Why do some people hate tourists? What's a tourist trap?

[Diamonds02]

Excuse my ignorance, I have not traveled a lot in my life time.

I noticed that people who live in popular places like NYC really hate tourist, but they never say why.

A kind of semi-related question...what is a tourist trap?

[astorian]

I lived in New York City for the first 25 years of my life, and I never thought New Yorkers were particularly hostile to tourists... or at least, no MORE hostile to tourists than they are to each other!

The definition of "tourist trap" varies widely. SOME people use it to refer to practically ANY popular tourist attraction, particularly the ones that end up costing visitors a lot of money.

Others use it to refer to cheapo, stupid roadside attractions in areas frequented by tourists. In any state or city that attracts a lot of tourists, you're likely to find loads of low-budget operations that proclaim, oh, "Exotic Wildlife" (it's really a skunk, a ferret and two goats) or "Historic Monument" (it's just some old, dilapidated house where George Washington once stopped to take a leak). That kind of "tourist trap" is generally a complete waste of time, but they hope passing tourists will stop, pay to get in, and buy a few ashtrays or baseball caps.

To me, an "alligator farm" on the road to Disney World is a typical "tourist trap." but SOME people will actually refer to Mount Rushmore or the Statue of Liberty as "torist traps." Depends on your point of view, I guess.

[TheMerchandise]

I only hate tourists in specific situations. Like when they gum up sidewalk traffic so they can snap a picture or peer at a map. Also, when they pause in the subway doors to wonder if they're on the right train and manage to hold everyone else up. Generally, as long as they're continuously moving, tourists are fine.

When I think of "tourist traps" I think of something generic and artificial, that exists specifically to attract tourists. No cultural or historic significance. Think "The World's Largest Ball of String!"

[Bosstone]

Especially in big cities, there's a kind of flow to life, a host of unwritten rules, that residents get used to. Tourists are generally unaware of these rules and tend to cause disruptions. Not big ones, but things like blocking the sidewalk to stare up at big buildings or haggling over some minor thing or, if they come from a city with no metro, standing on the left and walking on the right when it should be vice versa (I think). New York is a fast-paced city, and tourists are speedbumps that don't necessarily need to be there. Sure, the tourism industry might bring in a lot of money to the city, but on an individual level they can be annoying. (Usual disclaimer: there are of course tourists that try to be conscientious and make an effort to not be a burden; those generally aren't the disliked ones.)

[Antinor01]

They tend to be loud, travel in large groups and make it hard to enjoy local amenities. People often get "vacation rudeness". Things like stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to take pictures.

[MeanOldLady]

I don't hate tourists. I just hate when they get all touristy - you know, stopping on the middle of the sidewalk to ogle all the pretty buildings, blocking traffic because they just have to get a picture of whatever uninteresting thing is before them, etc. I'm sure I've passed many people who were tourists and I didn't even know it because they didn't walk slowly, or hold up the entire program because they were trying to dig their camera phones out of their fanny packs.

[tdn]

Yep, pretty much not tourists, but clueless touristy behavior.

What I hate is when I'm in a rush to get on the subway, and need to buy a token (this was back in the days before Charlie Cards), and some clueless tourist family is negotiating with the token booth guy. "Let's see... we've got two adults, and eighteen children... How many tickets is that? Hey, we're from out of town, do we get any kind of special discount? And which subway car do we take to get to Cheers?"

[Scarlett67]

Originally Posted by Diamonds02

what is a tourist trap?

Well, there's the regular kind, used to harvest them for their pelts, and also the much more humane "catch and release" type if you just can't bear to kill them . . .

[msmith537]

Well, as already mentioned, in NYC it can get very annoying if you are going to work and you have these fools stoping in the middle of the subway turnstyle or all of a suddenly stopping dead in the middle of the sidewalk to gawk at the big buildings.

There is also a general "idiot" factor where to many New Yorkers, your basic Middle America tourist tends to come accross as simple and unsophisticated. Classic example would be overweight fans of The Today Show standing around Rockefeller Center with their bad hairdos and fanny packs and big "I [heart] Minnesota" (or wherever) signs. They eat at the same chain restaurants they eat at back home, but think it's oh so "New York" and exciting because the Red Lobster and Olive Garden in Times Square has a 50 foot sign. No one really "hates" them though.

That's really more of a stereotype though because those are the most "obviously not from New York" people. If I'm in a bar with some friends and we meet a bunch of people from out of town who look and act normal, no one thinks anything of it.

[Green Bean]

What makes you think New Yorkers hate tourists. In my experience, New Yorkers welcome tourists--EXCEPT when they amble along the sidewalks, 4 abreast, pointing at the pretty lights, and being utterly oblivious to the human traffic jam forming behind them.

(On preview, I see that a lot of other people responded while I was writing this. Blocking the sidewalk is, apparently, a major theme!)

I think astorian gives a good idea of what "tourist trap" means.

To me, the key is that it's an attraction that offers little value for the money. The operators are just trying to get you there and collect your admission fees, and hopefully the cost of your lunch and some souvenirs. It's more hype than substance. To call someplace a tourist trap implies that the customer is being misled into thinking that the attraction is more impressive than it is.

The epitome of the tourist trap would probably be Wall Drug in South Dakota. As I understand it, it started as just a regular drugstore/general store in the Mount Rushmore area. They started to advertise free ice water to entice tourists to stop by. Of course, the owners expected the people to buy other stuff while they were there. The plan worked, so they started to advertise more and more. Since people were coming, they added more things for people to do and spend money on, and started to present themselves as a legitimate attraction. And it worked. It's an entirely self-aware tourist trap, and its claim to fame is that it IS a tourist trap! The joke is that people are traveling hundreds of miles to visit a drugstore. Ironically, its success as a tourist trap spurred so much development that it created an attraction that is, by all accounts, pretty darn cool and fun. So, in a way, the ultimate tourist trap is not really a tourist trap at all.

Unfortunately, as astorian notes, some people will call any tourist attraction a tourist trap. That's just stupid. It's not unreasonable for the Park Service to try and earn a few extra shekels by selling you Statue of Liberty knickknacks. An attempt to make money from the attraction does not make it a trap.

[Karyn]

The closest town is Santa Cruz which is one of the ultimate touristy beach towns but more on the low end of the scale than Monterey or Carmel are. During the summer the traffic is nightmarish, the restaurants are crowded and they generally wander around gawking as if they're at some kind of hippie Disneyland and the raggedy street people are the love generation. They're in the way and we all love to complain, but without them we have virtually no economy other than the University, nonprofit and local government jobs and there would be no solid sales tax revenue stream for the city to maintain services with. It would be just another little seaside town slowly falling apart and going broke.

I grew up in NYC but no tourists came to the Bronx. When we went to Manhattan I was always amazed at all the people with their cameras lined up to get into what to me were normal places but I left as a teenager so I never really had to deal with any inconvenience.

[MeanOldLady]

I spent most of my life in Los Angeles and now live in Minneapolis. I used to work on Hollywood Blvd, but I'm not even going to go there right now. Oddly enough, I don't see a lot of tourists anymore, though an occasional business traveler will stop to look at the Mary Tyler Moore statue downtown. I gawked for quite a while that there was actual nature out here, but I never stopped in the middle of the street to stare for five minutes.

Originally Posted by msmith537

They eat at the same chain restaurants they eat at back home, but think it's oh so "New York" and exciting because the Red Lobster and Olive Garden in Times Square has a 50 foot sign.

Gah. When I first went to San Francisco with some idiots from my freshman dorm, everyone decided that they wanted to eat dinner at Tony Roma's. Are you effing kidding me?

[The Devil's Grandmother]

Because tourists are, by their very nature, a transient audience you don't expect to see again any restaurant that caters to tourists is going to be bland overpriced food and crappy service. When I think "tourist trap" I think of the restaurants located within a block or two of any major attraction.

[Hampshire]

Originally Posted by MeanOldLady

now live in Minneapolis. Oddly enough, I don't see a lot of tourists anymore, though an occasional business traveler will stop to look at the Mary Tyler Moore statue downtown.

Go to the Mall of America. Plenty o' tourists there.

[tdn]

When I think of tourist traps, I think of gift shops that sell little Indian drums with rubber heads and those little plastic pinball machines with a Niagara Falls theme.

[JaneSaintClair]

For a few years, I had the unfortunate experience of living in Gettysburg. It was there that I learned to to have occasional contempt for tourists. First, because it was a small town, traffic was a nightmare during the high tourist season. Residents learned there ways through alleys and back roads to avoid going through town because of not only the traffic, but the huge number of careless tourists who would step out of their cars to take pictures. There were also a large number of families with children in tow... most of whom could have cared less about the history to be learned. Therefore, the need for more attractions that catered to families resulted in the inevitable min-golf courses, fudge shops, wax museums (complete with miniature 1st ladies!), buffet restaurants, and theme stores. The classic tourist traps... if you don't like the history, we'll sanitize it for you and present it to you in moving color, and give you some fudge on the way out the door.

Most tourists leave thinking how charming and quaint it is.

[Death of Rats]

Originally Posted by msmith537

There is also a general "idiot" factor where to many New Yorkers, your basic Middle America tourist tends to come accross as simple and unsophisticated. Classic example would be overweight fans of The Today Show standing around Rockefeller Center with their bad hairdos and fanny packs and big "I [heart] Minnesota" (or wherever) signs. They eat at the same chain restaurants they eat at back home, but think it's oh so "New York" and exciting because the Red Lobster and Olive Garden in Times Square has a 50 foot sign. No one really "hates" them though.

That's ok. The rest of the world feels the same when New Yorkers travel and do the exact same thing!

[Diamonds02]

So what are characteristics of good tourist attractions? Examples? Because I admit, I am really into gift shops and the World Largest Ball of String, sort of places.

[Diamonds02]

Oh, as for obnoxious tourists, we almost never have that sort of thing in Kansas City. I can understand why some people may find tourists annoying. Getting out of your cars to take pictures on a busy street? WTH?

[Hello Again]

Originally Posted by Green Bean

To me, the key is that it's an attraction that offers little value for the money. The operators are just trying to get you there and collect your admission fees, and hopefully the cost of your lunch and some souvenirs. It's more hype than substance. To call someplace a tourist trap implies that the customer is being misled into thinking that the attraction is more impressive than it is.

Yes. As to residents, the Venice Vaporetto (water bus) is a legitimate service. A monthly pass costs 40 Euro - that's pretty comparable to the monthly pass on the NYC subway.

But as to tourists, it's a total tourist trap. A single fare costs 6.50 Euro, a 6th of the monthly fare! You can walk across Venice between the Rialto Bridge/Train Station and the Doge's Palace in 20 minutes. (includes getting lost and asking whores for directions, true story). People do it "for the experience" and get raped for their interest.

[Kaio]

My main issue with tourists in my city are the ones that, in the pursuit of their perfect vacation, are oblivious, lack common courtesy, or are actively (sometimes aggressively) rude, or some combination of the three.

If you're a tourist and don't do any of those things, I'll never even notice you, no harm, no foul.

However, a large number of them seem to be shocked, shocked! that people actually live in the city they're visiting. Some relatively minor incidents have already been mentioned, but there are also people who, for example, make as if to leave the train, suddenly stop dead in the doorway, and get pissy and shouty because the 50 people behind them couldn't stop in time to not blunder into them. During rush hour.

Or stopping suddenly anywhere that's a high-traffic area. For the love of god, take a moment to get yer head out yer ass, look around you, and step off to the side out of the way.

Or talking at outdoor-volume in an enclosed train car. Your friend is 12 inches away from you, and the city residents aren't talking. Your friend can hear you!

The best example of this rudeness, and the epitome of why I hate tourists: once I was driving home from the gym. I was sweaty and gross, because, you know, I'd just been at the gym. It was a warm afternoon, so my window was rolled down. While waiting at a red light, some idiot chick and her idiot chick friends in the SUV next to me started pointing and laughing at me, and one of them whipped out a camera and started taking pictures. Uhm, excuse me? I'm not an effing zoo display! They got a number of photos of me scratching my temple with my middle finger.

Once the light changed and they drove off, I checked their plates, and sure enough, they were out-of-state.

[Mops]

Originally Posted by Diamonds02

So what are characteristics of good tourist attractions? Examples? ...

A good tourist attraction IMO is one that the local residents also visit from time to time (and not just the once on moving to the town).

[Troy McClure SF]

Our big tourist trap is Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39. No one from SF goes there*, because very little is worth a second look, and it's all overpriced. Hey look, a shitty camera shop and a shitty t-shirt shop, and a Walgreens with shitty cameras and shitty t-shirts! I think, at least around here, that's the trap.

-*minus a handful who will no doubt say they go three times a week and love it, including me when a friend bartended at Pompei's Grotto.

Why people hate tourists, I have no idea. I went to Bring Your Own Big Wheel one year with some friends, which is just the epitome of goofy SF-type fun, but between races, one of my friends would start yelling at everyone who looked like a tourist, for no apparent reason. To this day, I have no idea why, especially since their tax dollars (at the tourist traps) help keep this city going. (Also since said friend isn't even from here and was a tourist once, himself.)

I'm pretty ambivalent toward tourists, and I'll occasionally offer my help to one who looks lost. But I'll agree with other posters that it's annoying when I have Shit To Do and they're blocking the sidewalk or subway door or whatever.

Also, just a tip- do not wear shorts & Hawaiian shirts to Fisherman's Wharf. "Sunny California" does not actually include all (or even most) of California, and we will laugh at you for that.

[Sternvogel]

Originally Posted by Green Bean

The epitome of the tourist trap would probably be Wall Drug in South Dakota.

Since you took that one, I'll add another "attraction" of that state -- the World's Only Corn Palace. When I was about 12 and living in Ohio, my dad took the family on a trip out west. My mother had paid a childhood visit to the Corn Palace, and remembered a lot of museum-type displays about growing, harvesting, and processing maize. Although the architecture and the murals on the outside were pretty cool, however, the interior of the Palace was just one huge gift shop by the time I set foot inside there. At least admission was free, but you were obviously expected to buy some pennants, postcards, snow globes, giant pencils, and other gewgaws.

The phrase "tourist trap" also brings to mind the many places that go by such names as Mystery Hill and Gravity Hill. Your car rolls uphill! Dad is suddenly shorter than little Joey! Of course, there's nothing paranormal at play, just optical illusion.

[Future Londonite]

To me tourists traps aren't just limited to attractions - some restaurants/pubs I'd consider tourist traps as well.....the ones that happen to be right on the popular stretches and serve mediocre overpriced food/drinks

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

The Royal Mile in Edinburgh's a good example of a tourist trap. It's got two big tourist attractions at either end, the castle at one end and Holyrood house at the other. All along, there's hundreds of shops selling cheap bagpipes, kilts made from polyester, tartan towels and ginger wigs. All the shops are blaring horrific bagpipe music over loud speakers, and have men dressed as William Wallace outside their door, trying to get people in. In short, it's a bit of a circus.

Pubs and restaurants are three times more expensive along the mile than they are less than ten minutes walk off it.

(Tourists, I'll give you a clue: if the kilt you buy costs you less than £200, chances are, it probably isn't worth buying!)

[Oredigger77]

My problem with tourists is when they prevent me from participating in my normal life.

When I was living in a beach town, I would go to the beach once a month but during the summer it was so crowded on weekends that Thursday through Monday there wasn't enough room to run the dog or play volleyball. If I wanted to watch 4th of July fireworks over the ocean I'd have to show up 4 hrs early to get with in 3 blocks of the beach. Basically it turns all the big beach days into stay at home days.

Now that I'm up in the mountains the biggest problem is that the ski bums all want to go out to dinner on their way home from the mountain and every single restaurant is at least an hour wait. Not to mention the roads in both places see about 3 times as much traffic as they were designed to during tourist season so I can't even get to the grocery store.

[Kaio]

Another amusing tourist story:

Someone I know was on the bus on her way home from work, and overheard a conversation among a tourist family. They were discussing a man they'd seen who was sleeping on the sidewalk. One of the adults suggested that the man must have just gotten off work, and was just too tired to make it back home to sleep.

And they were serious.

The conversation went on for a good ten minutes or so, and not once did anyone mention that maybe he was sleeping on the sidewalk because he had no where else to go.

[Troy McClure SF]

Originally Posted by Oredigger77

Not to mention the roads in both places see about 3 times as much traffic as they were designed to during tourist season so I can't even get to the grocery store.

Sounds like the locals' problem.

[Katriona]

Originally Posted by Kaio

My main issue with tourists in my city are the ones that, in the pursuit of their perfect vacation, are oblivious, lack common courtesy, or are actively (sometimes aggressively) rude, or some combination of the three.

If you're a tourist and don't do any of those things, I'll never even notice you, no harm, no foul.

However, a large number of them seem to be shocked, shocked! that people actually live in the city they're visiting. Some relatively minor incidents have already been mentioned, but there are also people who, for example, make as if to leave the train, suddenly stop dead in the doorway, and get pissy and shouty because the 50 people behind them couldn't stop in time to not blunder into them. During rush hour.

Or stopping suddenly anywhere that's a high-traffic area. For the love of god, take a moment to get yer head out yer ass, look around you, and step off to the side out of the way.

Or talking at outdoor-volume in an enclosed train car. Your friend is 12 inches away from you, and the city residents aren't talking. Your friend can hear you!

The best example of this rudeness, and the epitome of why I hate tourists: once I was driving home from the gym. I was sweaty and gross, because, you know, I'd just been at the gym. It was a warm afternoon, so my window was rolled down. While waiting at a red light, some idiot chick and her idiot chick friends in the SUV next to me started pointing and laughing at me, and one of them whipped out a camera and started taking pictures. Uhm, excuse me? I'm not an effing zoo display! They got a number of photos of me scratching my temple with my middle finger.

Once the light changed and they drove off, I checked their plates, and sure enough, they were out-of-state.

This sums up why I was on the verge of committing patricide when my dad and I were in London a few years ago. He was the very model of the modern Ugly American.

The money is "weird." The food is "weird." The accents are "weird." I think he was expecting a Disney-fied version of home or something, only with older stuff.

I used to work at Boot Hill, the big attraction in Dodge City.

"Where are the mountains? There's mountains on Gunsmoke!" OK, you pick up I-70 at Wakeeny, drive 8 hours west, and hang a right at Pueblo.

"Where's Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty?" Go back to your hotel room, and channel 9 probably has Gunsmoke running at some ungodly hour, and if you must, "Miss Kitty" will be hosting the saloon show at 7. But since they didn't really exist, no, this house didn't belong to either one of them.

We weren't allowed to call them "tourists" on the grounds. They were "guests" or "visitors." (And we weren't just teenaged lackeys parked in stupid costumes to make sure we didn't get ripped off; oh no, we were "interpretors of history.") We took great pleasure at screaming "tourist" at anyone with an out-of-town license plate in our off time.

[Freddy the Pig]

Anything you see relative to the gangster era in Chicago is probably a tourist trap. There aren't many authentic relics of the gangster era around, and nobody who lives here cares much about it or wants anything to do with it. Outsiders, however, seem to love it.

[Cardinal]

Hate is a strong word, but in So. California, if someone's parked on an entrance ramp waiting for the traffic to clear before they try to merge with freeway traffic, it's a very good bet the people are from out of state. Trying that is almost suicidal, because now you've lost your initial speed and will be merging with maybe 65 mph traffic while doing 35mph.

[The Superhero]

Originally Posted by Green Bean

To me, the key is that it's an attraction that offers little value for the money. The operators are just trying to get you there and collect your admission fees, and hopefully the cost of your lunch and some souvenirs. It's more hype than substance. To call someplace a tourist trap implies that the customer is being misled into thinking that the attraction is more impressive than it is.

The epitome of the tourist trap would probably be Wall Drug in South Dakota. As I understand it, it started as just a regular drugstore/general store in the Mount Rushmore area. They started to advertise free ice water to entice tourists to stop by. Of course, the owners expected the people to buy other stuff while they were there. The plan worked, so they started to advertise more and more. Since people were coming, they added more things for people to do and spend money on, and started to present themselves as a legitimate attraction. And it worked. It's an entirely self-aware tourist trap, and its claim to fame is that it IS a tourist trap! The joke is that people are traveling hundreds of miles to visit a drugstore. Ironically, its success as a tourist trap spurred so much development that it created an attraction that is, by all accounts, pretty darn cool and fun. So, in a way, the ultimate tourist trap is not really a tourist trap at all.

Unfortunately, as astorian notes, some people will call any tourist attraction a tourist trap. That's just stupid. It's not unreasonable for the Park Service to try and earn a few extra shekels by selling you Statue of Liberty knickknacks. An attempt to make money from the attraction does not make it a trap.

Agreed. I think tourist traps tend to spring up around legitimate tourist attractions. The fact the the Park Service runs a Statue of Liberty gift shop is fine - but the dozens of vendors selling chintzy souvenirs and the people dressed up in Statue costumes who want money to pose for photos turn Battery Park into a tourist trap associated with the legitimate tourist attraction that is the Statue of Liberty.

Wall Drug is, indeed, the King of All Tourist Traps, and it is awesome.

[ivylass]

I love tourists. They help to pay our taxes. But there's more to Orlando than Disney World, bless their hearts.

[Leaper]

I've read that in Hawaii, some Native Hawaiian activists consider tourists a scourge (possibly representative of the core problem of America taking over their kingdom in the first place) and would rather they just stopped coming altogether.

What they think the economy will do after that, I don't know. Maybe they envision kicking enough people out so that they'll be self-sufficient, or would depend on some kind of business development or starting to charge the military.

[Green Bean]

Originally Posted by Diamonds02

So what are characteristics of good tourist attractions? Examples? Because I admit, I am really into gift shops and the World Largest Ball of String, sort of places.

Are you really asking for examples of "good tourist attractions?" Okay, well...here are some well-known U.S. tourist attractions that I've visited and think are worthwhile: (And I'm not even going to give you anyplace in the Northeast.)

Alcatraz Island. San Francisco, CA
The "Underground Tour." Seattle, WA
Yosemite National Park
The Desert Botanical Garden. Phoenix.
The Grand Canyon
Kennedy Space Center. Cape Canaveral, FL
Gatorland. Orlando, FL

Some of those places are natural wonders. Some are man-made. Some are of historical interest. 5 of the 7 are places that were not specifically created for visitors. Two were, but neither fall into the "tourist trap" category. I suspect that Gatorland did start as a tourist trap, but it isn't one now as it doesn't meet any of the criteria discussed above. (In fact, I visited Sea World right after Gatorland, and Sea World was the tourist trap!)

[Beware of Doug]

Originally Posted by Freddy the Pig

Anything you see relative to the gangster era in Chicago is probably a tourist trap. There aren't many authentic relics of the gangster era around, and nobody who lives here cares much about it or wants anything to do with it. Outsiders, however, seem to love it.

I'll assume it's the gangsters you don't want anything to do with. Or is it the era?

[Martini Enfield]

Originally Posted by Katriona

The money is "weird." The food is "weird." The accents are "weird." I think he was expecting a Disney-fied version of home or something, only with older stuff.

I used to see a bit of this at my previous job; very lost American tourists wandering in wanding to know why they can't plug their hair-dryers in or how come we drive on the "wrong" side of the road etc.

I even recall one woman talking to me VERY LOUDLY AND SLOWLY like I was some kind of Mexican petrol station attendant. She was amazed when I replied to her (in my best BBC Newsreader voice "I. SPEAK. ENGLISH. AND. SO. DOES. NEARLY. EVERYONE. ELSE. IN. AUSTRALIA." and replied with a "Really? Well fancy that!" as if it was a stroke of good luck that she happened to walk into the only shop in town where the staff spoke English.

The biggest problem many people have with tourists, IMHO, is that they clog up the infrastructure so the locals don't get to use it, and in many cases the locals don't gain any benefits from having the tourists around in the first place (or if they do, it's still not outweighed by the fact it can take an hour to drive three kilometres across town in peak season of whatever). Not just roads, but as other people have mentioned upthread, restaurants, beaches, particular areas of town, and all sorts of other things that the locals might want to use or enjoy but can't because half the country is there on their holiday.

[Sublight]

I don't hate tourists.

What I hate are the ones who come here and treat the whole place as a giant amusement park, and the people here as park guests whose only purpose is to amuse them. One noted attraction, the Tsukiji fish markets, finally decide to hell with the tourists after too many of them were getting in the way, interfering with the auctions, and just generally acting like obnoxious asshats. After being off-limits for a couple of months, the recently started allowing guided tours back, but no drop-in visits anymore.

Most tourists aren't like this, and a lot of the people who are aren't here as tourists.

[Oredigger77]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure SF

Sounds like the locals' problem.

Ya kind of, if the roads were improved the town would lose it's quite beach town atmosphere and they would go some where else eliminating the need. But I think the biggest it that the locals don't want them around so they don't want them to be comfortable.

[blondebear]

What about the Pyramids of Giza? I haven't been, but I gather that the "vendors" are always on high alert. Even Mark Twain had to deal with them.

Tourist traps can be great fun. Sometimes you need a distraction after driving for a long time. A place like the Archway Monument in Nebraska or The Thing in Arizona can be a godsend after the monotony of hours (or days) on the road.

[Geek Mecha]

Originally Posted by Leaper

I've read that in Hawaii, some Native Hawaiian activists consider tourists a scourge (possibly representative of the core problem of America taking over their kingdom in the first place) and would rather they just stopped coming altogether.

What they think the economy will do after that, I don't know. Maybe they envision kicking enough people out so that they'll be self-sufficient, or would depend on some kind of business development or starting to charge the military.

They're short-sighted idiots, for the most part. I'm always embarrassed when people outside of Hawaii hear about them. They do not represent the views of the vast majority of Hawaii residents.

I've always had a love-hate relationship with tourists. I love that they love Hawaii and want to come and spend time (and money!) there. I love it when non-residents consider it their second home or where they would like to live someday. But I can't stand the ones who comment about the minority majority, the weird food, and the lack of [whatever they have where they're from], and who go off trails and break their legs falling off cliffs, who complain that the line to some tourist attraction is too damn long, who ignore warnings that something is dangerous and then get hurt and look for someone else to blame, who leave valuables in plain sight in their rental cars and hotel rooms and then are surprised when they're stolen, who stand in the middle of the sidewalk in downtown to stare up at a palm tree, who regard ordinary people doing ordinary things as oddities worth gaping at and pointing at and photographing, who think that since they're on vacation, so is everyone else and the normal precautions one should take with regard to just about everything no longer apply. Fortunately, most tourists aren't like that, and I try to not be like that when I travel and become a tourist.

It's not a tourist hate as much as it is a hate for oblivious, stupid people.

[matt_mcl]

Tourists in Montreal seem like a pretty nice bunch as a whole; only real exceptions I can think of are the occasional (read: quite rare) douches who scream "Speak English" at some poor Québécois who had the temerity to address them in French.

The most amusing thing they do is, when I find them clustered around a map and ask them if I can help them find anything, to ask how to get to the Underground City, in tones of hushed anticipation, as if it is some sort of mystical grotto possibly staffed by Oompa-Loompas. Folks, it's shopping malls. I don't know why the guidebooks push it as if it's some sort of fairy kingdom, but they do.

[dalej42]

I don't hate tourists, but they can be annoying at times. Phoenix gets the Middle America type tourists who often act like Cousin Eddie from the Vacation movies. I'm sure the restaurant knows you don't want it spicy. I'm glad you're allowed to smoke in restaurants/bars back home. I don't care that you voted for McCain.

I tell them to go see their beloved Cubs and spend a lot of time in beautiful downtown Mesa.

[SciFiSam]

I don't hate tourists. They bring a lot of money to our city, many of my friends who visit are tourists, and I've been a tourist in other places too.

However, I do get annoyed at people who:

Ignore the many signs telling them which side of the escalator to stand on;

Put their ticket into the machines at the tube wrongly - not just once or twice, but umpteen times, then stand there wondering aloud what's going on, while fuming commuters breathe down their necks.

Think that the ideal place to stand and muse on where to go is the exit to the tube station, blocking hundreds of other people;

Walk four abreast, very slowly, on a busy street;

Do the above while holding a map out really widely so that even more people are blocked from the pavement;

Do all of the above at the bottom of the stairs at a tube station, or at the exit from the stairs to the platform at that station. I understand that you're confused, but could you please be confused a bit further away from entranceways? Do you honestly think that the people digging you in the head is because Londoners are rude, rather than because you haven't left them any space and that's the only place their elbow can go?

These actions are not confined to tourists, but tourists make up a significant number of such miscreants. In some ways I can understand why they make these mistakes - they're not used to such long escalators, they're in an unfamiliar place, and so on - but I'd never take up an entire bloody pavement in any city or continue to stand in an entranceway once I noticed the massive throngs of people squeezing into the gap left around me. Even if you can understand why they're making those mistakes, they still add a little extra annoyance to your day.

Or at least, they did, when I had to use the tube regularly. Phew!


I'm extremely amused by tourists who, for some reason, in London of all places, assume that bystanders won't understand what they're saying and conduct loud personal conversations in public in their own language.

[Karyn]

I took my mom to Paris when she was in her early 70s and she kept asking people if they "spoke American". It got to the point where I was saying "no, but they might speak English" just because someone had to say it and they were too polite to.

[Fantome]

Originally Posted by Kaio

The best example of this rudeness, and the epitome of why I hate tourists: once I was driving home from the gym. I was sweaty and gross, because, you know, I'd just been at the gym. It was a warm afternoon, so my window was rolled down. While waiting at a red light, some idiot chick and her idiot chick friends in the SUV next to me started pointing and laughing at me, and one of them whipped out a camera and started taking pictures. Uhm, excuse me? I'm not an effing zoo display! They got a number of photos of me scratching my temple with my middle finger.

Once the light changed and they drove off, I checked their plates, and sure enough, they were out-of-state.

Are you particularly funny looking or anything like that? I doubt there are any states where sweaty people are found to be particularly hilarious and photo worthy.

[elfkin477]

You're probably read the often e-mailed list of unofficial state mottos, right? NH's is "Go away and leave us alone" for a reason. Most of us don't hate tourists, but we tend to find them irritating.

All their cars clog up the roads. Look, if we wanted to live somewhere with a lot of traffic, we wouldn't live somewhere with less than 1.5 million people, would we?

They drive around with their FL plates at 20mph less than the speed limit and with a turn signal on for miles.

In the fall they tend to drive real slow so they can look at the pretty leaves, but given they apparently think that sunglasses are just for the summer, slam on their brakes every time it gets sunny, making us worry about rear-ending them. Or wanting to rear-end them.

They freak out at traffic circles and slow everything down when they try to go around one.

They're loud, and worse yet, they think it's okay to try to engage random strangers in conversation.

Gas and grocery prices go up to coincide with tourist influxes. I know, it's not their fault directly, but...

But other than that, I guess they're okay.

[Desert Nomad]

I don't mind tourists in Nevada. They stay in the casinos and keep us from having to pay state income tax. Overseas, I tend to go where there are no tourists... most of the time. I was recently in Jordan and found it too touristy in many places. I much preferred Yemen in this regard.

[EpicNonsense]

I hate tourists who buy (and wear) all that touristy crap.. Novelty shirts, hats, shoes, etc. Other than that they don't really bother me at all.