this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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That's because that city's economy didn't start dependent on Tourism.
Tourism was just some kind of "silver bullet" that the local incompetent politicians chose because they were incapable of managing the place properly and make it better.
Further, Tourism isn't exactly an activity that can bring a place to the forefront of Economic and Technological development: almost by definition you have to be behind those who are at the forefront and have cheap enough prices to attract tourists from those other, wealthier places - Tourism it's the ultimate "second" World activity.
I'm from one such city, Lisbon, and it's become a joke of a place, sort of an open air entertainment park on top of an historic city, slowly losing character and with the locals getting priced out of buying a home there which is pushing all other Economic activity out, especially things that rely on younger people (who are the ones most hit by the housing costs) such as Tech.
The country spent tons of money in training people to be Doctors, Engineers, Architects and so on and now the Economy is ever more based on cleaning rooms, making beds and serving drinks - literally half of the students graduating from University leave the country.
Betting on Tourism is betting on Mediocrity.
There really is no better proof of the profound incompetence, mediocrity and provincialism of Portuguese politicians than their bet of almost 20% (and growing) of the country's Economy on Tourism.
That said, it's not the fault of tourists.
the advent of airbnb and consorts did far more to the downwards spiral of beautiful places all over the world than the tourists themselves could ever do on their own.
suddenly the tourists don't book the hotels but occupy space meant for regular people . a handful of greedy assholes profits while easily dodging taxes, health or privacy standards and any accountability really.
tourists obviously take the perceived cheapest comfortable accommodation closest to their goal. the large airbnb owners even cosplay as this normal local guy
Went up to London a couple of months back to see Pulp. Hit up AirBnB to look for a cute place to stay.
It quickly became apparent that the vast majority of places listed on there are owned by investment firms, or at the very least, firms that own a large portfolio of AirBnB properties. Ended up staying in a cheap, no frills chain hotel near the O2, because fuck that shit.
If I think too hard about how much companies like AirBnB, Uber, Amazon and such have fucked our local economies, I get really angry. So I tend not to.