The Tourism Industrial Complex

At the beginning of this year, I brought attention to some instances of anti-tourism protests and activities that had sprung up across the world. 

Up in Vermont, the small town of Pomfret shut down the most trafficked fall foliage tourist roads, citing the overwhelming amount of leaf-peepers pouring into the 900-person community. Then there was Amsterdam's '”Stay Away” campaign targeted at British visitors to discourage drug tourism. And Japan hiked bullet train pass prices up 70% for non-citizens last year.

Some of the most aggressive anti-tourist sentiments can be found in Spain, where a coalition of anti-tourist activists sprang up, slashing bike tires, throwing flares into restaurants, and besieging sightseeing buses. The protests in Spain have reached such a fever pitch that they’ve persisted long past the August holiday peak and into winter.

On Sunday, marches under the slogan “We are in danger; degrow tourism!” occurred in the city of San Sebastian. By the end of the year, Spain is expected to have received more than 90 million foreign tourists, a number that is projected to reach 115 million annually by 2040. “What we’ve been seeing over the last eight or 10 years has been a huge acceleration of the process of ‘touristification’,” said one of the organizers. “All our city’s services have been put at the orders of the tourism industry.”

By comparison, Nashville is expected to receive 17 million visitors by the end of this year, and in 2023, the entire state received 144 million visitors, generating a whopping $30 billion in additional consumer spending. There are, of course, economic benefits to cultivating the Tourism Industrial Complex, but it comes at a price—especially as its demands leave the walled garden of tourist districts like Broadway.

In a discussion with the Nashville Business Journal about an initiative sponsored by Amazon to promote businesses owned by minority groups, Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. president and CEO Deana Ivey told the paper, “We want to really give our visitors and our convention delegates a taste of the real Nashville. I think the only way to do that is to spread it out and go into the neighborhoods and reach these small, locally owned businesses and minority-owned businesses to show what Nashville is really all about.”

The real Nashville is your Nashville. And, yes, local businesses can and do find success appealing directly to tourists, but generally, this comes at the expense of local customers.

French writer Michelle Houellebecq has written about the way that tourism changes an area. I’ve mentioned his ideas about this before. But recently, in an interview with the Financial Times, he put a button on it, expressing that the economic future of France he finds to be the most likely is one centered around tourism and local agriculture.

Think farmer’s markets, Broadway Honky Tonks, regionally distinct cuisine, and agro-tourism resorts like Southall Farm & Inn. In other words, a simulation of what the TIC believes aspirationally life should be like for its native population. But because tourists come pre-sold with their wallets open, all energy focuses on delivering it to the most pliable demographic on the planet: people in town solely to spend money.

It’s an admittedly weird and difficult dynamic to parse, but I fully expect what is happening in Europe to happen here if cities like Nashville cannot find ways to counterbalance the titanic demands of swelling tourism. DAVIS HUNT

ELECTION NIGHT PARTY

🚍 The Pro-Transit Campaign Train Two nonprofits have been the main funders of Mayor O’Connell’s Choose How You Move transit campaign: Nashville Moves and the Nashville Moves Action Fund. According to the Banner, the Green Lights For Nashville PAC was also established but receives all its finances from the Nashville Moves Action Fund. The Q3 disclosures released in October show that the PAC spent $530,225—the lion’s share going toward television ads, while only $500 went to digital media. 

Since then, the Green Lights initiative has stepped up their digital marketing game: Meta’s ad library shows that Nashville Moves has spent $26,414 on ads targeting Nashvillians on Facebook and Instagram. Most of the digital campaigns have taken place over the last month, and they feature quotes from council members attached to ads targeting specific districts throughout Davidson County.

🔌 Broadband Czar On Friday, Senator Marsha Blackburn sent out a press release reminding Americans about the current administration’s “egregious mismanagement of federal broadband initiatives.” Back in September, alongside eight of her colleagues, Blackburn joined in sending a scathing letter to Vice President Kamala Harris:

Instead of focusing on delivering broadband services to unserved areas, your administration has used the BEAD program to add partisan, extralegal requirements that were never envisioned by Congress and have obstructed broadband deployment. By imposing burdensome climate change mandates on infrastructure projects, prioritizing government-owned networks over private investment, mandating the use of unionized labor in states, and seeking to regulate broadband rates, your administration has caused unnecessary delays leaving millions of Americans unconnected.

During Donald Trump’s appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” on Friday, the former President also reminded Rogan’s audience about the Biden administration’s mismanagement of their $7.5 billion investment in EV charging stations. CNN was quick to release a humorless fact check of the entire podcast.

🏚️ Rebuilding After Helene On Friday, Governor Lee announced additional support from FEMA’s Direct Temporary Housing Assistance for Tennesseeans devastated by Hurricane Helene. Homeowners and renters in six of the Northeast counties will be able to tap into the funding to help repair or replace their severely damaged and destroyed homes. “As Tennessee continues to rebuild, we remain focused on ensuring critical resources are made available to each impacted community,” said the governor in a press release. “I thank our federal partners for granting resources to further our severe weather response and recovery across the state.”

DEVELOPMENT

• Hotel firm buys prime East Nashville property (NBJ)
• Small east side commercial building planned (Post)
• Local boutique opens in permanent location in Green Hills (Post)
• WeHo property of restaurateur killed in hit-and-run listed for sale (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎸 Diet Lemon / Daphne Eckman @ The East Room, 8p, $18.75, Info
+ indie pop

🎸 Elvie Shane @ The Basement, 7p, $12.85, Info

🎸 Timbo & Lonesome Country @ Jane's Hideaway, 8p, Info
+ modern take on classic country, bluegrass & hillbilly Jazz

🪕 Val Storey, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & New Monday @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 8p, Free, Info

🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.