The Disneyland effect: the invasion of tourists in old European cities
In the world there are places where the influx of fans traveling begins to look like a tsunami. Mass tourism generally has a positive effect on the economy, however, a number of European cities loses a permanent population under the onslaught of guests.
First of all we are talking about ancient cities on the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, stone street, which in summer are crowded by visitors. Budget airlines and cruise ships brought in millions of tourists every year.
Such is the fate of the Croatian town of Dubrovnik is a perfectly preserved historic city like postcards: with houses made of bright stone against the blue of the sea.
Inside the Old city live about one and a half thousand people — the keepers of the cultural treasures left by the Romans, Ostrogoths, Venetians and Habsburgs.
The Effect Disneyland
During busy days in the Harbor, or go for three huge cruise liner — each the size of an apartment building. The ladders on the beach go thousands of tourists — five to six times more of the resident population of Dubrovnik.
They join the crowds of immigrants, living in local hotels and apartments have taken over the Internet. Almost all of the fine stone houses in the city converted into hotels.
All this creates the effect of Disneyland — the feeling that you are trapped in a world where there are only other tourists, ice cream sellers, tour guides, waiters, employees of hotels and street musicians, which set into motion a giant machine of tourism.
Mark Thomas, editor of the English newspaper the Dubrovnik Times, describes the events: “When I got here for the first time, when photographing people I stayed so as not to disturb. But now there are so many people that if I did further, I would never have got.”