The influx of summer tourists got a bit too much for some people living in a small US town by Lake Michigan. Having endured festival after festival in Traverse City's parks, one resident contacted the authorities to propose the next event: The Quiet Festival, with a line-up consisting of absolutely nothing.
The city commission declined his offer, but they got the message and are now reconsidering their policy on using parks for festivals. "We're not trying to shut down tourism," mayor Michael Estes told Associated Press. "But we're trying to ask people who put on these events to be more courteous to our neighbourhoods."
Filmmaker Michael Moore, who has made Traverse City his adopted home, holds film and comedy festivals in the town, but a loud Christian rock festival was said to be the tipping point this year.
Pleasing both locals and keeping a tourist economy bubbling is not an easy balancing. Do you live in a tourist hotspot? Were your parks overrun with festivals this summer? Did you object or enjoy them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
More examples of tourist-and-local conflict around the world
Buenos Aires, Argentina
"The tourist bus is a success – but they throw eggs and rubbish at passengers," read a headline in Argentina's Clarin newspaper. A driver for the growing fleet of open-top buses told the paper that the attacks usually happened in La Boca, one of Buenos Aires' poorer neighbourhoods. Company workers said it was an act of boredom rather than aggression – although they had had to duck flying oranges and water balloons. The route has now been modified and the buses are doing well.
Berlin, Germany
"Help, the tourists are coming!" was the name of a Green Party event in Berlin's hip Kreuzberg neighbourhood in 2011. Residents flocked to the meeting to voice concern about noise from partying backpackers and complained of feeling as though they lived in a zoo. District mayor Franz Schulz noted that, while once the area attracted visitors keen to tap into its alternative, intellectual culture, now they come with "different motivations". Namely for the nightlife, while German news magazine Der Speigel called it the "invasion of the EasyJet Set".
New York, US
In 2010, New York graffiti artists caused a stir by dividing a Fifth Avenue pavement into two lanes: one for tourists, one for locals. Residents debated whether it was a hostile or humorous act. The action was later claimed by pranksters Improv Everywhere, who said, "The Tourist Lane is not a pro-tourist or anti-tourist project. It just is." Believing it was a move to give visitors some extra room, Mayor Bloomberg said, it was "a nice thing to do".
Nazareth, Colombia
In 2011, the small Amazonian town of Nazareth declared that they were banning tourists. The indigenous tribe, the Ticuna, complained that only a fraction of the money spent was trickling down to them. They were also fed up with all the cameras. "Imagine if you were sitting in your home and strangers came in and started taking photos of you. You wouldn't like it," said one resident. See also: the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean.
