Are you planning to visit your holiday home?

No-one needs to keep fingers crossed for returning business. It is inevitable.
People always come back.
That we need your money is a mostly a myth.

When I first lived here over 30 years ago we had tourism but in smaller amounts it was fine.
It is the way people have become dependent on Tourists that it is all too much.
Also the main benefactors are "incomers" who bought businesses here........It is not really of benefit to locals Plus we are always paying more for food etc.
The lack of supermarkets means higher prices. Also no real cheap shops.
The buying up of homes for holidays has pushed house prices up beyond key workers affordability.
Then there are the rude and entitled attitudes of our "visitors"
For some reason they look down on us, I really don't know why?
I grew up in London and I am so happy not to be there even though I loved it as younger person.
Some of us want nature and peace and quiet. We don't want the aggression and rudeness that has already been experienced within the last 4 days!

30 yrs ago maybe an area didn’t need tourism

But as things and industries change, you might find the tourists are more needed than you expect

Author Neil Gaiman found it essential to come all the way from New Zealand to visit his holiday home on Skye. Not enough in the world, especially as he was stupid enough to write about it on a public blog.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-52705243

Back to my recommendation of a "must see" film about the conflict between tourism and the local community in a Cornish fishing village. Here's a review:

www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/01/bait-review-mark-jenkin-cornish-fishing-village

I would think very hard before buying a second home anywhere. Surely if you love somewhere and want to holiday there, you can rent something or stay at a hotel so are honestly helping the local economy.

I really don’t recognise the picture you paint of holiday areas and tourists pinkquartz

We have a holiday home in the West Country and I can’t imagine why holiday makers or second home owners would look down on you or be rude.

Local people I have spoken to when we are there are invariably chatty and friendly so that’s how I treat them.

I can’t imagine why you would say that tourism isn’t needed in those parts as we have been told repeatedly from restaurant owners and others that they need to make a good living in the summer months to keep them going the rest of the year.

I don’t know where you live so can only speak from my own experience.

I can tell you that our local FB forum is full of complaints and stories at how our locals are being spoken to by "visitors"
I don't know why they look down in us but they are very rude....
and of course i do not mean every single person
We do not need the amount of tourists we have.
It is a myth.......

Escaped yesterday for a day trip to holiday home (run as a business) an hour away. All plants dead so plenty to do in the garden and reassuring to find the house was still there after two months.
However, I was pretty shocked to find a somewhat laid back approach to the current situation from the few locals I chatted with across our courtyard. Gardener said ‘no
one would know’ if we stayed overnight (true but not really the point), another couple from much further than a day trip away we’re clearly staying at their place and a (intelligent) neighbour said she didn’t know about the ‘no visitors in the garden’ rule.
I wondered why I’d been bothering....
On the garden visits point, I notice that in the GN ‘Good Morning’ thread, a number of posters are including garden visits among their daily plans (always adding ‘socially distancing’). No one’s contradicting these people any more (a lot of regulars have disappeared, probably in frustration) and it’s generally a nice gentle thread but..... oh well, maybe garden visits are somehow allowed now and I didn’t notice. Or more likely the advice is so illogical that the parallel ‘common sense’ advice is taking over subliminally...

You're right you shouldn't tar all locals with the same brush pinkquartz, it's just that the voices of the more outspoken ones are heard more, especially behind a keyboard on Facebook. Local newspapers are also very good as misreporting or exaggerating hostilities between tourists and locals when they want to.
We too live in a seaside town which thrives on tourism and I must say is feeling very sad not to have the visitors so far this year. The flowers are still being planted, the sea is glimmering and the weather is lovely but something is missing. It's the buzz the visitors bring and of course their massive spending power. I've never known any to be rude although they can be oblivious when it comes to passing on narrow pavements and driving down winding streets! I would like to see the second home owners and holiday home renters return in June but events and gatherings banned.

I am sure garden visits are strictly speaking not allowed but it’s difficult to see the reasoning behind that as we are now permitted to see one other person outdoors in a park for instance.

Maybe it’s thought that people would flout the rules by starting to have family gatherings in their back garden.

I bet it was reassuring to check on your holiday home Kate54

Our visit will have to wait as it is too far to go for a day.

Just a quick word about meeting up in your garden. I met my son but all the public places nearby had hordes of people (lives near a beauty spot) so we went into his back garden and sat down and had a chat and coffee. Far safer.

When went for a drive last night to our nearest beach 10 miles away here in Portugal on the Silver Coast. The setting sun was shimmering on the sea and it all loked beautiful. Even here owners are starting to come to clean their holiday apartments and houses ready for the summer but holidaymakers will be Portuguese but not from abroad.

In the Algarve people who live there permanently are saying they dont want people going to their holiday homes because of the danger of bringing Covid19 with them. But some residents there have bought say 2 or 3 apartments and live in one. The other(s) they let out as holiday homes and the income is what they have to live on because they are not yet of retirenent age. Obviously with Covid19 hitting in March after no income during the winter those people have been hit hard and have had difficulty carrying on with no money. So they want the holiday lets to be used to give them an income as do those working in restaurants and cafes. So there is no easy answer. My friend who lives there heard this morning that her son's flight with Ryanair in July has been cancelled

I read today though that both Portugal and Greece were going to welcome people from the U.K. in the summer: not sure what measures the are planning to put in place.

Pinkquartz, what would you suggest people who have turned their livelihoods to tourism do instead of tourism? In most communities that have done this, traditional ways of working no longer exist.

In most situations the common refrain of “we don’t need the tourists as much as you think we do”, is actually untrue. There is no longer the diversification of industry

Summerlove There are other ways to make money

we do not need tourism as it is these days to survive. Tourism is more destructive to the environment and so clearly not much concern is being given to saving the planet......

As i said most of the businesses are now incomers making their money...it is not really good for local economy....you have driven up house rental and buying prices and driven many born here away.
As we now have internet and courier services working well we can deliver goods made here around the country is just one thought.

Meanwhile coasts around the country are packed and without open loos there is piss and shit all over the place... IS THIS RESPECTFUL?

Excrement and urine contain the virus so it is quite feasible that our disrespectful visitors are passing on the Virus to the locals.......and you wonder why you are not welcomed?

In what ways do you think being a second homer brings money to the locals?

In what ways do you think being a second homer brings money to the locals?

Surely they pay taxes on their house? They also spend money when they are there. Most people I know who have second homes spent quite a lot of money to renovate them using local contractors.

As far as how I have raised prices and driven people up, I don’t actually own a second house along the coast, or anywhere else. I don’t think it’s the second homeowners who are making a mess of the coastal areas either. There will always be a few people who are disrespectful, but I choose to believe that the majority are respectful of places they visit

To follow up on this though, and to go back to a point I have previously made, how would you expect people to make money in these areas now, without tourists? As I said, many places have no industry to fall back on because they didn’t keep the diversification and just stuck with tourism.

Perhaps, originally they could have survived without the tourism, but I think that is no longer the case in most places.

Summerlove

we do not need second homers to pay tax, home owners can pay tax.

I made it clear it doesn't have to be no tourists but the numbers have risen here to stupid level.
we are a village.....not an industrial city!

I don't understand why you are arguing when you just do not know about this issue.

Where do you live pinkquartz ? You don’t have to mention the town if you’d rather not, just the county would do.

I don't want to say but I am appalled at the cheek and behaviour.......the rules don't seem to apply to so many people and when you are in a small village the impact is huge.
I think city dwellers cannot conceive of the invaded experience because you live surrounded all the time?

I just don't think anyone needs more than one house when so many people have none.
Several Scottish islands are not allowing people to buy property unless they intend to live there all year, work there and send their children to school on the island.
At least one island I know of doesn't allow visiting caravans or campervans. There are no campsites. Nothing new. It's always been like that.
It's about keeping the numbers low enough and the views lovely enough that everyone can enjoy themselves

I just don't think anyone needs more than one house
there has been the occasional day (or two) during lockdown when I wished we had two houses.

Do let us know where, Pinkquartz so we can all be sure not to venture there...

Ah but you can't be in both at once.
Callistemon

I was referring to house ownership. I am not such a tyrant. There are plenty of ways of enjoying the countryside , travelling and holidaying without buying property.

Of course, no one needs two properties. I don’t need a four bedroom house for my main tesidence, either. It surely has to be about choice, As it happens, I didn’t buy my second home, I inherited it from my late mother and decided to keep it so that my own family could enjoy it and so on down the line.
I also let it out which allows many other families to enjoy the area and all it has on offer. We, and they, are supporting the local economy all the time - visitors in restaurants, pubs, hotels, shops and tourist attractions and owners employing local tradesmen, cleaners, gardeners etc.
I do agree though that in some areas, second home ownership has got out of hand, driving prices up so that youngsters can’t afford to live there. I couldn’t have afforded it either, as it happens. Meanwhile, it’s a matter of mutual respect - the local economy needs its visitors and visitors need the economy. Hopefully, we will soon get back to a summer ‘norm’.

Not saying where I live because it is already too busy.

Last evening I overheard a very naice middle class couple trying to persuade the next door holiday park owner to let them stay in a caravan.......or did he know anywhere else open?
that is entitled......surely the rules are clear.

We’ve been planning a holiday in Cornwall for ages and a review popped up on Facebook of someone that has just had a holiday there. So people are letting out properties already.