9/8/2023 0 Comments Wechat icon bubbleOne Tripadvisor user recently described it as “hell on earth”.īut there was nothing particularly ‘hellish’ as I passed through Downalong, a labyrinth of cobbled lanes lined with modest fishermen’s cottages. Locals and visitors alike have voiced despair at the overcrowding, the traffic jams, the litter and the lack of parking. Each year more than 200,000 people come to stay, on top of which it struggles to accommodate roughly half a million daytrippers. St Ives, with a population of a little under 10,000, is often held up as an example of overtourism in the UK. If you’re working in hospitality then you recognise the town would not survive without it.” “I’m a little bit unusual in this respect but I welcome the crowds. All the same, he accepts this as the rough that comes with the smooth. The day before, it had taken him half an hour to find a parking spot for work, and he considered himself lucky to have got one so quickly. “We had a massive boost during the Covid years when no-one could go abroad, but it’s back to 2019 levels I’d say.”īen has been living and working in St Ives for 15 years, and shares many of the frustrations that the summer brings for locals. “It’s fairly busy, although business has been down on previous seasons,” he told me as we sheltered in his office. Despite the rain, the manager, Ben, seemed upbeat about the coming summer. Outside the Porthmeor Surf School, a group of suntanned instructors were laying out their boards in readiness for the first customers of the day. Without a chink of sunshine visible in an ominous sky, the first day of the summer holidays looked set to be a washout.įew were up and about as I made my way from the car park to Porthmeor Beach, save for one or two solitary dog walkers and a couple of surfers floating in the swell. The town below was barely visible as great gusts swept across its rooftops. Rain hammered the windshield as I crested the hill above St Ives.
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