Growing up in a small historic beach town, tourists during the summer season (and every season really) are unavoidable. They'll stop in the middle of the street to take photos, no I'm not exaggerating, and that’s the least of the locals’ problems. In fact, the influx of tourists has increased so much over the past several years that I debated disclosing the name of my hometown. I’m still cringing talking about it now because I have this irrational fear that more people will come visit, if that’s even possible.
So, with hesitation, I will disclose that I grew up in St. Augustine Florida. A small beach town with a population of less than 15,000 people. The beach community has an even smaller population of less than 7,000 people. As you can imagine, it’s a close-knit community and running into your kindergarten teacher, your best friend’s mom or your old gym teacher at the grocery store is highly likely and very normal occurrence. After a while, you get used to it. Honestly, not running into at least someone you know feels a bit weird.
As you can imagine, starting in the month of May and lasting through at least July, going to the grocery store at all is anything but a routine occurrence. Tourists. Tourists everywhere. And they seem intent on running over your feet with a cart so they can get to the last container of Pringles for their annual beach trip. Then, frustratingly enough, there is a 95.7 percent chance that same can of Pringles will end up left on the beach, along with a mountain of other bits of litter that visitors don’t even acknowledge as they leave the beach. This may just be the worst thing about tourism.
Inevitably, a good majority of the litter ends up in the ocean, negatively impacting an indefinite amount of marine life as well as fragile marine ecosystems. For example, plastic single-use straws are detrimental sea animals such as sea turtles, and the infamous plastic bags that resemble the sea turtle’s favorite meal – jellyfish. Every time I walk on the beach, especially in the summer months, I end up leaving with a bagful of litter I have accumulated.
With anything, you can weigh the pros and cons. And even though it doesn’t seem like it at first, there are plenty of pros to a boom in the tourism industry as well. For example, increase in economic productivity within the community. Small, local businesses see a huge profit increase during the summer months as the tourists increase consumerism through the town. This also benefits other industries such as advertising companies. Specifically, my awesome mom’s business (http://www.hybridstudios.net- go check it out!).
While tourists are annoying to put up with in any vacation destination, it’s important to understand that they boost the economy and ultimately benefit the town financially. In other aspects, namely the influx in the amount of litter destroying our beaches, a more rigorous program should be established to educate visitors that the beach is not something that can be taken for granted with careless littering. I’m not trashing tourists here, pun intended, I’m a visitor to other places also! All I am suggesting is that when visiting other places, to be respectful of the local culture and environment, something that seems inherent but is surprisingly forgotten.
