Skift Take
Locals may not always like tourists, but many locals seem to realize their cities depend on tourism dollars as a major revenue source.
Priceline.com’s 2014 Tourist Report Card shows locals and tourists both agree that locals in Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas, and Honolulu are the most welcoming to tourists.
This shouldn’t be a surprise given Disney’s location outside Orlando, Vegas’ famous strip, and Hawaii’s perception as paradise, making these cities the epitome of modern mass tourism.
Cities like New York and L.A., though, shouldn’t be discounted from the welcoming camp. Stereotypes may exist about these cities being unfriendly to visitors, but eight in ten residents there feel tourists’ pain: The survey says they feel tourists shouldn’t pay more for attractions.
Locals’ top tourist pet peeve making the list for each city is “not paying attention to their surroundings.” But it seems like locals may be part of the problem, as one in four tourists say they’ve received the wrong directions from locals. Two-thirds of tourists also say they have Google maps at their fingertips while touring.
Print-out maps haven’t gone away either, with 42% of tourists saying they have them in hand while touring, and one in four still use a foldout map.
The Daily Newsletter
Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.
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Tags: locals, priceline, tourists
Photo credit: A tourist references a foldout map at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Daniel Foster / Flickr