Many towns all over the country depend on tourism to enhance their local economy. Some towns depend entirely on tourism. Some towns, believe it or not, have no tourism and survive anyway.
Tourism can be a touchy subject. Some tourists (I assume that’s not an objectionable word) can be touchy and some residents can be touchy. You’d think there could be a happy medium somewhere. Maybe a little more information would be helpful.
Island tourism is a different proposition than mainland tourism. The problem is limited land area. This island is about ten miles long and eight miles wide. The town is located at the south end, on the waterfront, and that’s where all the services are located so that’s where everybody goes. There is a question of just how many tourists can fit into this limited land area, along with the people who already live there, without driving each other crazy.
To get the idea, let the shoe be on the tourist’s foot for a moment. Take your house in a peaceful small town (perhaps in New York or Delaware), measure 10 miles north from a midpoint on your main street and 8 miles east and west, then imagine a moat around that perimeter 15 miles wide and 50 fathom deep. The only way to your house from anywhere else is by boat to one dock. That means only one way in and one way out, for however many people choose to go there, plus the people (you) who live there.
And there’s more. Shrink your main street down to a quarter of a mile, take away all grocery stores but one and get rid of all the gas stations save one gas pump. Sprinkle the street with a few restaurants and take-outs, one bank, the post office, the hardware store, a couple of gift shops and one small motel. Then put 6,000 people (1,200 residents, about 2,000 long-time summer residents and another 3,000 tourists) and their vehicles into that quarter of a mile every day and see how you like it. That’s the end of peace in your peaceful small town for a while. There you have what we deal with in the summer, every summer. I daresay you might get a little touchy too, and be glad when winter comes.
There really doesn’t seem to be a way to limit tourism, short or being “hostile” and “provincial” maybe, but I doubt even that makes any difference. People are free to go where they will; even I won’t argue with that.
Tourism can take over a place before you know it, sometimes to the detriment and maybe even the demise of local industries. Being overwhelmed by an “epidemic” (you will note I did not say a “plague” or “pestilence”) of tourists on an island is not helpful. Too many people in a limited land area put quite a strain on the ecology, the resources and the limited services available. A reasonable number of tourists (especially the polite ones) is helpful and welcome but this island is just not geared up to handle an infinite number and we have no control over what we get.
Some people might say, well, why don’t you gear up to accommodate more tourists? Build more stores, gas stations and motels, maybe some condos while you’re at it? Maybe even nudge the fishing fleet out of the way so all the yachts can come there too? Does that sounds facetious and far-fetched? Then how did so many towns on the Maine coast get that way?
The mainstay of this island is commercial fishing, not tourism – YET. The main reason tourists do come here, besides the beauty of the place, is to see the lobster fleet and enjoy their lobsters.
Furthermore, this island is one of the last few working waterfronts on the Maine coast – something everyone ought to be concerned about. It will be everyone’s loss if our working waterfront disappears, and it could if we’re not careful.
Tourism comes at the height of summer, July and August, which is also when lobstering is at its height. That means all the lobstermen in the fleet, half the population, are working as hard and as fast as they can, 14 to16 hours a day, six days a week.
Meanwhile the quarter-mile of Main Street is so packed with people on vacation, and their vehicles, that it’s a major deal to get to the waterfront to go to work. There are no nine-to-five jobs (except the bank) that I know of. The other half of the population works long hours every day and there’s no summer vacation for anybody. We’re all right out straight, getting tired and touchy. The result is “snarly season.” Considering the circumstances, it would be nice if the tourists would give the residents a little slack when it comes to a growl here and there.
My own opinion (probably not wanted) for a happy medium is to (1) encourage tourists to come without a vehicle if possible; island transportation is now available) and (2) provide them with information about the island’s limitations, with suggestions on how they can best deal with what we’ve got. That could help us deal better with them. It might even make us all happy.