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Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

bbc.com

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Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#21

Post by akuji1993 »

tomxor wrote: post #6

I think this is a potential basically everywhere, unfortunately most people do not respect the environment and given access will treat nature like a city. Where it becomes an issue is more a matter of forces acting to encourage "normal" people with no previous interest in nature to go and e.g have their piece of the pie for their worthless facebook pic. Anecdotally, I've seen this multiple times on smaller scales in…

Went on a roadtrip through England in 2017 with a friend.

Your second paragraph was the reason we didn't like it at Stonehenge. Busses and busses of people, littering everywhere. They had to prohibit going near the rocks, as people would break off parts of it to take home (who in their right mind would fucking do this), draw on them, damage them otherwise... Huge bummer for me and my friend.

On the other hand, wandering through Dartmoor, meeting 5 people the whole day was absolutely one of the best memories of the trip. Easy access, no effort required is exactly the tourist category that we didn't enjoy in the end.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#23

Post by castis »

sillyquiet wrote: post #19
wmne wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using "elitist" as an insult is getting old. You have to accept that behaviour shown by uneducated people is often inadequate. (Of course, "uneducated" about what... that depends on the context. We're discussing netiquette here but it could be anything else.)

sorry, maybe 'snob' is a better word to describe folks who cannot handle the unwashed masses invading their domain. But in seriousness, I understand the impact a bunch of oblivious (willfully or otherwise) people can have on a here-to carefully curated and managed space, I sympathize.

Is it snobbery to think that maybe those unwashed masses should get their shit together and not trample on the places they've just landed?

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#24

Post by tomxor »

justaguyhere wrote: post #10
jihadjihad wrote: post #3

You see the same thing in Yellowstone--inattentive Instagrammers with selfie sticks hoping to snap the perfect pic next to the wildlife and scenery. Nothing quite as real as being scalded by a hot spring when you're used to viewing the world through a screen.

Same everywhere. I still remember going to the NY ball drop new year's eve - all I could see was camera flashes, hundreds of them every second. It was disgusting. I was one of the very few people who wanted to see stuff with naked eye :( Do these super talented artistic photographers see the photos they take, even once, after they have taken it?

> Do these super talented artistic photographers see the photos they take, even once, after they have taken it?

Nope, similarly the affect of using cameras in museums has been studied before. In real life it's pretty blatantly obvious that 99% of people don't go to museums and galleries for their interest any more, it's all about being pretentious and shoving as many pictures on facebook as possible so their friends think they are cultured. every time I go there are people who never look away from their phone, just take a picture, next, take a picture, next... all the way.

I find it difficult not to be disgusted by it. If all they really wanted was a picture they could have bought a book far more easily, but they don't want a picture, and they aren't interested, they just want to put it on facebook.

I try to ignore them but they often try to make you get out of the way for their important pictures of EVERYTHING if you dare to appreciate something with your actual eyeballs for more than 20 seconds.

Ok enough this thread is not helping my attitude towards people.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#25

Post by buboard »

sillyquiet wrote: post #9
growlist wrote: post #4

At first they were just shitting up the Web - now it's the real world too :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

oh that old elitist complaint is still hanging around?

OP s got a point, the current tourism bubble is mainly driven by peer pressure.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#26

Post by davidhyde »

Clickbaity title implies that all tourists that visit Iceland trash the place and this could not be further from the truth, I thought people were pretty well behaved. This article was about a few bad actors, literally. Iceland’s economy is now heavily reliant on tourism but tourism always comes at a cost and this needs to be factored in when choosing this as your source of income as a country. You don’t hear about the Ecuadorians complaining about tourists ruining the Galapagos Islands because they put a lot of effort into managing tourism there. Tourists are all the same, they just don’t care about your country, deal with it, manage it. Restrict the numbers, increase the cost, use the money to make repairs and clean up the mess. If not then don’t let them in (by making it prohibitively expensive to get there) and find another way to make money for your people.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#27

Post by marapuru »

This quote from the article baffles me:

> The good instagrammers try to show different ways of enjoying nature. We don't tag places that are off the beaten path that we want to protect as long as possible. Some places have become "insta-famous" without ever mentioning where they are but eventually they become known to everyone.

Wait, what? So you take a picture. Put it on instagram (because you are an 'instagrammer'), but you don't mention the place. But since you are an instagrammer, people want to figure it out and now flood the country in search for that place. Trampling all the nature on their way...

I get the idea of taking a photo once in a while. Mind you, I really enjoy photography. But I found that a photo never does justice to the moment. So I choose to savour the moment before anything else.

Let's hope the future learns people that most of these instagram shots are basically digital waste.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#28

Post by [deleted] »

justaguyhere wrote: post #10
jihadjihad wrote: post #3

You see the same thing in Yellowstone--inattentive Instagrammers with selfie sticks hoping to snap the perfect pic next to the wildlife and scenery. Nothing quite as real as being scalded by a hot spring when you're used to viewing the world through a screen.

Same everywhere. I still remember going to the NY ball drop new year's eve - all I could see was camera flashes, hundreds of them every second. It was disgusting. I was one of the very few people who wanted to see stuff with naked eye :( Do these super talented artistic photographers see the photos they take, even once, after they have taken it?

[deleted]

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#30

Post by sillyquiet »

castis wrote: post #23
sillyquiet wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sorry, maybe 'snob' is a better word to describe folks who cannot handle the unwashed masses invading their domain. But in seriousness, I understand the impact a bunch of oblivious (willfully or otherwise) people can have on a here-to carefully curated and managed space, I sympathize.

Is it snobbery to think that maybe those unwashed masses should get their shit together and not trample on the places they've just landed?

Well it depends on the 'place'. Complaining about the common folk using USENET? yes, that's snobbery. Complaining about too many people messing up a natural space? No, that's not snobbery.
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