Category Archives: travel

we’re on fire, folks… please don’t visit

27 Thursday Jul 2023

Posted by in sevilla, tourism, travel

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wildfires

A couple of articles caught my eye this week…

As my home city of Athens burns, I can only watch in amazement as sunseekers fly in

Jetting off to the sun? The adverts are selling you a ticket to climate disaster

We are on fire here in many ways. First of all, yes, wildfires are ripping through the Mediterranean and *checks notes* causing holiday goers all kinds of distress. Or that’s how it’s being played on most media.

My question is, why the fuck are they here anyhow? Do they not read the news? Or even the weather reports? Do they not give a shit about anyone other than themselves? I’ve come to realise that these “sun seekers” are ignorant at best, borderline sociopaths at worst. Of course they are being played by travel companies, airlines, hotel chains who NEED them to keep travelling so badly that they offer crazy deals while bombarding everywhere with their relentless “get away” advertising campaigns.

I mean, airlines were still flying people into Rhodes in the middle of an evacuation crisis due to wildfires. And we’re not just talking about tourists – at least they got to flee to the nearest airport to get home while locals lost homes and businesses and lives. But it’s been clear for months that we are in serious drought conditions here, our forests are kindling, and residents face water shortages, with food shortages coming up soon. So WHY are people still coming here to holiday??

What are we? Nothing to you? Nobodies? Or are our towns and cities just places for you to pretend you are at least temporarily living a better life than the one you actually have?

Sevilla is not on fire, yet. But we have not had enough rain for TWO YEARS. So clearly our resources are very low and already water restrictions have been put into place in various places in Andalucía. Also, with record high temperatures the past month there is a real threat to our power grid, that it can withstand the needs of our residents. OF OUR RESIDENTS. Think about that.

When tourists come here en masse during difficult times they are mostly benefitting airline companies, hotel chains, tour companies… very little trickles down to us. Because think about it… you are here using our precious water (we don’t have enough) and still expect your pool to be filled while enjoying your all-day hotel air-con (while we worry about how our power grid can support us) … and you’re not giving a thought to that? Well, maybe you should. I hope you will.

rick & me

09 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, tourism, travel

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rick shawn

I had a very special guest on Monday evening… Rick Steves was in town and, as I’ve had the honour of being mentioned in two of his Spain travel guides the past few years (recommended by his local guide writer), it was high time we met up in person. Can I tell you? Rick is a lovely guy and a total force of nature. I had no idea what to expect, whether he wanted a tapas tour or just to talk about me and what I am doing and the Sevilla tapas scene, maybe get some recommendations on other places he could add to his guide… turned out that, yep, he wanted it all! And honestly, it was so much fun. Looking back, we stopped in at 16 (!!!) tapas bars and restaurants over five hours. Not eating at all of them obviously (we only did that at two stops) but checking out the places, ambiance, menus, etc. with Rick scribbling notes as we went. It was definitely a night of heavy researching.

Our first stop to actually stop at was Casa Morales. Reyes Morales was just coming back from walking her dog and said we had to come in and have a cold beer and a tapa. And well, who were we to argue with tapas bar royalty? At the last stop of the night, Salmedina, we also stopped in to eat. Rick had tried to get in the night of the Copa del Rey match and, well, no way. But luckily not only was there a table available for us, both owner/chefs were there (usually they trade off). Jaime and Pedro welcomed us and suggested we just try whatever they wanted us to try, thus a small but exquisite tasting menu ensued. My god. Every bite was heaven. And I even got to give Rick a little sherry education.

What can I say? It was a Tapeo Extremo to beat all others, all totally spontaneous and fun. Have already warned him that next time we’re going to Triana… and now that I know what he likes, well, it’s going to be epic.

Rick, thanks again for everything. Being in your guide has been amazing and I hope to continue being a trusted source for you and your travellers.

rick me (2)

pan & circo

24 Friday Mar 2023

Posted by in sevilla, tourism, travel

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pan circo

There was much media to-do about Sevilla being named European Capital of Smart Tourism 2023. Whatever that means. It’s right up there with Sustainable Tourism and Intelligent Tourism… nice sounding catch phrases to make the public feel like something is being done about the blight of global mass tourism. I wasn’t able to attend today’s big media campaign presentation (Morcilla needed me) but my friend and intrepid journalist Fiona Flores Watson was there to see what sort of plans were afoot to actually address the very real problem of tourism over saturation in the city. Turns out… nothing. Instead there was a lot of talk about the “data/tech will solve everything” nonsense they’ve been wasting time and money on. Here’s an article about one such plan, that isn’t actually a plan, and will never be implemented in any practical or meaningful way..

Seville introduces tourist rationing to limit vast holiday crowds in city centre

Right off the bat the headline is misleading. No rationing has been introduced, nothing is being limited, no meaningful action is being taken. It’s still a total free for all here with Sevilla still for sale to the highest bidder. As usual Biz & Govt want to have their cake and eat it while offering us bread and circuses. Because what this city really needs, frankly what the world needs, is for people to stop being so selfish, short sighted and greedy, and we’ve already seen how well that’s been going with things like world hunger, the pandemic (still not over!), climate change, housing, equality, etc etc etc.

The Sevilla tourism overload problem is not insurmountable, but it would require that (gasp!) the people in charge who are whoring our beautiful city to rest of the globe for easy profit would, well, have to stop doing that. Here are a couple of ideas that would actually make a difference…

  1. Limit the number of tour groups allowed into the city centre, also group sizes. Say, no more than ten people per group, and guides would have to book their times in advance to avoid peak hour congestion. They are already doing this with traffic, why not with people?

  2. ALL tourist apartments would have to reapply for their permits based on much stricter codes and with a much smaller number allowed per street.

  3. Limiting the number of retail shops that are purely tourist focused. I mean, how many flamenco aprons does anyone actually need? We want our corner stores back, our independent neighbourhood shops that got forced out by ruthless landlords. You know, the ones that actually made Sevilla… Sevilla.

These are just some ideas off the top of my head. I’m quite sure that experienced people working in the sector could come up with many many more and much better ones. But they won’t. Because even my suggestions would require them to make less easy money. Instead they say they are doing blah blah and hey look Sevilla is now the Capital of Smart Tourism! It’s so fucking insulting.

I’ve lived here now for almost 30 years. Sevilla is my home. I love it with all my heart. And I am truly heartbroken to see what is being done to beautiful Sevilla. People coming here now are seeing a much less charming version of the Sevilla  I first got to know in 1993  – and even then friends were saying to me that Santa Cruz had become so touristy, that I was living in Guirilandia. Well now it’s totally Disneylandia. Barrio Santa Cruz is (very sadly) now a theme park for tourists. I was forced out after 18 years because my landlord wanted to take advantage of the situation, told me they needed my apartment for his family (lies, lies) and  I was gone. Actually much happier now, but even in my barrio the insidious creeping of uncontrolled tourism is changing my street.

I do realise there are no easy solutions. But that’s kind of my point. They aren’t easy and why should they be? After letting mass tourism run rampant for the past twenty years or more there needs to be a reckoning. And some people will need to take a loss at some point (which of course will never happen) in order to get out of this mess, or at least to move forward a bit. The people who will end up taking a loss? You and me. I mean, I really hope I’m proved wrong about this. Time will tell.