The double-edge of tourism

Just as a follow up to yesterday's blog, I was thinking how tourism can be a double-edge sword and how it can destroy and homogenize what otherwise makes a place attractive to visitors if not kept in check.

I speak both from what I see happening in my hometown valley, back in the French Alps today, as well as my four decade of living in Park City. Visitors (and tourists) come to specific places because of their beauty and their character.

Remove the latter and you take away most of a place's appeal. This means that tourist spots must be vigilant in not letting visitors, or worse yet, second-home owners, dictate what the place ought to be or should become.

This pressure happens all the time whether one lives (like me) in the Rocky Mountains or in the Alps. Typically, over a short period of residence, a significant percentage of second-home owners develops a tendency to resent the tourist trade and whatever makes the place authentic.

These same folks quickly get tired of the “charm” that got them to purchase a home in the first place. Instead, they strive to recreate the universe they've left behind with all of its trappings. Furthermore, as time goes by, a large percentage of these second-homer morphs into permanent residents when they elect to retire at the resort in question.

Kept unchecked, these pressures lead to the planetary homogenization that can be found everywhere, except perhaps in Corsica, because of the islanders' forceful push-back.

Classically, these new comers become the tail that wags the dog and if no one objects, they'll do everything to ruin the place, its character and its authenticity