4 ms·

This probably has direct implications for Mediterranean countries as well. UK tourists are a significant money source.

somewhereoutth 6mo ago
Right, however over-tourism is a real problem. Tourism provides low quality, transitory jobs, with income flowing more to wealth holders (property owners etc) than to wealth creators. It distorts property markets and sucks the oxygen out of other kinds of business. About time the Med weaned itself off of it.
- bawolff 6mo ago
  Relative to what? Its certainly better than resource extraction (oil).
- anamexis 6mo ago
  The obvious question is, what jobs will replace them?
  - mystraline 6mo ago
    [flagged]
- jzb 6mo ago
  This doesn’t sound like they’ll be weaning off it, though: it’ll be cold turkey. That’s going to let wealth holders pick up more property at depressed prices and drive down wages.
- cucumber3732842 6mo ago
  >Tourism provides low quality, transitory jobs, with income flowing more to wealth holders (property owners etc) than to wealth creators No. It's worse than that. The transient customer base rewards the worst people. The people who make the most money and have the most influence are basically scammers who manage to stay one season ahead of the bad reviews. They're screwing customers, shafting suppliers, employees, business partners, etc, everybody. By the time the 1-star reviews are pouring in they've pivoted, sold the businesses, under new management, etc, etc, and are on to the next venture. So over time these people get rich you basically wind up with these sorts of people running everything including the government and it's all just shit. And it permeates everything. Everyone starts screwing everyone and being scummy by default. And the time and money and effort of having to hedge against in literally everything makes everyone all substantially poorer Source: Grew up in it. First world white people too, so spare me some patronizing BS about low trust societies or whatever
  - somewhereoutth 6mo ago
    Right! I am currently living in a (relatively poor) Western European country that has recently experienced a tourism boom, and although the money pouring in has been nice for at least some, it has wrecked the existing social fabric in many ways - starting with housing. On the flip side, at least the beaches are kept clean. In the UK (where I'm from) there is a big problem with sewage outflows. Meanwhile here an entire beach got washed away by the winter storms - so they are putting it all back! Maybe 100 000 m3 of sand!
FridayoLeary 6mo ago
otoh it's probably great for internal tourism. We get to keep more money in the country.
- malfist 6mo ago
  Who do you think spends more? Your neighbor vacationing a few hours away from home? Or that international visitor who wants to see everything they can in their one week in the country?
  - whatever1 6mo ago
    Depends. If they arrive in an RV and just do one grocery run in a German chain during the their entire month of vacay, we could skip them.
    - malfist 6mo ago
      I'd like to know more about this RV that can store an entire month of food. Sounds pretty fancy.
      - ceejayoz 6mo ago
        You can’t find a spot for a 50 pound sack of rice or two?
        malfist 6mo ago
        So let me get this straight. Foreign tourist spend less money in your country than domestic tourists because the foreign tourist are driving in with an RV and living off of a fifty pound bag of rice during their vacation?
        ffsm8 6mo ago
        Fwiw, there are a lot of highly frugal people in eg the surfer/kiting community (example!) which do indeed spend pretty much nothing where they're visiting for their hobby. And they do often smell and leave trash behind. So I can imagine that being true if you're living in one of those hotspots... It's a hard topic though

Right, however over-tourism is a real problem. Tourism provides low quality, transitory jobs, with income flowing more to wealth holders (property owners etc) than to wealth creators. It distorts property markets and sucks the oxygen out of other kinds of business. About time the Med weaned itself off of it.

bawolff 6mo ago
Relative to what? Its certainly better than resource extraction (oil).
anamexis 6mo ago
The obvious question is, what jobs will replace them?
- mystraline 6mo ago
  [flagged]
jzb 6mo ago
This doesn’t sound like they’ll be weaning off it, though: it’ll be cold turkey. That’s going to let wealth holders pick up more property at depressed prices and drive down wages.
cucumber3732842 6mo ago
>Tourism provides low quality, transitory jobs, with income flowing more to wealth holders (property owners etc) than to wealth creators No. It's worse than that. The transient customer base rewards the worst people. The people who make the most money and have the most influence are basically scammers who manage to stay one season ahead of the bad reviews. They're screwing customers, shafting suppliers, employees, business partners, etc, everybody. By the time the 1-star reviews are pouring in they've pivoted, sold the businesses, under new management, etc, etc, and are on to the next venture. So over time these people get rich you basically wind up with these sorts of people running everything including the government and it's all just shit. And it permeates everything. Everyone starts screwing everyone and being scummy by default. And the time and money and effort of having to hedge against in literally everything makes everyone all substantially poorer Source: Grew up in it. First world white people too, so spare me some patronizing BS about low trust societies or whatever
- somewhereoutth 6mo ago
  Right! I am currently living in a (relatively poor) Western European country that has recently experienced a tourism boom, and although the money pouring in has been nice for at least some, it has wrecked the existing social fabric in many ways - starting with housing. On the flip side, at least the beaches are kept clean. In the UK (where I'm from) there is a big problem with sewage outflows. Meanwhile here an entire beach got washed away by the winter storms - so they are putting it all back! Maybe 100 000 m3 of sand!

FridayoLeary 6mo ago

otoh it's probably great for internal tourism. We get to keep more money in the country.

malfist 6mo ago
Who do you think spends more? Your neighbor vacationing a few hours away from home? Or that international visitor who wants to see everything they can in their one week in the country?
- whatever1 6mo ago
  Depends. If they arrive in an RV and just do one grocery run in a German chain during the their entire month of vacay, we could skip them.
  - malfist 6mo ago
    I'd like to know more about this RV that can store an entire month of food. Sounds pretty fancy.
    - ceejayoz 6mo ago
      You can’t find a spot for a 50 pound sack of rice or two?
      - malfist 6mo ago
        So let me get this straight. Foreign tourist spend less money in your country than domestic tourists because the foreign tourist are driving in with an RV and living off of a fifty pound bag of rice during their vacation?
        ffsm8 6mo ago
        Fwiw, there are a lot of highly frugal people in eg the surfer/kiting community (example!) which do indeed spend pretty much nothing where they're visiting for their hobby. And they do often smell and leave trash behind. So I can imagine that being true if you're living in one of those hotspots... It's a hard topic though