Amenities and facilities financed

ONE family was so desperate for a holiday they had airport codes for their rooms. They relaxed in LVG, ate in DNR, sat in the sun on PAT and worked from home in OFC.

Presently many people miss being tourists, but some also miss being travellers. GK Chesterton said: “The traveller sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” Tourists often collect distorted images, take their culture with them and exist in a bubble. Travellers leave their past behind, dig deep into an experience and engage with people who challenge their thinking.

HV Morton was a true traveller, controversial journalist and prolific travel writer. In his fascinating book on Wales, written in 1932, he wrote of his visit to Carmarthen where he found “a vivacious market town full of character, prosperous farmers and laughter”.

Llanelli he saw as a “black town with smoke over it and chimneys rising above long streets of grim, slate-roofed houses”. Men in blue suits with cloth caps were “gentlemannered, intelligent, wellspoken and humorous”.

Many European cities before the pandemic were tiring of intrusive waves of selfieobsessed tourists who were turning Venice into a theme park, Barcelona into a cruise ship rendezvous and making life miserable for residents.

The European city tax, as irritating as the Brexit sausage to unsuspecting tourists checking out of their hotels, does not stop tourism fatigue but it helps finance the amenities and facilities that tourists enjoy but are paid for by local residents.

Certainly the Welsh Government’s proposals for a Wales tourist tax will, as part of its new five-year plan, benefit both the industry and local people. But I am not so sure they will make my distinction between the tourist and the traveller. Might be worth a try.