The internet is filled with listicles about tourist traps you should avoid, and often at or near the top of the list are certain destinations where the aggressive vendors and/or corrupt security guards ruin the experience for visitors. Middle Eastern Cities such as Marrakesh and Giza are prime examples, but I have also encountered hideously-pushy and rude vendors myself in the Caribbean, among other places. And then there are places where the locals are just unapologetically hostile to tourists who dare to enter their locality (one such city that often gets this complaint is Paris). Then there’s the rampant pickpocketing all over Rome, restaurant-billing scams all over … well, Rome, but also other Italian cities (and I’m sure other cities all across the globe). The list goes on.
Has any government ever taken a hard look at these matters and instituted measures to address this? Perhaps through, I don’t know, undercover cops posing as tourists to bust corrupt guards, or licensing requirements for vendors, or what have you?
I should have put a disclaimer in my OP to the effect that Paris has a reputation for having unapologetically hostile locals. Maybe not necessaril deserved, but a reputation nonetheless.
I think the real reputation is everybody in France taking their holidays around the same time in July/August, with all that entails. Other than that, Paris is also a reasonably big city, with all the issues that implies.
I have… heard… Pyongyang is pretty strict about behaviour at tourist attractions.
Not so long ago the use of selfie sticks at major attractions came to a head and places stopped allowing thier use. Same thing with drones, they are now banned in most major parks. All because people don’t understand common courtesy or lack common sense.
Things have gotten a bit better at places like Monkey Forest and Uluwatu in Bali. The monkeys at those locations had a real racket going with the locals: they would snatch sunglasses, purses, scarves, cameras or any other personal property in reach, to the dismay of the tourist who’d just been targeted. Then, a helpful local would step in and generously get the stolen items back, by trading a banana for the purloined object. Of course, then the local would wait expectantly for a tip from the relieved tourist. So, win-win for monkeys and locals: monkey gets banana, human gets cash.
I haven’t been on Bali in a few years, but there was some improvement in this scam over the 25 years or so I used to occasionally hang out there. There were some signs, and verbal warnings, to be careful, which hadn’t existed earlier. I suspect the local government was behind those measures. But who knows.
The common thread seems to be that it happens in places that have weak local governments and/or a certain disregard for the law.
I mean, you do not see this shit happening in the Netherlands, the US, the UK, or even the Frenc-speaking parts of Belgium.
But it seems to happen in more laissez-faire places like Italy, Arab countries, some Latin American ones, etc…
As pessimistic as it sounds, I think if the governments gave a shit, they’d already have cracked down, hence the reason it doesn’t happen in the places I mentioned.
I’ve only been there once, but I understand that China is extremely safe for visitors, because the draconian law enforcement does not tolerate locals hassling tourists in any way, shape or form.
I’m not the OP but I assume it was to draw attention to the fact that the thread wasn’t about rude behavior by tourists, who are probably the first group most people would think of when considering bad behavior in the tourist industry.
I do that sort of thing a lot - it’s an attempt, however misguided, to reflect the tone of voice that is missing in written communication.
I’ve heard of American cab drivers sometimes taking advantage of tourists by driving them by circuitous routes (for example). Are you saying that’s pure fiction?
It’s not just tourists. When I lived in DC, i was ejected from cabs for no reason (the guy suddenly couldnt go past GW Hospital), led to about “off duty” then take the pretty coed fare across the block, gotten into arguments about the route, and admonished for not having change for a $20, etc. This was well before Uber and right at the beginning
It can happen anywhere. I was in Toronto about five years ago, and got a cab from the taxi rank at my hotel. I told the driver where I wanted to go, and he went by a circuitous route. That was fine by me, as you’ll see.
Me: Hey, there on the left. That was the field where we used to play beer-league softball. And there, across the street, was where we’d go for beer and wings after the game. Looks like it’s still open, whaddaya know. My old office building should be coming up … there it is, on the right … oh gosh, it’s condos now.
Driver: Do you know Toronto, sir?
Me: Lived here for over 40 years.
Driver: Oops …
Really, I didn’t care. It was just nice to see some familiar places in the city again. But if I didn’t know the city as well as I do, I wouldn’t have known any better.
My own experience overseas is there are some places with unusually pushy vendors. But it’s usually rubes with no experience of overseas travel who’re in the most tourist-trappy of tourist traps who ZOMG! can’t deal with it. A resolute “No thank you!” in either 'Murrican or the local language if you can manage it work plenty well for me wherever I’ve been.
Another thing is people used to USA white bread suburban life may simply have no experience with street peddlars and open-air marketplaces at all. They’re much more exuberant and interactive forms of commerce than shopping at Nordstroms or even Target. What feels like targeted victimization is simply ordinary shopkeeper come-ons.
My personal worst locals-conning-tourists experience was in New Orleans. I’ve not been pick-pocketed anywhere, but there was a lot of that in New Orleans too. Right here in the good old US-of-A.
It sure happened to me (or my Dad actually) in NYC back in the late 60s. My parents and us grade-school aged kids fly in from Los Angeles to JFK. We’re staying in central Manhattan. Pile into a big old Checker cab and all our SoCal accents totally give us away as non-locals. What the driver didn’t know was dad was an airline pilot and had been driven from that exact airport terminal to that exact hotel countless times. A scenic drive up the Hudson side of Manhattan is not part of that route.
There are places feeling the effects of over-tourism (Barcelona, Venice, for example), to the point of trying to restrict conversion of residential accommodation to vacation rentals, or charging extra taxes/entry fees, and the like. Don’t forget, (a) tourism isn’t necessarily the economic be-all and end-all, and (b) locals have votes.
And on the individual level, it does matter to make sure you know and practise local courtesies (e g., always starting a conversation in France with “Bonjour”, otherwise you’ll seem abrupt and demanding).
As for outright scammers and nuisances, police everywhere have a lot of competing demands on their time and resources and they can’t catch them all.
In the late 80s or early 90s, Florida law enforcement tried to crack down on criminals who were targeting tourists in places like Orlando. I don’t know if they were successful, but it did lead to rental companies making their vehicles a little more difficult to identify as rentals.
“They [Italians] won’t say shit if they see someone picking a sailor’s pocket but they have a lot to say when that sailor start’s beating the shit out of the pickpocket.” – My sister.
At one point, rental cars here in Florida could be identified by their license plate - they started with Y or Z, according to the article I just found. I only remember the Y’s, personally.
Apparently there are other ways to tell still, though.