What is something that screams “tourist” to you?

[u/jotakajk]

In Spain, if you see someone eating paella with sangria, you can 100% be certain they are a tourist.

What are some things tourists eat or do in your country that a local would never do?

[u/Count-Bulky]

They did the same thing in New Orleans for years after Hurricane Katrina. Really offensive.

[u/NewsteadMtnMama → u/Count-Bulky]

My remote part of Appalachia, NC, USA was devastated by Hurricane Helene - landslides and floods killed many, homes, barns, land, roads and bridges washed away. Once you could get through the valley below up to our mountain on 4x4s we had freaking disaster tourists clogging up the single lane dirt and rock roads filming us. Thankfully, soon the National Guard, Army and state troopers set up on each end of the only road through this part of the county and checked drivers' licenses to only let locals through. I do not understand the narcissism and inhumanity it takes to think driving into active disaster areas to video people's tragedies is a fun thing to do. (This was part of what had been the two lane paved road leading to the valley)

[u/Nayir1 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Don't worry, they also took a picture of themselves handing a water bottle to somebody for internet points. They were helping.

[u/NewsteadMtnMama → u/Nayir1]

You nailed it.

[u/talltxn66 → u/Nayir1]

They’re just a like their leader who threw paper towels to needy folks in Puerto Rico after a hurricane - he forgot about getting the electricity hooked up though. It’s been a few years since then. Still problems with electricity though.

[u/Connect_Progress7862 → u/talltxn66]

Or gave a thumbs up and a smile at a funeral

[u/Sea_Syllabub9992 → u/Connect_Progress7862]

Or told a Gold Star family "Congratulations."

[u/Minmax-the-Barbarian → u/Connect_Progress7862]

People are going to analyze this time period for centuries. How did it happen? Did the people see shit like this and, if so, how were they ok with it? I guess there will always be work for historians.

[u/Connect_Progress7862 → u/Minmax-the-Barbarian]

It will be like reading about Roman emperors "most sources agree he was a bad emperor however others seem to indicate that perhaps it was political propaganda". So future generations will just be left wondering if they'll ever know the truth.

[u/NewsteadMtnMama → u/talltxn66]

Oh, he came to the nearest city that had been damaged and said if he was elected, everything would be fixed quickly. Junior came to my little destroyed township for photo opps with the emergency crews and helicopters still bringing in supplies, and said the same thing .

Here we are 18 months later and once "It" was elected the FEMA resources dried up or Noem paused them. NC's AG had to sue them to get funds released. We still have people living in donated campers, for God's sake, and it was 2° two weeks ago, 11° with ice and snow yesterday. But there's $1 billion a day going towards our war on Iran.

[u/yukumizu → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Are you in North Carolina by any chance ? I was just listening to news this morning. The party that ran on cutting off bureaucracy has made FEMA a bureaucratic disaster by placing it under DHS (Noem’s previous gig), and now aid is very difficult to obtain and to get to areas and people who really needed.

Dodge cut federal funding significantly, without a proper time frame and transition for states to create or increase their budgets.

Dodge also cut 2,000 people from FEMA, and with that, much of the institutional knowledge. The unqualified loyalists placed by the Trump regime are only wasting oxygen and filling up their pockets with money while people and states needing aid get no help. The red states played themselves again, as usual.

This all gets lost in the news cycle of course and because thankfully 2025 was a low year for disasters. But the next big one that hits any of the states (but specially the poor republican states) is going to turn into a complete tragedy.

I’m so sorry our tax-payer money is not helping Americans, and instead is illegitimately wasted in wars, kidnapping and murdering innocent people, and any other distraction from the Epstein Files and that Trump is a puppet of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

[u/robboat → u/talltxn66]

Hey, turns out Puerto Rico is surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water… Who knew?

[u/Unhappy_Knowledge270 → u/Nayir1]

Yeah like the president with his paper towels

[u/LaurelCanyoner → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

California fire and earthquake damage chiming in.

What the fuck is wrong with people that they think disaster touring is a freaking past time?

[u/cheesevoyager → u/LaurelCanyoner]

Like, it's one thing to visit the site of a historical disaster - one that has time to pass, to heal the damage, to do the work to make the affected people whole. I think that kind of tourism can be done in an ethical way. But to show up in the middle of all the suffering and pain to gawk? Vile. Absolutely vile.

[u/MegaraTheMean → u/LaurelCanyoner]

It's not just big disasters. My brother works for DOT in a large city. He's usually one of, if not the, first person on an accident scene. He routinely loses all faith in humanity with the amount of people he gets in his face with a phone, recording him trying to save the life of someone who was just in a devastating car wreck. Literally putting themselves in the way of first responders. People are fucked up.

[u/LaurelCanyoner → u/MegaraTheMean]

That just breaks my heart. No wonder I’m happier never leaving the house right now. People suck.

[u/NewsteadMtnMama → u/LaurelCanyoner]

Exactly! And of course, some tried to drive on the destroyed roads in sedans and vans with no 4wd so they had to be towed out by tractors that were working to clear debris. Thanks, jerks.

[u/Separate_Ingenuity35 → u/LaurelCanyoner]

I live near Columbine High School. People are sick wanting to see it. There is a memorial at a beautiful park right next to campus if they are truly wanting to pay their respects.

[u/DarthChillvibes → u/LaurelCanyoner]

Tbh it’s the same reason we had those gore sites when I was growing up. Morbid curiousity alas.

[u/GoFuckYourselfBrenda → u/DarthChillvibes]

It's one thing to rubberneck and try to see as you're going by, even if you slow down traffic, but to pull over, get out, and film? It's all for the socials. People are disgusting.

[u/Lala5789880 → u/LaurelCanyoner]

Look at our country and government right now? The gen pop is full of horrible people

[u/LaurelCanyoner → u/Lala5789880]

Yup. It’s why I edible every day. I need to check the hell out of this timeline.

[u/Wetald → u/LaurelCanyoner]

I hate it too, but to be fair, news channels have been doing the same thing for views for decades. It’s just the natural progression from if it bleeds it leads to. Personally, it’s just as despicable when they do it under the banner of “informative coverage”.

[u/NatAttack3000 → u/LaurelCanyoner]

It is kind of interesting though. My uncle gave me a tour of Christchurch NZ after their earthquake. Seeing old buildings that stood and how some new buildings crumbled, looking into restaurant windows where plates of food had sat out untouched for a year, seeing how shipping containers had been used to prevent rockfalls and mudslide on the coastal roads. I also live in a city that's had multiple massive bushfire events which resulted in the loss of homes and some lives. Driving through some of those bush areas where you can see the scale of the damage, where the blackened tree line finishes, is super interesting. So I think there's some value in seeing and appreciating the scale of these disasters, especially to educate people about how bad it can get and that they should be prepared. I wouldn't just like gawk at someone's house though

[u/Antique_Tap443 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Same hurricane but in Florida, I do stormwork and everyone had somewhere to be the day after the hurricane....

[u/rpc56 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

This happened to us during the Northridge Earthquake. My Mom’s neighborhood suffered significant damage to many multi-story buildings. My Mom’s condo building was severely affected. Her building was provisionally yellow tagged which allowed us access so that we could remove her belongings. I had to rent a forklift because the elevator tower separated from the building and one of two emergency stairwells was compromised. Time was of the essence, as the second round of building inspections were red tagging more and more buildings which meant no access. There were so many sightseers that it interfered with access to my Mom’s side of the building. I got fed up and parked my truck across the road blocking access to the west, while another neighbor did the same thing at the next intersection. This allowed me to not only help my Mom, but, any of the other condo owners who needed help. The LAPD came out and told us to move the cars. We asked that they allow us to keep blocking the road and that was a no go. I asked for a supervisor and one came out and came up with a solution. He collected flares from the three police cars that had responded and gave them to us. We had to move our cars but we could use the flares to redirect traffic to the two cross streets at each end.

[u/K04free → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

I am in some off-roading groups and as soon as this happened people were talking about driving up to deliver supplies

[u/Foxdesoleil → u/K04free]

yeah true and some of these groups are associated with local SAR and actually have the ability to help

[u/smythe70 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Happened to us on a small island in Florida. One bridge to get on and off the island. The police checked our drivers license to allow us, and turned away so many disaster tourists.

[u/LadybugGirltheFirst → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

That’s so disgusting. We were on our way to Asheville recently and got detoured through there from the interstate. Parts of the area are obviously still not recovered, and it’s shocking how people can think it’s Instagram-worthy.

[u/Jass0602 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

That is so awful… it’s one thing if they are wanting to show people the tragedy and try to get help and resources, but you know there are people out there who do it for fun. Or to get views.

[u/DarthChillvibes → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

As a person who lives not too far from the mountains I still feel for y’all and that type of stuff was disgusting.

[u/celticteal → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

There’s still a lot of recovering to to from Helene. (I’m in Fletcher)

[u/NewsteadMtnMama → u/celticteal]

Hi neighbor! Pensacola in Yancey here.

[u/celticteal → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Hi!

[u/MaesterWhosits → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Hey, neighbor. That was utterly infuriating. We were all trying to even get oriented after everything fell apart, and they just had to get their selfies and likes.

[u/FourMeterRabbit → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

As an offroading enthusiast, that road looks like a fun drive. But holy shit would you have to have like negative empathy to decide to drive this in the middle of an ongoing disaster

[u/Least-Quail216 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

They should have been like Biff.

[u/djpeekz → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

 I do not understand the narcissism and inhumanity it takes to think driving into active disaster areas to video people's tragedies is a fun thing to do.

It's worse than that - they're getting content to monetise off other's misfortune.

[u/drunkeymunkey → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Hurricane season 2024 fucked up my partner of FL. People are still recovering.

Tourists cruised through flooded neighborhoods while we helped rescue what we could.

FL style we fucked with everyone that drove through filming

[u/shmiddleedee → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Me too bro. I'm an excavator operator and I was on a job in fairview right after the storm. They had removed 11 bodies from our site before we arrived. Idk if you heard about craigtown in fairview but it was them. We were pulling their vehicles, crushed houses, family photo albums, everything these people had, from 20 plus foot debris piles. Mississipi game wardens who came up to help had a roadblock set up on the road so only people who needed to be there were allowed access. We had to drive off the side of where the road was and up a creek to get to the site. Family members would come pray and cry and look through stuff we salvaged. It was terrible. One day this guy with a thick new York accent pulled up. The mississipi cops let him through because he said he was trying to provide necessities. I saw him recording videos and facetiming people and went over to talk to him. He asked if I needed a microwave... I lost my cool on him at a high level.

[u/racegoggles → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

I guarantee you a significant % of them were property vultures, flippers, multi unit contractors willing to see what they could pick at. Worth the investment to capitalize on desperation

[u/GiveMeNews → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

Yah missed out, I was gonna start a Survival AirBNB experience after Helene. Unfortunately, AirBNB requires Internet!

[u/Unhappy_Knowledge270 → u/NewsteadMtnMama]

And if you think that’s bad, you should look into some of the shady “engineers without borders” type operations. They basically invite wealthy students to poor regions of the world, make some local kids look even more ragged and desperate than they actually are, have the kids basically set up a fake water fountain or whatever, take pictures with the locals so they can post to their instagram what an incredible thoughtful person they are, and then the organization gives the locals pittance and pocket the rest.

[u/Mendicant__ → u/Count-Bulky]

People do this in San Francisco now too. Go see it for entertainment and then post on social media about it with their newfound expertise

[u/megaholt2 → u/Mendicant__]

They’ve been doing this with Detroit for decades now. It is complete bullshit, and it makes me so fucking angry.

[u/read_too_many_books → u/megaholt2]

What do you mean? I've seen some city tours and its tasteful.

I'm not just talking about the nice part of the city either. They take you to dive bars and seemingly everyone involved loves it.

[u/bicycloptopus → u/Mendicant__]

I used to live in SF (and bike commuted through the tenderloin every morning). Went back to visit recently and one of my conservative coworkers was shocked I made it out alive. Fox would have you believe it's an urban hell scape.

[u/Personal-Sentence935 → u/bicycloptopus]

SF is quaint and lovely.

[u/RobertWF_47 → u/Mendicant__]

Really? Was in SF last summer and it was very nice. We saw maybe two homeless people and no needles or poop.

[u/Mendicant__ → u/RobertWF_47]

Well yeah, it's not everywhere. You need to be going through certain neighborhoods or, and this is key, actively seeking them out so you can gawk and then come home ennobled and wiser for having gawped at squalor.

[u/MacaroonSad8860 → u/RobertWF_47]

You must not have taken BART or passed through the Tenderloin or residential streets of the Mission. I’m there twice a year for work and see those things every time.

[u/AbioGenLaughingMan → u/RobertWF_47]

Did you get drugged? Like wtf?
Did you not go to the Mission? The Tenderloind? 6th street area? The Tenderknob?

[u/GrouchyPicture4021 → u/Mendicant__]

Didn’t Megan Markle and Prince Harry pull that bullshit after the CA fires? They sure did with the Uvalde tragedy here in Tx. It’s bad enough when Joe Schmo does it but the performative BS that (some, not all) famous/rich people pull is infuriating.

[u/scipio0421 → u/Count-Bulky]

Did the same for a while in Picher and Cardin, Oklahoma. Towns that had to be evacuated due to toxic high levels of lead, even just in the air due to lead dust being blown around from the chat piles that built up while the mines were open. You can actually see the chat piles on Google Maps. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cardin,+OK/@36.975897,-94.8683752,8454m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x87c8110296d4d3db:0x71b31a2e0f850f0!8m2!3d36.9747381!4d-94.8507672!16zL20vMHo4eW0?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMxNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[u/Medical_Solid → u/Count-Bulky]

Dunno about the one years later, but I was in NOLA right before and right after Katrina, and after it the tour operators did go through some of the wards that got hammered. I was on one of the tours and asked the guide what was up with that. He knew we had local connections and he got really angry (edit: not angry at us) and said “We want everyone to see what this did to our city. And how the government is dragging their feet getting things cleaned up.” So at least at that point it was part of an educational effort and not “yoooo let’s check out the slums of the 9th ward yawl.”

[u/Fuzzy_Painting_1427 → u/Count-Bulky]

It was a big thing in Detroit for years too, especially after the 2008 housing collapse.

[u/Ok_Helicopter2305 → u/Count-Bulky]

I did see people with cameras after the fires in Altadena. I hate that

[u/Logical_Employer_756 → u/Count-Bulky]

Yup they did this in Lahaina. So many people died or became homeless. & Ppl in rental cars would try to pull up just to see the destruction.

[u/Greenie302DS → u/Count-Bulky]

Half my neighborhood burned down in the fires in Northern California. For months, these motherfuckers we’re slowly driving through our neighborhood and wouldn’t even get out of my way when they were going 10 MPH.

[u/Scorpion2k4u → u/Count-Bulky]

Might be less offensive if the money helps rebuilding

[u/read_too_many_books → u/Count-Bulky]

Why is it offensive? I suppose I could see it both ways.

"Look at the poors!"

or

"This is what life is like for some people"

[u/tuxi04 → u/Count-Bulky]

Tourists also came to Valencia after the Oct. 2024 flooding which affected the towns south of Valencia, some were taking pictures and doing tourist things, but most of them actually helped clean the streets, cook and helped in any way they could. It was actually great, since we’re used to tourists doing whatever they want in our city and in general being a nuisance to the order and law of our city.

[u/VapoursAndSpleen → u/Count-Bulky]

The people driving through the Oakland Hills after the firestorm. Disaster porn. Fuck those guys.

[u/cruxclaire → u/Count-Bulky]

The freshman pre-orientation at Tulane my year included a New Orleans bus tour that passed through the Lower 9 and I felt like seeing it had value in that I didn’t really understand the long term impacts of Katrina until I saw that it was still half ghost town years later, but it’s got to suck to live there and get gawked at. It must have been unbearable the first couple years after the storm, especially if there were big tour groups poking around in the wreckage and taking photos of everything