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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They don’t know where they are. They don’t know where they’re going. And they won’t get out of the fucking way.
Hey! Don’t be dissin’ our Twine Ball!
And you can hardly say it exists only to attract tourists; Francis worked on it for many years before telling anyone about it.
Also, to me, tourist trap implies something where you are trapped – you had to pay to get in, and then once inside you discover that it isn’t worth paying for. That isn’t true of the Twine Ball, since it is completely free, displayed out in a public park.
To me “Tourist Trap” implies something the locals would never visit, has an abundance of Concession Stands and shops selling Souvenirs (usually overpriced and of mid-range quality at best), and exists largely to part said tourists from their money in exchange for said over-priced souvenirs and snacks. There’s also a connotation of Tourists being stuck there until the coach leaves; too- hence the aptness of “Trap” in the name.
That’s my view too. I don’t care if you’re from outside of where I live, just don’t be a dipshit the whole time. I’ve had my fair share of tourists given that I work around the corner from Parliament Square in London. I used to walk through it on the way to work but eventually changed my route because of the huge amount of human flotsam that would get in the way (oh, and nearly losing an eye on more than one occasion when someone you’re walking past suddenly jabs their finger out to point at something, completely obliviously to all the other people around them).
I agree that the difference between a tourist trap and attraction is the quality/price and whether it’s actually worth seeing. The Tower of London is a tourist attraction, the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus is a tourist trap.
Over the years, I’ve found some very nice, polite and even entertaining tourists. These folks are not bad to have around and contribute a lot to the local economy.
However, for every two of those, there is the rude idiot who thinks that all of the locals are there for his/her entertainment or to cater to his/her every wish. Example: at local songwriter’s or performer’s nights, sometimes there is someone from BF Nebraska (no offense, Cornhuskers, just an example out of my hat) who wants you do a duet with him/his drunk buddy the next set. Listen, bubba, a) these things are scheduled to showcase the talent that draws tourists like yourself, locals and folks in the industry looking for talent and b) you really think anyone who works or has ambitions in the business would get up with an unknown quantity, likely drunk person to perform with his/her own name on the bill? Sit back, enjoy what you came to Music City to see or next year go to DisneyWorld. Don’t ruin it for everyone else.
That said, I enjoy being a (polite) tourist in others’ home areas.
Tourist trap- go to John O’Groats.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I now understand what people mean by annoying tourists.
I lived in New York City for 15 years, and have lived in Washington DC off and on for 7 years. I can’t remember ever getting pissed off at a tourist, or even mildly upset. In fact, I love tourists. If there weren’t tourists where I live, it would be like the one-horse town I grew up in, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Without tourists, where I live would be screwed. It nearly was, until they brought in skiing a few decades ago.
That being said, we get a lot of Californians up here, and the way they drive makes me want to scream. In the summer? They try to go way too fast. Small town. Tiny blocks. Slow down, idiots. In the winter? OMG, snow and ice! Must go 3 miles an hour or we will DIE!!! Yes, you do need to slow down, but if you are that scared, you shouldn’t try to drive here in the winter. We have buses. Lots of them. Some are free. Please use them.
Though I guess I’d rather get stuck behind some panicky Californian than end up in front of some local jerk in his big truck who thinks that he is invulnerable to ice on the road since he has 4WD. :rolleyes: Sorry, asshole, I am not going to go 55 at night in a blinding snowstorm on the windy two-lane highway.
Tourists tend to display an astonishing amount of ignorance.
They come to New Mexico and sometimes aren’t sure what country they’re in. They complain that it’s so dry, or that it’s raining every afternoon, or that it’s too cold, or too hot (or both). And pretty much without fail, even if they don’t do the above, they come here to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and remark loudly on their surprise about how many people speak Spanish. Yes, lots of people speak it fluently or as a first language. No, that doesn’t mean they’re all Mexican. If you don’t like people speaking Spanish, don’t come to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
As for a tourist trap, the Statue of Liberty. You go and spent, what, ten bucks to take a crowded ferry out to the island where you stand and look at a statue, and then if you want go into a museum where you can look at pictures of the same statue - which is really of no historical significance at all.
