I don’t see any problem with this at all. Just because you’re employed means no one’s allowed to ask you directions? A bar I used to hang out at was down the block from a much more popular bar, and people would come in all the time to ask for the other bar. I thought it was kind of funny, but no one else thought it was interesting enough to even remark on.
I gotta admit - I am hatin’ on tourists. They just BLOCK my valuable path - especially where I work. I wanna clip 'em upside their head.
Tourists are the ones looking up.
Chula and missbunny what I had in mind when I posted is a bit of humor relating to being a tourist out of the country for the first time. Really, I wasn’t nearly as bad as most Americans I saw in Europe, you could pick them out a mile away. The experiences I related were all taken with a smile on my face, I wasn’t one of those Americans that thinks he’s in Disneyland when he’s out of the country, or thinks the whole world needs to kiss his feet because he is an American. I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of person that enjoyed my travels overseas immensely and I look forward to going again some day.
I guess I wasn’t clear about the tone of my posts, sorry about that.
I grew up in San Francisco and Sonoma County (California wine country). I’ve seen a tourist or two, and they don’t bug me at all. I love to travel and I try to be as polite as possible, but I’m sure I’ve done stuff that bugged a local before. It all balances out.
Besides, without the tourists we North Bay Areans wouldn’t be able to giggle at the horribly underdressed and freezing people walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. “We’re in California! Let’s wear shorts and a tank top!” Hahahaha!
Kyla, I can vouch for that! And the first time I visited the Bay Area, there was a heat wave of 85 F in the valley. I was visiting my friend’s place in Sunnyvale, and we went to the house and he picked a oranv\ge off the tree in the back yard and made orange juice. So conditions corresponded to my stereotype. The next day when we went over the hills to the ocean, I learned very quickly how unusual that was…
I once overheard a tourist in San Francisco say to his companions: “I’m surprised they don’t have more ice cream places here. It gets hot during the summer.”
I wonder if they ever figured out why I broke down into hysterics on the spot 
Born and raised in Brugge, Belgium.
Nice, medieval looking town. Lots of history and culture. Lots of things to see, the canals, the Belfrey, the cathedral and church (with the genuine Michelangelo - mother & child).
I could go on. It’s a really beautiful spot. It’s also jampacked with tourists all the time. We don’t have a tourist season. My town is a tourist attraction. The influx of visitors never ceases.
Which makes it the most expensive town in Belgium, even for the locals. Not nice. The local language is Flemish, or Dutch. Not that many people bother to learn our language, so most people living in Brugge have to be able to speak at least 4 languages (Dutch, French, English, and German). A positive aspect, yes, but it’s also annoying. It’s a lack of respect for us that they don’t even bother to learn how to say “thank you”, or “please”.
Prices of real estate are the highest in Belgium, again because of tourism.
Which is why i’m not living there.
We’ve got horse-drawn carriages. For locals living in Brugge, the noise on the cobblestones from early morning on, is, to say the least, disturbing.
I agree that we should cater for tourists, as they bring in the money. It’s something different all together when a whole town is taken over by tourists, and it prevents the locals from going about their business. The whole year around.
You missed part 2. After they die their families try and sue the state because the signs mentioning the dangers of falling rocks, collapsing rock benches (big recently solidified lava planes that can crumble) or dangerous sea currents weren’t garrish and obtrusive enough. But that’s nothing limited to tourists in Hawaii.
But other then that I generally like tourists and look where I live. They’re all around me.
Declan asked:
Quite often they do, yes.
Tourists in San Francisco are fun, in a mean-spirited sort of way.
Seemingly 80+% automatically correlate California with “hot and sunny”. Unfortunately for them, this is not usually the San Francisco reality ( it is the reality elsewhere in the Bay Area, but then the BA is bizarre in its profusion of distinct microclimates - driving a couple of miles can mean a 25 degree temperture shift ). So you invariably have large numbers of tourists milling around in prime tourist spots, even in the summer, freezing their asses off while wearing shorts ( undoubtedly the only thing they packed ) in the fog.
- Tamerlane
That’s a really important point. So many people expect to go somewhere and have it exactly like home. They have grass in minnesota and so there’s no reason it shouldn’t grow in Tuscon.
I don’t understand why people want to travel for hours to a place where they know nothing about, have no idea what the locals could be doing there other than being part of their vacation, and where they want to leave with a piece of it kitsch or vital peices of the environment.
Okay that’s nice that you weren’t “as bad” as the other tourists, but what’s with this comment about it not being Disneyland? Does that mean you’re a jerk to the poor kid behind the counter because it’s only Disneyland?
I just wanted to point that out because even though we think we are bending over backwards to be polite and open to new things, doesn’t mean that the other person sees it that way. It’s nobody’s great honor to serve you. It could really, truly “be a pleasure serving you” if you treat them with respect and appreciate the work they are doing for you. You not trying to understand them is disrespectful.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hate tourists, but one of the things that drove me nuts about living in a tourist town (Williamsburg, VA) was that so many people seemed to think it was OK to make random conversational remarks to total strangers on the street. Now, I have no problem with legitimate questions, like asking somebody for directions or the time. I’m talking about people who would address some completely mundane observation to me when they didn’t know me from Eve, without so much as an “Excuse me,” and then repeat their remark at top volume if I didn’t come up with a response quickly enough.
Maybe it’s a regional thing, and this is acceptable wherever they come from, or maybe they just lose their sense of personal boundaries when they go on vacation. Regardless, it’s annoying.
At least in Williamsburg (and some of these places, I’m sure), the tourists are contained. They won’t go more than 20 feet away from the officially sanctioned “historical area” except to go to Applebee’s or one of the 20 other chain restaurants. When I lived in W’burg, it mean I could, for example, go to some fine eateries less than a mile from downtown and be undisturbed.