can somebody explain to me why many people strongly hate tourists?
Any cite? Where do you get that information?
My problem with tourists is that they block the sidewalks. People, in New York walking is a form of transportation, not a hobby! Move your fat asses* out of the way, I’ve got places to be!
- If you’re going to accuse me of being a fat-basher, get a life.
aren’t tourists a big part of New York’s economy? maybe they deserve more respect if that’s the case.
Here in Alaska, a frequent question by locals is, “If it’s tourist season, why can’t we can shoot 'em?”
New Yorkers are great to tourists! I even stop and give lost-looking people directions. I just wish they figure out that they’re in people’s way. If you want to stop and look around, pull over!
I can empathize. The onslaught of out-of-towers to Lubbock must be rather stressful.
I used to work at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. My office was right on the Mall. (It was like working at Disneyland.)
You wouldn’t have to ask this question if you were trying to walk to a meeting on the other side of the Mall in mid-July through vast herds of milling tourists. The problem with tourists is that they’re on vacation and you’re not. Most of them are not moving in any fixed direction, just wandering about in a slow and semi-random fashion. And yes, they are always in the way.
I recall a great pictorial that the Washington Post did one year during tourist season called “Visitors From Another Planet,” showing the shorts-clad throngs industriously videotaping things that did not move.
This is a matter of opinion, and therefore better suited to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I live in Montana. We get tons of tourists. We don’t generally “hate” them, but we natives are not fond of them. Here’s some reasons why, in no particular order.:
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They drive slow. The highway speed in Montana is 75. We natives drive around 78. If you see someone driving 55 or hanging out in the left lane not letting you pass, they are usually a tourist.
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Fishing. Pick up a magazine (especially about flyfishing) and it will have an article about Montana. So all these guys come in (“Orvisites” is the name for them)
a. we catch fish to eat, they let them go. I’ve actually had some out-of-staters harsh me for keeping a fish.
b. Crowding on rivers. If I’m fishing a section of river and a Montanan comes up, they will move on. An out-of-stater will walk in the stream 15 feet down from me and start fishing. OR they will hog a hole for an hour.
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Economics. Montana is in the low 40th percentile of income. We are first in percentage of people who work two jobs. So when someone says, “It sure is cheap to buy a house in Montana!” I want to say, “Yeah, try and buy one when you and your wife are both making $8 an hour and you both work 60 hours a week.”
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Rudeness. We aren’t rude to each other. If something’s wrong, we shrug our shoulders and try to work the person to find a solution, whether it’s a bad meal, a screwed up reservation, what have you. But city people think it’s OK to talk down to someone or start shouting. We know that the gal who serves our meal could be the daughter of someone who knows us.
Tourist don’t conform to out cultural norms. Not their fault, but . . .
Montana (for those of us who grew up here) has ONE degree of seperation. If I meet another Montanan and we get talking, we WILL know someone in common. Therefore, we treat each other nice, whether it’s on the river, in a bar, at breakfast or standing in line.
Whistlepig
Disclaimer: Not all tourists are jerks.
Some tourists like to go around saying things like, “Well, that’s not the way we do it back in (insert city name here)”.
This is almost gauranteed to get you a dirty look.
A common sign in shops on River Street (a popular tourist section of Savannah): We Don’t Care How You Do It Up North.
I used to work in a pawn shop and a guy came in wanting to pawn a POS gold herringbone necklace. It was bent and scratched all to hell and back. I made him a more than reasonable offer and he said, “Back in New York I woulda got $xxx”. I replied, “See that road out there? It’ll take you to I-95 and right back to New York.”
He took the money anyway.
And in Montana, the bumper stickers say:
“We don’t give a damn how you did it in California.”
We hate foreign tourists for all the money and goodwill they bring to the country’s economy, and for repeatedly being… errr…foreign…
is that supposed to be somekind of insult, elmwood?
Hi Rabid, I hope to be a tourist in your country some day. But I think NZ is going to follow Montana in a couple of ways.
When I was in college (pre-MTV, for those of you who care) I had a professor who taught “Montana History as a Third World Country”. And he laid out a very simple timeline/progression of history:
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The natives live there.
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Outsiders come in and start taking natural resources (the fur trade, for Montana)
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The Outsiders realize they can take ALL the natural resources (Outsiders kill all the buffalo)
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The Outsiders discover further natural resources (Gold, for Montana)
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The Outsiders kill or roundup all the natives, so that the Outsiders can have all the natural resources. Then they destroy parts of the environment taking out the natural resouces.
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The Outsiders take over the country.
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The Outsiders use up all the natural resources (Montana essentially has no timber or mining resources left.)
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The Outsiders invite others to come and see the “natural beauty”.
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The Outsiders now make their living selling burgers and cleaning toilets while the “New Outsiders” go skiing and build mansions in the woods.
Be glad that we can’t drive to NZ.
Whistlepig
Around here the tourists get a bad name because our town is pretty snobby, and the tourists are pretty low brow.
If the people that lived here had their way, the town would be full of botiques and bistros. But tourists are partial to stores that sell cheap junk and fast food. Added to that, the tourists congregate at an area of town (the boardwalk) which is almost entirely seperate from the rest of town, and they rarely go up to the beautiful redwoods (well, maybe to visit the mystery spot) or any of the many charming places in Santa Cruz. They even ignore our many tucked away beaches in favor of the one Southern California vollyball and sunbathing beach. So yeah, townfolks lookd own on tourists because they generally have pretty lowbrow taste.
And sometimes they are genuinely annoying. Because they do not live here, they can be as loud, drunk and messy and rude as they want.
Finally, people resent having to be nice to them just because they make up a huge part of our economy.
AND, here’s a few reasons WHY we hate tourists.
Stupid questions like “how far above sea level are we” (asked while standing near cook inlet) Hmmmmmm How tall are you???
Tourist, (talking to a friend of mine when she worked at JCPenney): Where can I see a grizzly bear?
My Friend: Well, sir we have a very nice Alaskan Zoo
Tourist: No, I want to see one in the wild
MF: Well, the Alaska Experience theatre has some great footage of Kodiak bears
Tourist: No, live bears in the Wild!
MF: Well, then you’d have to actually go to Kodiak or perhaps a fly-in guide?
Tourist: No, I don’t want to leave the area, I want to see one HERE.
MF: Well, a guide might be able to find one in the park near “Flattop” but it’s not likely, they’re a bit scarce in these parts
Tourist: No, you don’t understand, I mean I want to see one in the wild here in ANCHORAGE, I don’t have a car so I can’t go far.
MF: Sir, I’m just a clerk in the Teen clothing department, perhaps you’ll find what you’re looking for at the Visitor’s Center
(to be fair to this seemingly brain dead tourist, a grizzly DID commit a “B&E” on a local auto electric parts store, destroying the plate glass door, his route of entry, ate and scattered employees leftover lunches from the trash, and left, according to our local paper “blueberry colored droppings” around the cement floor. This happened back in the 80s).
Number one reason we Alaskans hate tourists:
Long lines of tiny little blue hairs in giant motorhomes driving 35mph down Seward Highway (one lane south, one lane north, until you get about 40 miles south of Anchorage or so) to Kenai, and passing EVERY turnout in sight.
Special case, I guess; I’m white. I’m living in Hong Kong right now. The typical tourist is pretty detrimental to the image of white people here, and every interaction I undertake in certain segments of the city will be colored by this perception. So I hate tourists partially because some of them are directly irritating, and most of them just make it more difficult to fit in. But they keep the economy afloat, and I moved out to where the tourists don’t come so it’s not so bad anymore. So maybe “hate” is a strong word.
My location: New York/London. Tourists are annoying? Really? I haven’t noticed…
But the irony of hating tourists becomes clear when you travel yourself and realise: Now you are a tourist!
Even worse: Being recognised as a tourist - by other tourists. Ewww…
Tourists are a reason why some wise New Orleanians leave town during Mardi Gras. I wasn’t one of em when I lived there, but I really wanted to be.