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Aug 28Liked by Laura McKenna

The tourist backlash is not particularly aimed at Americans - if you see a report in, say, Danish media focus will be on Northern European (and perhaps Asian) tourists, etc. Barcelona has been especially highlighted as tourism there has skyrocketed since the 1988 Olympics, but you will hear similar complaints in places like Amsterdam, Paris or Prague - and to a lesser degree, but still, even Copenhagen. (Denmark receives loads of German holiday makers who mostly stay in cottages on the west coast of Jutland during the summer and neither locals nor tourists make any complaints)

One issue is that tourists tend to concentrate on a few places in a city or destination, another that apartments are being air’bnb’ed, driving up rents and prices and hollowing out civic life. (British stag parties tend to descend on places with cheap alcohol and they are universally loathed). But if you avoid the obvious destinations and sights like the Sagrada Familia, the Louvre, Anne Frank Huis (Amsterdam has a great museum of Dutch Jewish life on the other side of town!) or the Charles Bridge and you stay in a hotel or hostel, things are much less tense.

And I think anyone who knows a bit about your backstory will say that it was a well-deserved holiday.

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Thank you, Jacob!

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