There are protests against tourists, infrastructural capacities are bursting, life in tourist centers is becoming unbearable and political and economic solutions are being sought more and more intensively because the long-term situation is not sustainable. Different solutions are offered, but also bizarre class alliances emerge, such as those between ambitious renters, tourism big capital, non-tourist workers and "ordinary" locals. How did they appear and what drives them?
It's been about twenty years now. I was sitting in front of the house in a small Dalmatian town with my grandmother and grandfather who had been in the small business of renting out rooms for about forty years. Although this way, along with formal and informal fishing-heavy jobs, they have been improving the household budget for decades, it never occurred to them to switch roles and imagine themselves as tourists. Until that day. Until the grandmother gathered the courage and the teasing spirit to give her the old days, she suggested a twist: "What do you say we go to the Czech Republic this winter, why are the Czechs coming to us?" Did was not particularly impressed by the proposal: "What about you? Can you imagine what it's like for them when they pay to come and go to us?"
In addition to the expressed mistrust in the aesthetic components of our comparative tourist advantages such as the sun and the sea - which should not be too surprising if you have lived on the sea - the anecdotal reply also suggests an already surpassed, if we say somewhat pompous, tourist paradigm. Namely, today everything is subject to the curious tourist gaze and step. Tourism is no longer limited to famous buildings in major cities, interesting beaches on the coast and accessible ski resorts. Tourist facilities have become the working districts of famous cities where tourists are looking for an authentic experience, but also provincial regions of countries that are not very popular with tourists, where you can find facilities and experiences that were not previously considered a tourist attraction. Also, cheaper plane tickets have somewhat democratized the class composition of the tourists themselves.
This changed tourism paradigm has also led to what is called excessive tourism in literature, journalism and everyday conversations. We all know the consequences: the extreme rise in rent prices, infrastructural undercapacity, tourist occupation of public spaces and those of the community, as well as scandals and excesses with urination and similar indecent things that fill our portals in the summer months. Slowly but surely, political resistance to such a phenomenon is emerging. Recently, we have witnessed a series of protests, especially in Spain, against these phenomena and their causes. And if you yourself have not traveled, either for financial reasons or because of the privilege of comfort, you could also see on the Instagram profiles of your friends and acquaintances today an unavoidable "souvenir" in the form of a photograph of graffiti from big cities telling tourists to go home or that they are not welcome .
Protests and tacit compromises
These protests are not particularly massive so far, but discussions and proposals on repairing the damage are high on the list of political priorities. The loudest are those who live in tourist towns and cities, but do not live directly from tourism itself. Which is quite understandable. Just as it is understandable that those who make a living from tourism, including the people and the state and local self-government, will leave themselves to the elements. Specific economies, such as ours or Spain's, have become so dependent on tourism that any more resolute attempt at regulation would cause strong reactions. Not to mention the sectoral transformation of the economy. Not only have we lost the political capacity for that level of planning, but also the global division of labor rather "strictly" imposes niches for economic activities. Of course, it is far from the fact that nothing can be done. As the Financial Times suggests in an exhaustive article on the problem, there are mainly four more or less politically feasible solutions or forms of remediation to the problem of overexposure to tourism.
First, it concerns the control and regulation that are available to local self-governments and about which we read the most in the domestic media. It is about stricter punishments for excessive actions in public places, but also the regulation of the rental market, such as limiting and banning AirBnB and similar platforms. The second solution, also present in our discussions, but also the wet dream of many renters, concerns the transformation of destinations into elite, therefore, the transformation of the class structure of guests. There are fewer of them, and they pay more. The third form starts from the lack of capacity: namely, governments should invest more in infrastructure and housing and thus the current market would be relieved of pressure and rental prices would drop. The fourth, politically closest to anti-capitalist positions and the theory of growth, and therefore the most difficult to apply, would concern the disincentive of tourism and travel and would limit people from satisfying their tourist appetites in the immediate vicinity of their place of residence. This would have a favorable effect on the climate, but would also ease the pressure on numerous cities and towns.
Given that the third and fourth solutions are currently politically implausible and that significant socio-political work is ahead to admit them to the public debate, we will devote ourselves to the first and second solutions which are in discussion and operational circulation. We will actually focus on the paradoxical class dimension of their combinations. If you spend enough time on our coast with people who live from and around tourism, you will notice very quickly an unusual tacit class alliance. On the one hand, there are more ambitious landlords and big capital who would like to attract guests of a higher paying rank, they are snobbish towards those from the lower class class and would simply like to remove them from their sight so that the richer ones can come and feel more comfortable in a class-sanitized environment. A similar sentiment, but with a different motive and drive, drives those who do not make a living from tourism but do other, "normal" jobs. Western European working-class youth or the Eastern European lower middle class have something to do with them as well, who disturb them in their daily rituals and disrupt the quality of life in the community with their presence, more or less excessive. And they would rather have the discretion that only the rich can afford, both for themselves and for them, provided they don't clean up their shit. They also have a bit of internalized class snobbery for sustainable tourism. And own peace.
That unusual class coalition between wealthier renters and non-renters is increasingly taking precedence among possible solutions to the tourism industry's problems. However, the matter becomes more complicated if smaller landlords in cities who rent apartments in buildings via different platforms are included in the story. By banning this form of renting and stimulating the construction of elite hotels that would make the destination more expensive, but also more "passable" for the local population, there would be a class collapse of these small renters and they would have to work in these elite hotels as receptionists, cooks, waiters and maids. It is an understatement to say that they are not exactly inclined to do so and that they would not sacrifice themselves for the community. And you noticed that we haven't even mentioned imported seasonal labor yet. You can, considering all the mentioned problems regarding the amount of rent and the availability of accommodation, just imagine the conditions they live in. Their right to political vote is not taken into account at all.
As in any other industry, the course will be determined by class interests and trade-offs. With the fact that in tourism the situation is more complex because the very consumption of tourist services largely coincides with the lives of local people who are not tourists, and who both live and do not live from tourism. When you sell someone a computer, it doesn't matter what their daily habits and cultural preferences are. Something is different with the apartment. The complexity of the situation also offers bizarre forms of worker "solidarity": you don't come to us, send your rich people, and we will give you ours. Let's internalize class snobbery for your sake and ours. We caricature a little, but not too much: enough that only by introducing a complex class structure can the coordinates for solving the problem be set. The only thing is that the problem itself becomes more complicated. But that's real politics.
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