The movie Naked Gun created an absurdist meme with a huge, affectionate following: ‘Nothing to see here, please disperse’: a bland statement delivered in foreground while in background burns an explosion-wracked towering inferno. Check it out if you must on Youtube:“Nothing To See Here!”
Over recent years, tourist cities around the world have begun to buy into the sentiment of this meme. Cruise ships — themselves the towering infernos of tourism — are threatening the health of municipalities. Enough is enough no longer. Enough has become too much, as towns and cities consider charging fees and enacting restrictive ordinances targeting tourists. Venice Is Facing Multiple Tourism Threats And Many Venetians Now Want Controls On Visitors
Cruise ships create clashes of culture as the population of a large town or small city arrives overnight to disgorge its citizens into what is often a relatively small tourist quarter. Now, however, there’s another invasion happening — a form of tourist ‘cruising’ that threatens tourist destinations — Short Term Rentals (STRs) pioneered by internet based companies such as airbnb.
But really though, are today’s internet based STRs all that different from the quaint phone-or-mail-to-book Bed&Breakfast rentals of yesteryear? They hardly threatened an impact on tourist towns!
The answer is: yes, STRs are different. Booking STRs over the internet, with quality and assurance guaranteed by multi-billion dollar companies, is indeed threatening municipalities.
For an in-depth exploration of the impact on one of America’s most venerable tourist destinations, read more in The Guardian: ‘Like A Ghost Town’: How Short-Term Rentals Dim New Orleans’ Legacy
But surely this is a problem only for major tourist destinations, not your much more modest community?
Think again. Relatives of the writer were recently describing their cruise ship’s arrival in Happy Valley/Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada.
Wha? We’re talking about a tiny community truly in the middle of nowhere. Population 6,408. Goose Bay’s greatest claim to fame is a giant airport left over from World War II which is capable of (and does) landing any size aircraft in a transatlantic crossing emergency.
I was only listening with half an ear about the wonders of Goose Bay, but as I recall the guided bus tour climaxed at the local gas station. If Goose Bay can be blessed/threatened by cruise ships or STRs, anywhere can!
As a final word on the subject, delivered by a classic BBC ‘weird world’ story, consider a remote dot of an island, down towards the South Pole, once a community, now abandoned. It is visited by nearly 18,000 people a year.
Lots of buildings to refurbish for rental here. Alas, an airstrip is needed for a proper STR invasion. Right now, there’s no way in except by cruise ship.
Read more at the BBC: A World Isolated From Life By 1400km
