Does anyone else get sick of the media hype about how "successful" every single tourist season is?

Steven Murphy2 said:Look, if I didn't have some kind of decent savings account tucked away, I’d basically be funding my entire coffee habit on Broadway $17 just to blow through my cash in a single weekend. Man, I remember back in the day when you could grab a beer for what, maybe two bucks? $8.25 Or even something like a cheap soda $6.00 for that kind of change. Now? These prices are clearly rigged for tourists, while Americans are stuck working their tails off just to serve them on our own coast. It’s a joke. On one hand, you've got the visitors, and on the other, you're listening to broke locals whining because they can't make ends meet. Like, seriously—if they try to charge me $4 $5.25 for a basic beer in the middle of winter, but I'm pulling in maybe $15 an hour $4.75... forget it. I'm not even thinking about heading down to the coast. If our vacation window is only 5 to 10 days, we're basically screwed for the year.

Hold on, why would anyone bother grabbing a coffee on Broadway? That wouldn't even cross my mind. I’d much rather take a stroll down Broadway during the off-season.
My preferred spot in Monterey costs $4.00, and a coffee is 7 bucks. Even when I venture outside my usual haunts, I rarely spend more than 15.
Just thirty yards further toward the water, everything doubles in price. Actually, it’s worse than that—it hits 25.

Mark Moore2 said:Personally, I don't care one bit. It doesn't help me that Maistre hotels and restaurants are packed by April. I'm just looking out for the little guy...
If I remember right, you're up north near the border, so thanks to being close to Italy, you guys stay pretty busy even in winter...

Seems like the main goal for our politicians is just pulling labor from the old America. The language is similar and the pay is lower than ours. I've already noticed some women with dual citizenship working in supermarkets and camps...
Not sure how good that is for us... 🤔

With 35% of our workforce sitting on the sidelines, it's no big deal if wages jump by 30%. If a seasonal worker could pull $5,000 or $6,000, everyone would be lining up...
Because honestly, even at that rate, everybody wins...

Wait, though—what's the actual standard of living in the Czech Republic? What's the purchasing power like?...

I have nothing against the Mexican women. From what I’ve encountered in retail settings, they tend to be polite and pleasant, making them highly desirable employees. And if a woman finds happiness here, why shouldn't she stay and raise little Americans? 🙂

The standard of living in the Czech Republic is currently somewhat better than ours. Prices are generally lower—both for groceries and utilities. In my estimation, our 1,000 dollars would go about as far as 1,100 or even 1,200 there.
However, it isn't worth moving there just to end up with the same result.
An Ukrainian man there is likely working for 400 dollars anyway, and there are probably half a million of them by now...

Donna James5 said:Hold on, why would anyone bother grabbing a coffee on Broadway? That wouldn't even cross my mind. I’d much rather take a stroll down Broadway during the off-season.
My preferred spot in Monterey costs $4.00, and a coffee is 7 bucks. Even when I venture outside my usual haunts, I rarely spend more than 15.
Just thirty yards further toward the water, everything doubles in price. Actually, it’s worse than that—it hits 25.

I have nothing against the Mexican women. From what I’ve encountered in retail settings, they tend to be polite and pleasant, making them highly desirable employees. And if a woman finds happiness here, why shouldn't she stay and raise little Americans? 🙂

The standard of living in the Czech Republic is currently somewhat better than ours. Prices are generally lower—both for groceries and utilities. In my estimation, our 1,000 dollars would go about as far as 1,100 or even 1,200 there.
However, it isn't worth moving there just to end up with the same result.
An Ukrainian man there is likely working for 400 dollars anyway, and there are probably half a million of them by now...

True. Friendlier than our local lazybones back home... 😁
I don't have an issue with it either if it ends up like you said. Which happens plenty in places like coastal California over the last 40 years or so. Foreign workers, tourists marrying locals... it happens.
But then again, you can look at it how she took a potential job away from a local lady, and there's always a chance she brings part of her family along, bringing in more people looking to push their own local agendas.

Basically, if any of us moved abroad, we wouldn't go to a place where we'd only make an extra hundred bucks. If you're gonna move, do it right.
Case in point: I personally know two Italians and one German who married into it and moved here... 🤔

Everything in this country is a complete mess lately—honestly, everything feels broken—so I guess all we have left to brag about is the scenery, even though we haven't done a damn thing to deserve it.

It doesn't matter if they're just empty praises or not.
What actually matters is how people can just moan and groan about everything being terrible.
And they'll just keep doing it forever.

Mark Moore2 said:True. Friendlier than our local lazybones back home... 😁
I don't have an issue with it either if it ends up like you said. Which happens plenty in places like coastal California over the last 40 years or so. Foreign workers, tourists marrying locals... it happens.
But then again, you can look at it how she took a potential job away from a local lady, and there's always a chance she brings part of her family along, bringing in more people looking to push their own local agendas.

Basically, if any of us moved abroad, we wouldn't go to a place where we'd only make an extra hundred bucks. If you're gonna move, do it right.
Case in point: I personally know two Italians and one German who married into it and moved here... 🤔

I prefer not to view it through that cynical lens because there are far too many entitled individuals out there who already possess an abundance of wealth and find everything beneath them. Given that they rarely actually work since they don't need to—with parents typically owning eight or ten vacation rentals, leaving the children to pursue "careers" as life consultants or ski instructors if they feel the urge to "labor hard"...

Regarding this matter, I am actually quite pleased that California is such a colorful melting pot; I believe the region has truly flourished thanks to those who have arrived from all corners of the globe.
Ultimately, however, things will likely play out exactly as I previously noted.

Just look around you; most of the loudest "patriots" in our vicinity are actually members of mixed families or recent transplants...

Donna James5 said:I prefer not to view it through that cynical lens because there are far too many entitled individuals out there who already possess an abundance of wealth and find everything beneath them. Given that they rarely actually work since they don't need to—with parents typically owning eight or ten vacation rentals, leaving the children to pursue "careers" as life consultants or ski instructors if they feel the urge to "labor hard"...

Regarding this matter, I am actually quite pleased that California is such a colorful melting pot; I believe the region has truly flourished thanks to those who have arrived from all corners of the globe.
Ultimately, however, things will likely play out exactly as I previously noted.

Just look around you; most of the loudest "patriots" in our vicinity are actually members of mixed families or recent transplants...

Haha, spot on. Their parents own the rentals and these kids just coast as life coaches. Exactly. You see them everywhere. From what I've seen, they're basically local Californians from the West Coast. Total materialists...

One upside to all these people moving in is that they brought a bit of that patriotic fervor with them. In my neck of the woods, we've had plenty of John Wicks and Canadian Americans move in. They're hard workers and they're proud, which is fine by me...
Meanwhile, us locals are just like, "Yeah, we're Americans, whatever." Who cares...

Depends on what kind of mixes you mean. Most mixed marriages just end up with a sense of nostalgia for the old ways and the Republic of Texas...

Mark Moore2 said:Haha, spot on. Their parents own the rentals and these kids just coast as life coaches. Exactly. You see them everywhere. From what I've seen, they're basically local Californians from the West Coast. Total materialists...

One upside to all these people moving in is that they brought a bit of that patriotic fervor with them. In my neck of the woods, we've had plenty of John Wicks and Canadian Americans move in. They're hard workers and they're proud, which is fine by me...
Meanwhile, us locals are just like, "Yeah, we're Americans, whatever." Who cares...

Depends on what kind of mixes you mean. Most mixed marriages just end up with a sense of nostalgia for the old ways and the Republic of Texas...

From what I have observed, it is driving us into the ground. This is especially true since we had those Texans and Canadian Americans move in; it has been nothing but trouble.
🙂

Regarding this topic—it’s not the tourism statistics themselves that get under my skin, but I feel like we've lost our grip on the bigger picture.
On one hand, you have all this triumphalism over breaking new records, but on the other, nobody seems to want to talk about the downsides or the genuine risks involved. For the last few years, I’ve actually been avoiding the interstate when driving from my neck of the woods toward Washington, D.C., specifically between late June and early September. Why? Because you’ve got exhausted travelers clogging up the lanes, which leads to accidents, and the gas stations are absolutely slammed. Honestly, I’m surprised we haven't dealt with some kind of localized outbreak at one of those stops. Sure, they try to keep the restrooms maintained, but you can't realistically expect them to stay spotless every single day when you've got 10,000 people cycling through. To make matters worse, many of those highway rest areas aren't even hooked up to a proper sewage system; they rely on small septic tanks, so you end up with a massive buildup of biological waste in a very confined space.

At the end of the day, there are plenty of things that need fixing if we want these numbers to keep climbing. But we also need to figure out where the limit is, because right now, the whole thing is starting to look a bit chaotic.

David Vaughn75 said:Everything in this country is a complete mess lately—honestly, everything feels broken—so I guess all we have left to brag about is the scenery, even though we haven't done a damn thing to deserve it.

When it comes to natural beauty, I think we’ve been blessed with more luck than actual common sense. We seem to operate under the delusion—much like the Greeks used to believe before things went south for them—that you can build an entire economy solely on tourism and credit. If it weren't for those visitors, we'd all be staring at empty bread baskets.

And honestly, those "record-breaking" tourism numbers usually just irritate people across the country who assume everyone living on the coast is just coasting through a three-month summer fling. I don't make my living from tourism, nor have I ever, but I know plenty of folks close to me who spend at least two months just prepping for the season, and once it hits, they're working around the clock, seven days a week.
The hospitality industry is brutal work; let's not kid ourselves. ☕

Greece doesn't rely on tourism nearly as much as we do—our economy is way more dependent on it, unfortunately...

Mark Harris66 said:Greece doesn't rely on tourism nearly as much as we do—our economy is way more dependent on it, unfortunately...

The issue isn't having a robust tourism sector; the real problem is our weak industrial base.

To be perfectly honest, our tourism industry hasn't even reached its full potential yet. You still see so many hotels that are either falling apart or just sitting empty.

On top of that, everything is too concentrated along the coast. The rest of the country is left feeling completely hollowed out, even though those areas have plenty to offer—including the relief of a much cooler climate.

David Vaughn75 said:Everything in this country is a complete mess lately—honestly, everything feels broken—so I guess all we have left to brag about is the scenery, even though we haven't done a damn thing to deserve it.

Give us some credit. Our ancestors fought tooth and nail to hold onto this land so we could have it.

Anthony Perez9 said:Give us some credit. Our ancestors fought tooth and nail to hold onto this land so we could have it.

Exactly. And honestly, because of everything they went through, we can't afford to be defeatists or just sit around complaining—we have to stay active...

Personally, I’d rather stay active for the sake of my kids and grandkids. Forget about the ancestors—there isn't anything you can actually do for them anymore anyway. 🙂

I just meant that our ancestors worked to build things for us—just like we’re doing for our own kids down the line. The whole idea is that we inherit what they built so we can pass it on to the next generation...
So why even swear at them?