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Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#21

Post by beachstartup »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #18
beachstartup wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's really average suburbia from what i can see, it doesn't look like average suburbia in the US or china, which are basically just copies of the US suburbs (large mcmansions, cul de sacs, sterile landscaping, etc) it has a very specific english quaintness to it. fwiw, german suburbs (i was in bavaria) also have a very german quaintness to them.

It's certainly English, but if you want quaint, this area is Quaint Central - pretty much everywhere apart from Kidlington. Here's Benmead Road in Kidlington, one of the places the tourists are reputed to be turning up: https://goo.gl/maps/urEVsQEmRqx Here's historic Woodstock, which is just three or four miles away: https://goo.gl/maps/M2M9dzXv2e32 Here's Charlbury, another five miles away, where I live: https://goo…

beyond a certain threshold, it's all the same to a tourist. what i see in your pictures:

stone houses, thatched roofs (or whatever the modern equivalent is), cobblestone streets, roundabouts, little shops and pubs, old churches, gardens and trees, and of course english people milling about... pretty much exactly what pops into your head when you think 'english village'.

looks like kidlington meets the criteria just fine:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8177024,-1.2723015,3a,75y,2....

this area would be very appealing to someone looking for a slice of english suburbia.

Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#22

Post by christoph »

smegel wrote: post #11
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #3

Speaking as a local, this genuinely is bizarre. Three miles from Kidlington is Woodstock, which is a picture-perfect village with stone cottages and quaint shops. Ten miles away (where I live) you're into the genuine Cotswolds. The theories advanced in the BBC article don't stack up. Kidlington is not a "folksy cultural stop" or "a beautiful English village". It's really average suburbia - the fact it's formally a "v…

Do us all a favour and go there on the weekend and ask them. Although I admit that sounds more like a Reddit challenge, perhaps where this story belongs.

Cue the next plot development where a whole bunch of redditors turn up this weekend to ask said tourists why they are there and locals become equally baffled why a whole different demographic of people have just turned up in their village, but don't ask them either.

The following week, researchers go there... 4chan were behind the whole thing.

Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#23

Post by jameshart »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #3

Speaking as a local, this genuinely is bizarre. Three miles from Kidlington is Woodstock, which is a picture-perfect village with stone cottages and quaint shops. Ten miles away (where I live) you're into the genuine Cotswolds. The theories advanced in the BBC article don't stack up. Kidlington is not a "folksy cultural stop" or "a beautiful English village". It's really average suburbia - the fact it's formally a "v…

Some sort of GPS default is one possibility I didn't see listed in the article. Where does google maps take you if you ask it to go to 'Oxfordshire'?

Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#25

Post by DonaldFisk »

codemac wrote: post #9
jonah wrote: post #8

Has no one bothered to ask the visitors why they came?

I was kind of baffled by this too, does the BBC not have access to anyone that speaks their language? Also, the article switches between them being Japanese & Chinese tourists.. is the BBC even sure where the tourists are from? I'm unsure as to why this is on Hacker News.

Shortly after this story broke, I spoke to someone at Into Japan Specialist Tours, who are actually based in Kidlington. They would have been informed if the tourists were Japanese. The woman I spoke to doesn't think they're Japanese, and are more likely Chinese, based on how they were dressed. Also, it is not far from Bicester Village, a shopping centre popular with Chinese.

Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#26

Post by DonaldFisk »

facepalm wrote: post #24

My guess: there is an exact copy of Kidlington in China, and people who live there want to see the original.

That isn't actually as far-fetched as it sounds. There's a Thames Town (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/14/fake-english-town-i...), a copy of the village of Halstatt in Austria (http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hallstatt-china), and even a Paris clone (http://weburbanist.com/2013/09/07/paris-of-the-east-abandone...) in China.

Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#27

Post by DougWebb »

rdtsc wrote: post #20
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #3

Speaking as a local, this genuinely is bizarre. Three miles from Kidlington is Woodstock, which is a picture-perfect village with stone cottages and quaint shops. Ten miles away (where I live) you're into the genuine Cotswolds. The theories advanced in the BBC article don't stack up. Kidlington is not a "folksy cultural stop" or "a beautiful English village". It's really average suburbia - the fact it's formally a "v…

Didn't catch in the article if it was mentioned, but has anyone thought of you know, asking tourists why they picked to come there, or what they expect to see? Guessing the implication they can't speak English very well? I have seen a similar phenomenon when going to Jamaica. Our driver who was supposed to take us from the airport to the hotel to the other side of the island, happened to stop for a "break" at a road-…

I had a similar experience in Barbados, when I took a tour from the cruise ship I was on to visit the Concorde they have at Barbados' airport. It was pretty comical; on the way back our driver unexpectedly stopped at this little bar and grill in the middle of nowhere. We weren't the only ones surprised; the owner had to be woken up to open the place. I think there was some negotiating going on too, to convince her it was worth the trouble.

It wound up being nice; she had an outdoor patio overlooking a valley, and the food and drinks were just fine. It could have been an official part of the tour, but I guess if it was the cruise line would get a cut.

Re: Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

#29

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe »

bahjoite wrote: post #5
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #3

Speaking as a local, this genuinely is bizarre. Three miles from Kidlington is Woodstock, which is a picture-perfect village with stone cottages and quaint shops. Ten miles away (where I live) you're into the genuine Cotswolds. The theories advanced in the BBC article don't stack up. Kidlington is not a "folksy cultural stop" or "a beautiful English village". It's really average suburbia - the fact it's formally a "v…

Do you worry that it may really be time travellers?

Yeah that or--do the tourist's have strange, unblinking eyes?
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