A LOCAL has slammed tourists for ruining her beauty spot home as she struggles to find parking and can’t take her kids to the beach.
Fiona McGowan, who lives near St Ives, Cornwall, said residents in the area strongly disliked tourists.
Writing in the Independent, she highlighted the challenges facing locals regarding overcrowding and the pros and cons tourism brings to Cornwall.
The Cornish resident said their beaches are ruined by travellers who leave rubbish lying about.
“Tourist destinations like Mousehole, St Ives and Port Isaac are rendered no-go for us locals,” she added.
Instead, Fiona is forced to stay in her garden or go to the park to avoid tourists on the beach, she claimed.
The swarms of tourists we love to hate
Fiona McGowan
The cornish local added that she has to wait until 4pm when it becomes less crowded but still faces expensive parking.
The summer season marks an influx of tourists who rely on the working local community in the hospitality sector.
Like many teenagers in Cornwall, Fiona’s daughter, 16, has a summer job working in a restaurant.
Much of the staff there are a similar age and are all locals harbouring resentment towards tourists, Fiona claimed.
However, the cornish resident admitted that it goes both ways as the local community “would be penniless without them”.
The county’s popularity has soared and has become a summer hotspot for Brits looking to holiday in the UK.
This has led to locals dubbing visitors as “emmets”.
Fiona explained: “‘Emmets’ is Cornish for ants – and local slang for holidaymakers, the swarms of tourists we love to hate.”
Yet, much of Cornwall relies on visitors propping up the hospitality sector each summer.
“When a region or city builds its entire economy around tourists, we have to accept the damage to our environment; our resentment; and our livelihoods being dependent on the gig economy,” the Cornish local added.
Fiona isn’t the only resident in Cornwall who claims tourism negatively affects her town.
Annette Smith has lived in Mousehole since 1986 and has stayed loyal to her “happy place” – vowing to never leave the former fishing port despite the sad downfall she thinks has occurred in recent years.
The soon-to-be great-grandmother feels the influx of businesses catering to a more upper-class shopper and the tourists who flock to the village has caused a big divide among locals.
It has caused the population to drop drastically in the last 50 years.
Annette says a lot of changes have happened in the five decades since she has lived in Mousehole.
She admits some have been positive but that plenty of negatives continue to plague the village to this day.
The loving grandmother told the Express: “There are too many arty-farty shops and gift shops. We’re inundated with them.
“If you’re just after an ordinary loaf of bread or a can of beans, you do have to go out of the village.
“We do need a little shop, especially for the elderly residents – they can’t even get a newspaper in the village nowadays.”
Another huge issue Annette has with the village is its new-found reputation as a tourist hotspot.
She said: “What does annoy me are the holiday homes that are left empty for 11 months of the year. That’s just wrong.
“But we do need tourism – my partner does maintenance in holiday homes, and I’ve cleaned cottages in the past. And we need people to be eating in the restaurants.
“So I don’t have a problem with tourism – Mousehole has always been a holiday place… just not as manic as it is now. It’s just a shame the community has been diminished.”
It comes after holidaymakers travelling to a major UK destination were warned they may have to pay a ‘visitor tax’.
And a small slice of Cornwall could be the perfect holiday spot for those looking to enjoy the British seaside without having to deal with loads of other tourists.
