like locals can invent a tourism industry to absorb and corral you know the herds of tourists around and kind of give them as you say exaggerated you know accentuated artificial view of the culture that nevertheless gives them some sort of experience and this is sort of how the tourism industry works and so it's able to absorb those numbers and and continue on. And I think the points you make about that, while common and a bit bland (you know the "Disneyfication" of things), are nevertheless interesting and you state them pretty well I think. But the article specifically, and the fundamental difference is, when people choose to live there they're no longer just staying to the tourist areas and no longer just shipped around by tour groups or tour buses or they're no longer sort of shepherded by the tourist industry and they're also pushing into like economic activity that affects locals specifically rents and buying up real estate right? and the landlords then realize, "oh s** I can make more money from all this demand on all these people coming in with all this extra money so I'm going to charge more." And I think that then has a whole lot of other effects for locals and it's just it sounds like a simple change you know, "okay well the rents get more expensive" but it's this fundamental thing that then really changes many things about a place, like in Hong Kong like in San Francisco and you can see it you know the locals are unhappy about this kind of stuff.