Travel

The all dock about the same time in the morning, passengers disembark and all head to the same main sites with tour guides. There can be as many as 30,000 people all descending on the same ares at once. They buy trinkets, visit prearranged museums and sites, then head back to the ship. Most spend no money in restaurants or local non-tourist businesses but leave behind mountains of trash for the cities to deal with.

I was once in Venice with five behemoth ships in port. It was absolutely miserable. We were not on a ship so went into a restaurant for lunch. We essentially had the restaurant to ourselves with only one other table occupied. I understand why business owners and locals complain because locals will not fight pushy crowds to shop or eat at restaurants.

Barcelona and other cities with over-tourism should severely limit the number of cruise ships per day. Venice has levied an extra charge, but I don’t think it has done much good because it’s very low.

And then there’s the AirB&B nightmare of taking apartments out of long-term rentals and turning them into short-term rentals for tourists, driving up prices on remaining rental stock.