Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:23 am
well, I for one, do. As you may know, I live in Miami now and that's one hell of a tourist place. It's kind of different than back in the 70's when it used to be a very anglo-white orientated, luxury resort destination. After the cuban influx, South Beach has become the party town of... well, maybe entire US. (not that the cuban influx directly caused the conversion)
It's interesting to see the reality that outsiders, and locals see at a tourist location. The locals are the cuban immigrants, venezuelans, columbians, and the whole latin shabang. Then, in South Beach, you get the multi-million dollar condos that celebrities buy for status, and rarely use. There are also multi-million dollar beach front apartments that... who knows who, lives in. And the we have, tourists.
There are only a couple of things you can do in Miami. Go to a club event on South Beach, or go drinking on South Beach. Or I guess you can go drinking in Key West too, but that's far. You might go check out some gator parks, but the nightlife is the hottest. Which makes it awkward for anything but teenage/party goer tourist to be here. Because we still get family types or obviously too old types. I have no idea where these people go. Well, we have a zoo, I guess.
I'm not very sure where tourism stands in terms of Miami-Dade's economics as a whole.. I'm not sure it's big enough to hold up the economy like it did pre cuban influx.. maybe it's the ports and harbors that's creating the dough. Whatever it is, from a local's point of view, Miami is extremely undeveloped. (or, from my point of view) Public facilities are poorly maintained and things just generally, "don't work". There's a highway ramp that's been under construction for atleast the past 5 years! From an every life point of view, Miami is far from the South Beach celebrity/party lifestyle. It's just another countryside place with too many gators, and not enough educated workers.
Money doesn't come rolling in because of the decaying tourism, and the locals aren't motivated to get educated. Or the main problem is that those that do generally flee from the state. It's a dilemma especially for the cubans because they're simply relieved from the safety that living in the US provides, and happy about having the bare necessities, like food, shelter, and clothing. If you're happy you can stay alive, the next thing on your priority list is not going to be "get a college degree". Kind of a jump there.
I feel for the cubans tho. I never hear good stories about cuba. Last one I heard was that some people actually have to eat corpses to stay alive.. well, maybe I'm getting some cuban imagination here but whatever it is, it seems to be pretty bad. People get locked up all the time for political problems, sort of like North Korea. At times, an entire farming community had been locked up because they couldn't produce enough bananas on a coffee farm. (they had to produce bananas because fidel thought it'll be cool) So, these people are happy that they're not in prison, alive, and have enough to eat.
I guess all travel destinations have this duality of what the locals see and what the tourists see.. I'm interested in what you guys have picked up from around the world. How does tourism affect the local people's mentality? Economy? Where do tourists stand within the local community? Very un-musical, but should be interesting to find out.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2006-03-03 05:35 ]</font>
It's interesting to see the reality that outsiders, and locals see at a tourist location. The locals are the cuban immigrants, venezuelans, columbians, and the whole latin shabang. Then, in South Beach, you get the multi-million dollar condos that celebrities buy for status, and rarely use. There are also multi-million dollar beach front apartments that... who knows who, lives in. And the we have, tourists.
There are only a couple of things you can do in Miami. Go to a club event on South Beach, or go drinking on South Beach. Or I guess you can go drinking in Key West too, but that's far. You might go check out some gator parks, but the nightlife is the hottest. Which makes it awkward for anything but teenage/party goer tourist to be here. Because we still get family types or obviously too old types. I have no idea where these people go. Well, we have a zoo, I guess.
I'm not very sure where tourism stands in terms of Miami-Dade's economics as a whole.. I'm not sure it's big enough to hold up the economy like it did pre cuban influx.. maybe it's the ports and harbors that's creating the dough. Whatever it is, from a local's point of view, Miami is extremely undeveloped. (or, from my point of view) Public facilities are poorly maintained and things just generally, "don't work". There's a highway ramp that's been under construction for atleast the past 5 years! From an every life point of view, Miami is far from the South Beach celebrity/party lifestyle. It's just another countryside place with too many gators, and not enough educated workers.
Money doesn't come rolling in because of the decaying tourism, and the locals aren't motivated to get educated. Or the main problem is that those that do generally flee from the state. It's a dilemma especially for the cubans because they're simply relieved from the safety that living in the US provides, and happy about having the bare necessities, like food, shelter, and clothing. If you're happy you can stay alive, the next thing on your priority list is not going to be "get a college degree". Kind of a jump there.
I feel for the cubans tho. I never hear good stories about cuba. Last one I heard was that some people actually have to eat corpses to stay alive.. well, maybe I'm getting some cuban imagination here but whatever it is, it seems to be pretty bad. People get locked up all the time for political problems, sort of like North Korea. At times, an entire farming community had been locked up because they couldn't produce enough bananas on a coffee farm. (they had to produce bananas because fidel thought it'll be cool) So, these people are happy that they're not in prison, alive, and have enough to eat.
I guess all travel destinations have this duality of what the locals see and what the tourists see.. I'm interested in what you guys have picked up from around the world. How does tourism affect the local people's mentality? Economy? Where do tourists stand within the local community? Very un-musical, but should be interesting to find out.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2006-03-03 05:35 ]</font>
