The recent thread about the Swiss woman being attacked in India made me think of a similar incident-a family of American backpackers were almost murdered in Peru-by some dirt-poor villagers. I imagine that there is now a lot of resentment of rich tourists-when they visit a poor area. Suppose you are a poor villager-you live on a few dollars a day, and cannot afford to take your kids to a doctor when ill. Now you see some young 20-somethings, dressed in expensive clothes, with nice cameras a and stuff-you probably wonder why things are so unequal.
Frankly, I’m surprised that more tourists are not attacked/robbed.
On the other hand, said tourists are also spending money. I’d imagine the profits foreigners bring goes a long way towards salving over the jealousy.
My experience (living, as I do, in a tourist destination) is that the locals ALWAYS hate and resent the tourists, rich or otherwise. Even if their livelihoods depend on tourism. ESPECIALLY if their livelihoods depend on tourism.
The locals always hate the tourists. I know in India they think you’re dumb because you don’t know the value of a dollar…you spend without haggling or spend too much. What they don’t always realize is…you can afford it. And sometimes it’s worth the price not to haggle.
This has not been my experience although it could be that I just didn’t realise I was being hated and/or resented.
The first time I went to the Caribbean (Antigua) I remember sitting down to dinner on our first night at our four star hotel and suddenly realising that all the people sitting down were white and all the people doing the work were black. Coming from a fairly multi-cultural city this was a situation that I personally felt a little uncomfortable with.
Long story short, after a few days there I’d become friendly with one of the security guys and sometimes shared a joint with him when he passed our cabin on his nightly round. When I mentioned this he just said that they were happy to have “rich” westerners there as it meant the difference between having a job and having jack shit.
How do you feel about rich foreign tourists? What goes through your head when you see an obviously well off Saudi family at Disneyland?
Within a group of people you’ll get some resentment, some outright racism, and some people thinking about how easy it’d be to steal one of those many gold rings. You will also curiosity, and maybe some suspicion that they must be up to something no good or have some ulterior motive for being where they are (“I wonder if he’s here to do some kind of shady oil deal…”) In places without a lot of tourist traffic, lots of people will conclude that your a spy. Some people will think nothing of it, having better things to do with their lives. And some people will be delighted at how worldly and cosmopolitan their little corner of the world is becoming. Most people will have lots of questions, although some will decide they already know everything they need to know about the outsider.
Developing countries have plenty of their own rich people, so it’s not like seeing a backpacker is some unprecedented glimpse into unthinkable excess. Furthermore, there is often a perception that preying on foreigners will bring the attention of much more efficient and less easily circumvented foreign authorities.
Most crimes against foreigners are petty theft or fraud, as most travelers would rather continue their vacation than spend a week trying to get a guy arrested for stealing a cell phone, and so there is little risk of getting caught. Violent crimes and real robberies usually target more lucrative business travelers, and are more likely to be managed by organized crime. The exception would be, like in this case, bandit controlled areas.
They do pretty much everywhere in the US as well.
re: Locals hating tourists.
Not always. I had a memorable afternoon in Athens, summer of 1990, trying to find the address where I was supposed to be meeting up with some of my classmates. I was in the Plaka, thinking the address was somewhere in that neighborhood, and somehow ended up asking a shopkeeper.
He and his adult son spent a good 45 minutes pouring over maps of Athens, trying to find the obscure street I was looking for. I bought nothing in their shop, being a poor college student. They were more than happy to help me.
When they finally gave up, and I thanked them profusely, the older man told me “No need to thank us, tourists like you are the reason we have this shop and make such a good living. We are happy to help.”
Nowadays, I live in a small town that has its share of tourists. The local business owners looooove the tourists, and go out of their way to be friendly. The non-touristy-people, like me, are not so excited about them, but I have to admit that the tourism has made the town better than it used to be. When I grew up here, it was very industrial. Nowadays it’s all cutesy, we have better shops and restaurants, and is overall a nicer place to live, a lot because of the tourism.
That’s why I kept that sentence so non-specific. All locals everywhere hae professed some hate for the tourists. Even Sven has a good post, up above - how do you feel when you see a group of foreign-speaking people at, say, the National Mall? There will be many different reactions.
If I lived in a town that had enough tourists to mess up traffic, I’m sure I’d resent them in the same way I resent the President coming to town and messing up my commute. But generally speaking I’ve always smiled and been helpful when I’ve run across a tourist who needed help. I’ve been helped by locals when I’ve been traveling, so it only seems fair.
I have only met with kindness when I traveled in the third world. Strangers went out of their way to help me find hotels or other destinations when I was lost. People that I had broken conversations with on the street invited me family gatherings or parties. However, I was never a ‘rich’ tourist, just another traveler and I think it showed.
Well I’m sure you did, the rest of us aren’t so lucky as to be local deities.
Good catch!
Me too, in all areas of the US and overseas. But when you’re a relatively poor local in a region dominated by tourism you see a different side of things. People in the tourism trade are outwardly (and usually genuinely) friendly and helpful but there’s a reason they’re called the “summer complaints”.
Rich residents of tourists destinations hate tourists too.
I have only been able to travel as a rich or rich looking tourist for a very short period in my life [I was engaged to a fairly rich guy when I was much younger] and I didn’t notice anybody in the smaller towns getting attitudinal towards us.
While travelling since then I have always tried to be polite and friendly towards everybody I ran into or interacted with and have never had a bad experience with anybody. When we do finally manage to do the dream trip to India, and the trip on the trans siberian railroad we will do our best to not be all gussied up in expensive clothing, jewelry and electronic toys. I will note that while it is sad the Swiss tourists had problems, they were idiots for going on a bicycle trip through an area known for banditry.
Come visit Cleveland, the Best Location in the Nation. We love our smattering of tourists here, 
I have to wonder how much hatred of tourists is based on an experience of dealing with a jerk traveler who gets a snotty because things aren’t like they are at home.
Thirty years ago, I was in Paris for a week and I was in a department store looking around and killing time. I heard a loud, obnoxious, nasal, very American voice whining “I don’t want to know how much it is in French - I want to know how much it is in American!” Then when the saleman did a rough conversioin, there was further whining “That’s TOO much!!”
If you tend to encounter mostly people like that, you’re not going to look too kindly on their fellow countrymen either, I suspect.
Hardly third world - but locals here in Las Vegas LOVE tourists with big bucks!
Sure, they can spend as much for a nice dinner and wine as I spend for my mortgage, and probably drop more in the slots than I earn in a month - but that is what keeps this city alive.
I have never heard a negative peep about tourists from any of my students who usually barely have two nickels to rub together. Granted, most of us rarely hang around The Strip - there are far better, cheaper places to go - but we certainly love our tourists! Please come visit - and bring all the cash you wish and wear all the gold and jewelry and drive the expensive cars…welcome, welcome and more welcome!
Exactly this. A friend and I travel together around the world regularly and we’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t want to go places where there are lots of Americans milling about because American tourists are generally rude as hell (we’re American, too!). Every time I hear someone being culturally insensitive (“ew! You eat THAT?” “OMG, you live in HUTS!?” “Your name is too hard to say, so I’m just going to call you John! LOL” “Ugh! But how much is it in REAL MONEY!” etc), it’s pretty much always in an American accent. To my horror.
My friend and I always end up getting invited to bars and such with the locals, but I suspect it’s because we both have a very “when in Rome” attitude. The kava in Fiji might be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth (there’s a joke there. . .), but if the band invites us to sit on the beach and drink with them and their buddies after work, I’m going to drink it with a smile and enjoy the company. They like to hear about America (“Do you live by Hollywood?!” is a big question), I like to hear about where they live, we all learn a lot about each other, but most of all, we all learn how alike we really are.
So yeah, I think it depends on what kind of traveler you are. If you’re what we affectionately call a touron (a tourist moron), then yeah, you’re gunna have a bad time.