The ADRR

Michael J Berne blogs as the Retail Contrarian and N, David Milder blogs as the Downtown Curmudgeon. They both are unafraid of questioning conventional wisdom about downtown revitalization, taking fresh looks at downtown challenges and opportunities, or engaging in friendly debates about these subjects. This column reflects the email give and take they have been engaging in for several years now.

NDM: Mike, I’ve been working on an article about how to bring Midtown Manhattan into a full recovery mode, and from several analytical directions I keep coming to the conclusion that for it, tourism, especially foreign tourism, will probably be a far more important factor than new housing. Yet, I feel very uncomfortable with that conclusion.

One reason is that I had been feeling that Manhattan’s attractions were suffering from a bad case of overtourism for years before the pandemic. For example, tourists accounted for between 65% and 88% of the visitors to its legit theaters and major museums. That has meant sky high theater tickets, e.g., $500 per seat at the box office, thousands on the secondary market, and overcrowded museums that make it impossible to view their holdings properly and enjoyably.

I also have become much more concerned generally about overtourism, and wrote about it in a 2021 article in the IEDC’s Economic Development Journal (N. David Milder. Determining if Your Town, Downtown, or Main Street Tourist Industry Needs a Program to Become More Sustainable Economic Development Journal / Summer 2021 / Volume 20 / Number 3 ). Overtourism basically is a problem resulting from success, not failure, and involves tourist flows becoming so large and unruly that they endanger or seriously damage the geese that are laying the golden eggs. Many major cities in Europe (e.g., Paris, Barcelona, Dubrovnik)  and several in the US like Key West, Charleston, Palm Springs and Miami Beach have dealt with this situation.

Overtourism is not new, but significant awareness of it as a public issue is. For example, back in 1965-1966, I lived in Paris while doing research for my PhD dissertation. When we told our French friends how much we were enjoying Paris, we were inevitably warned about how that would change toward the end of May when the tourists arrived. The city they felt would no longer be theirs, and too often would be taken over by cultural barbarians. Of course, that prediction proved to be absolutely on target, and I regret having to report how frequently we were embarrassed by the behaviors of our fellow Americans in restaurants, museums and even the Metro. Nevertheless, French leaders did not see they had a tourist problem they had to respond to at that time, though quite a few looked down their cultural noses at all foreigners. That is not the case today. Overtourism is a recognized problem.

BTW, even back then, the Louvre could be unbearably crowded, with the area around the Mona Lisa like a crowded zoo. However, there were distinct times when the crowds eased considerably, even around the Mona Lisa, and most savvy Parisians knew of them.

That said, despite my often personal dislike of tourist behaviors, I am very aware of and cannot ignore the revenues that tourism brings to all sorts of places, large and small. To help me get a better grip on this tourism issue I am asking myself questions like:

• What can be done to better manage the levels of tourist flows? A new art museum, Glenstone, seeks to create a serene and contemplative environment and limits how many people can visit at any one time. The Barnes Museum in its prior location had done omething similar for decades, though in a manner many visitors found very unfriendly.. Too often today these venues aspire to being world class, and that translates into trying to get the highest attendance possible, never mind overcrowding and not being able to fully appreciate the art.
• What can be done to better manage tourist behaviors? Some downtowns that complain about tourist behaviors are also those who advertise that they are party friendly, and a little naughty, and intentionally market to those market segments likely to create a problem. Spring break, anyone? What happens here, stays here?
• What is the right balance between the desire of residents to maintain the character of the town they live in and love and the wants and needs of visitors who are spending money in the town and aiding its economy? Mike, we started to get at this issue in an earlier column, and I think we need to dig much deeper into it in this one.

MJB: Thanks for kicking this one off, David.  And before I say anything, let me recommend to our readers your extensive discussion of tourism and cities in that Economic Development Journal article last summer.

I have a number of thoughts on the subject.  The level of us-versus-them snobbery with regard to tourists often rubs me the wrong way.  You noted how “quite a few [Parisians] looked down they cultural noses at all foreigners. That is not the case today.”  I have a hard time believing that, and I also do not believe it is singular to Paris – it just seems like human nature, to try to make oneself feel better as an insider by casting aspersions at the rubes on the outside.  Just like the club-goers who believe they are cool because only they know the real article.  I find it tiresome, and especially noxious when it is written into policy and regulation, as it so often does through other guises.

It is especially rich when these insiders are materially benefiting from such notoriety.  When one is fortunate enough to own property in a famous place, they can charge a premium for it (or borrow more against it).  In other words, they are deriving value from the fame.  To then complain about the inconveniences that accompany such good fortune – or worse yet, to whine about the barbarians at the gate – reads as clueless and entitled to me.  The same holds for those who live in a university town and rant about the students.  Sorry, but you don’t get one without the other.  You don’t get to enter the castle and then lift up the drawbridge.

Yes, sometimes things do get out of hand, and the barbarians really do act the part.  Antisocial behavior should not be tolerated.  But all too often I detect the faint whiff of subjectivity and judgement in the tourist backlash.  Don’t get me wrong: I feel that sense of judgement myself at times, the belief that I deserve preference because, unlike the heathens, I know how to appreciate and enjoy this gem.  But in the end, no one – not the homeowners and taxpayers, nor the intellects and the sophisticates – owns such places.  The wonders of this world – whether they be natural or human-made – belong to everyone on some level, as a sort of public trust.

Sorry for going so philosophical from the get…

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