........................................................................................ - a weBlog by Snowy and me.

Sunday, 29 June 2014

Welcome To The Past As It Never Was

Every industry dies, eventually.
And governments always say that tourism
is the means for the stranded locals' future income.
But kitschy tourists always quench localism.

Even as the locals survived past rip offs,
tourism is the end of the line for local life.
First come the speculators, in the know
with government, looking for cheap deals
on property who talk big to the local press,
based on futures built on bendy planning laws.
Their plans always shrink as markets elsewhere
dictate that futures will be shorter and cheaper
than predicted. Then comes nothingness,
in many flavours as can be mustered.

Tourism creates so little long term paid work,
comparable to any economy that pre-exists it,
that the biggest change it promotes is small booms
in second homes, for the rich who live far away,
who are looking for somewhere for their money
to work without them being even remotely active.

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