2017-08-10

Socionomics Alert: Europeans Hate Tourists, Let Alone Migrants

Euro rally? Stock market rally? Establishment political wins? All temporary as social mood remains in a negative trend.

Guardian: First Venice and Barcelona: now anti-tourism marches spread across Europe
With the continent sweltering under a heatwave nicknamed Lucifer, tempers have been boiling over, too, as a wave of anti-tourism protests take place in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. Yet, as “tourism-phobia” becomes a feature of the summer, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has defended the sector, calling on local authorities to do more to manage growth in a sustainable manner.

...Arran, the youth wing of the radical CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy), have been filmed slashing the tyres of rental bicycles and a tour bus. An Arran spokesperson told the BBC: “Today’s model of tourism expels people from their neighbourhoods and harms the environment.”

...Last month in Venice – which sees more than 20 million visitors a year and has just 55,000 residents – 2,000 locals marched through the city, voicing anger at rising rents and the impact of huge cruise ships and the pollution they cause to the city’s delicate environment.

...Italy has also been cracking down on anti-social behaviour in other tourist hotspots. In Rome, this means a ban on people eating or paddling in the city’s fountains and drinking on the street at night. Similar measures have been put into place in Milan – which introduced a summer ban on everything from food trucks to selfie sticks in the Darsena neighbourhood.

In Dubrovnik, another city where cruise ships unload thousands of visitors at a time, the mayor has introduced cameras to monitor the number of visitors in its Unesco-listed old town, so that the flow of people entering can be slowed – or even stopped – once a certain number is reached. Meanwhile, the mayor ofpopular Croatian party island Hvar has pledged to put an end to debauchery by mostly British tourists by slapping them with huge fines.
One of the themes here is the end of globalization simply due to the amount of capital and population interested in visiting or residing in the West. To some extent, the 2008 financial crisis was the result of China and other nations hold too much capital in the United States. This is also why I believe the U.S. dollar will lose its sole status as reserve currency: it cannot support the next major growth wave in China and India. Or if it tries, the end of that wave will break the dollar.

Most countries also cannot allow the rising middle classes in China, India and other emerging markets into their nations. They cannot handle the influx of visitors, to say nothing of immigrants. Europe's people are marching for tourism cuts and instead, their governments are flooding their nations with migrants! Total insanity.

Many of the West's wealthy and political leaders live in gated communities, but they treat their nations like empty lots. They tore down protections such as strict immigration and border walls that were the gates for the poor and middle class. Very few seem to be waking up to reality, most double-down and attack their own citizens as evil (racist, xenophobic, etc.) for wanting the state to provide similar protections. (Think of Trump's wall like Medicaid. The poor cannot afford to live in a gated community, just as they cannot afford healthcare.)

The very existence of the nation depends on its people. Italy filled with Germans is Germany, not Italy. Those who continue to treat their nations as empty lots, who tear down all the protections for their people, will eventually find themselves on the wrong end of a populist mob. Nations such as Poland and Hungary will coast smoothly through the coming turmoil. Those who end up with a populist leader such as a Trump or a result such as Brexit should mitigate or even reverse the problem. In nations where there is no brake, such as Germany, parts of Scandinavia and possibly Southern Europe, political volatility will eventually go off the charts.

Prior articles on the topic:

How Globalization Ends in the West
The Anglosphere Tightens Visa Rules (the U.S. recently announced a reform similar to Canada and Australia's point system for immigration)
Migration to New Zealand Drives Homes Prices
Palau Moves to Limit Chinese Tourism

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