Tourism Entitlement
Living in a small town that is largely built on tourism makes for an interesting cross-section of people. After all, the things people come here to enjoy are the same things that drove me to move here. I was the tourist that came to visit, and I am now the local.
I found in my years working at the hotel that the tourists have a pretty simplistic view of locals. They see us all as ignorant and talk down to us. They treat us as if the fact that they decided to come visit our town means they are entitled to treat everyone as servants. We even get "hair flip" letters our local paper is only too happy to publish, fueling the hate part of our love/hate relationship with the tourists.
We have an attraction known as Diana's Bath. It's a series of waterfalls that was once the site of a sawmill and is now a popular swimming area. It's part of the White Mountain National Forest and operated under the U.S. Forest Service. The parking lot isn't exactly small, but it doesn't handle the crowds that pile in here in the warmer months. People who live around this attraction have become increasingly frustrated at the danger that is created on the road with people parking wherever they want, including on their property or even blocking them in. Over the winter, the town put up NO PARKING signs all around the road leading to the Diana's Bath parking lot. There's $100 fines for illegally parking there.
The first weekend of summer, Memorial Day, people used to coming here and doing what they want chose to ignore the NO PARKING signs. They received tickets. One of them felt the need to write a letter that was published. I'm paraphrasing, but it was essentially: I drop $2k to $4k in your town every year. There was nothing on the sign saying you'd ticket us. And why are you ticketing us for four times the amount that you would ticket people at other NO PARKING signs. I deserve to park there because we go there every year. Now I'm not coming back to your town again. So there!
This is the mentality that comes up over and over again: a sense that because I spend money, I have the right to set my own rules and not be called on them. The author said we weren't being "tourist friendly" because we were choosing to enforce our laws.
Another place we've had issues with tourists is on the Saco River. People like to float down the river whether it's in a canoe, kayak, tube, or their own contraption. One inventive floatation involves tying pallets together with foam inside of it to create a sort of floating island. Unfortunately, self-made contraptions like this are usually made to be disposable in the eye of the creator. Unfortunately, they do not usually dispose of it. There is a problem with people just leaving this garbage wherever they decide the end of their journey is.
In addition, floating down the Saco River is so popular it's created a problem with the property that abuts it. People pull off and use private property as their personal bathrooms without following proper disposal procedures. They also seem to think they have the right to get out of the river wherever they want for whatever reason they want. While no one "owns" the river, the land surrounding it is a different story. There have been problems with people pulling off to camp or party on private land without permission.
The problem of garbage and damage to the environment was first and foremost a few years back. A letter was published in the newspaper from a woman from Massachusetts that said that the locals should get together in their spare time and clean up the river. You read that right, the solution for the tourists who come in and act like boorish pigs is that they are entitled to do it and we should clean up after them.
After all, they're dropping money, aren't they?
Most of the locals in this town work damn hard. Many of them work more than one job just to make ends meet. They do not have "free time" to go clean up after anyone. Once a year, we do have a Valley Pride Day. It's usually the beginning of May. Businesses sponsor it and people volunteer to clean up the roads around town. It culminates with people dropping their garbage bags at a local hotel where the businesses set up a free bbq and use of the hotel's pool as a reward. Other than that, our "free time" is spent the same way other people do: sleeping, spending time with family, running to doctor appointments, helping kids with homework, going to their sports games, and just relaxing. They'd also like to enjoy some of the same things people feel the need to come visit us to experience, whether that's skiing in the winter or swimming and hiking in the summer. Yet some of the tourists seem to think we exist just to serve them.
I've seen this attitude many times and in many places when I travel as well. Courtesy is out the window and entitlement is the new God of travel to many. I try to smile when I feel the attitude and remember what my boss at the hotel told me once: "They are working how hard to earn the money to visit here, you're smart enough to live here."
I found in my years working at the hotel that the tourists have a pretty simplistic view of locals. They see us all as ignorant and talk down to us. They treat us as if the fact that they decided to come visit our town means they are entitled to treat everyone as servants. We even get "hair flip" letters our local paper is only too happy to publish, fueling the hate part of our love/hate relationship with the tourists.
We have an attraction known as Diana's Bath. It's a series of waterfalls that was once the site of a sawmill and is now a popular swimming area. It's part of the White Mountain National Forest and operated under the U.S. Forest Service. The parking lot isn't exactly small, but it doesn't handle the crowds that pile in here in the warmer months. People who live around this attraction have become increasingly frustrated at the danger that is created on the road with people parking wherever they want, including on their property or even blocking them in. Over the winter, the town put up NO PARKING signs all around the road leading to the Diana's Bath parking lot. There's $100 fines for illegally parking there.
The first weekend of summer, Memorial Day, people used to coming here and doing what they want chose to ignore the NO PARKING signs. They received tickets. One of them felt the need to write a letter that was published. I'm paraphrasing, but it was essentially: I drop $2k to $4k in your town every year. There was nothing on the sign saying you'd ticket us. And why are you ticketing us for four times the amount that you would ticket people at other NO PARKING signs. I deserve to park there because we go there every year. Now I'm not coming back to your town again. So there!
This is the mentality that comes up over and over again: a sense that because I spend money, I have the right to set my own rules and not be called on them. The author said we weren't being "tourist friendly" because we were choosing to enforce our laws.
Another place we've had issues with tourists is on the Saco River. People like to float down the river whether it's in a canoe, kayak, tube, or their own contraption. One inventive floatation involves tying pallets together with foam inside of it to create a sort of floating island. Unfortunately, self-made contraptions like this are usually made to be disposable in the eye of the creator. Unfortunately, they do not usually dispose of it. There is a problem with people just leaving this garbage wherever they decide the end of their journey is.
In addition, floating down the Saco River is so popular it's created a problem with the property that abuts it. People pull off and use private property as their personal bathrooms without following proper disposal procedures. They also seem to think they have the right to get out of the river wherever they want for whatever reason they want. While no one "owns" the river, the land surrounding it is a different story. There have been problems with people pulling off to camp or party on private land without permission.
The problem of garbage and damage to the environment was first and foremost a few years back. A letter was published in the newspaper from a woman from Massachusetts that said that the locals should get together in their spare time and clean up the river. You read that right, the solution for the tourists who come in and act like boorish pigs is that they are entitled to do it and we should clean up after them.
After all, they're dropping money, aren't they?
Most of the locals in this town work damn hard. Many of them work more than one job just to make ends meet. They do not have "free time" to go clean up after anyone. Once a year, we do have a Valley Pride Day. It's usually the beginning of May. Businesses sponsor it and people volunteer to clean up the roads around town. It culminates with people dropping their garbage bags at a local hotel where the businesses set up a free bbq and use of the hotel's pool as a reward. Other than that, our "free time" is spent the same way other people do: sleeping, spending time with family, running to doctor appointments, helping kids with homework, going to their sports games, and just relaxing. They'd also like to enjoy some of the same things people feel the need to come visit us to experience, whether that's skiing in the winter or swimming and hiking in the summer. Yet some of the tourists seem to think we exist just to serve them.
I've seen this attitude many times and in many places when I travel as well. Courtesy is out the window and entitlement is the new God of travel to many. I try to smile when I feel the attitude and remember what my boss at the hotel told me once: "They are working how hard to earn the money to visit here, you're smart enough to live here."
Wow... people can be so tacky. I grew up near Williamsburg, VA, so I am pretty used to tourists myself. But Williamsburg is equipped to deal with tourists. It sounds like your town could use more help.
ReplyDeletePretty funny that people were complaining about the parking tickets. Screw 'em!
They do pretty good. There's been a struggle because there have been so many more tourists in the last 10 years with a number of new hotels being built, plus the rise of sites like VRBO which lets people rent out their houses so easily. There are just more of everyone and everything in town.
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