Well, obviously you can as The Guardian just has. But should you?
Locals rediscover streets and beaches in resorts absent of foreign tourists
The tourists can be absent, sure. And there can be an absence of tourists in a town. But absent of tourists?
Are they employing non-native speakers or is this some non-English form of English that globalised newspapers are forcing upon us?
‘Absent’ meaning ‘in the absence of’ is fine but the preposition ‘of’ is redundant.
Cheers Timmy. Here’s to absent friends
He’s combining a favourite American use of “absent” with a hapless “of”.
‘Without’ would have done perfectly well. Or foreign-tourist-frei, since it’s the Graun.
Did foreign tourists really flock to British beaches? Apart from asylum seekers to Kentish beaches, that is.
Incidentally, if Patel ever does get her response to the Channel Armadas sorted, suggesting to that mob in Calais that embarking from Holland in the direction of the Essex & Suffolk coasts could be a winning strategy. They’d be highly unlikely to be detected crossing. Especially in the later, stages.
I live in a city that, about 10-15 years ago, become insanely popular with the weekend citybreak crowd. The only positive thing about the current situation is that I can go to the central market on a Saturday, without being obstructed by gatrillions of tourists who have turned up to gawp at the strange, quaint foreigners who just want to buy some fucking groceries for the week. And all seem to have a desperate need to set up the ten trillionth perfect selfie with local, quaint, traditional, hand-woven hams hanging in the background for Instagram, because the ham shop is there to provide a pleasing background for free.
I think when the tourists come back they should charge a high entry fee, redeemable against purchase. But excluding the increasing number of coffee and juice and donut stands that are driving out the fruit’n’veg’n’meat traders that cater to the people who actually bloody live here.
“…embarking from Holland in the direction of the Essex & Suffolk…”
That route is already in use. Land in the lower reaches of Deben estuary or the River Alde, hide in the marshes during the day and walk to Ipswich by night.
Not on Lilos it isn’t, Theo. Or if it is, not nearly enough.
Commander J
Indeed. Edinburgh would normally be fvcking rammed with tourists now for the Festivals
Locals rediscover streets and beaches in resorts absent of foreign tourists
And further on down the line locals get to discover bankruptcies, closed shops and growing unemployment.
I think the locals being referred to are the middle classes bought a retirement place couple years back & spent the interval whining about newcomers moving to the area. The local locals are only too happy to see people with money to spend. They also don’t need to “rediscover” streets & beaches. They didn’t forget it’s an awful f***ing boring place to live if you come from there.
Commander Jameson,
“I live in a city that, about 10-15 years ago, become insanely popular with the weekend citybreak crowd. The only positive thing about the current situation is that I can go to the central market on a Saturday, without being obstructed by gatrillions of tourists who have turned up to gawp at the strange, quaint foreigners who just want to buy some fucking groceries for the week. And all seem to have a desperate need to set up the ten trillionth perfect selfie with local, quaint, traditional, hand-woven hams hanging in the background for Instagram, because the ham shop is there to provide a pleasing background for free.”
I do wonder if there’s going to come a time when all this will end. Like people don’t go to see the Mona Lisa and get a selfie to look at the painting. They go to signal to their friends that they’re in Paris and to pretend they’re cultured. You can see it better on Wikipedia.
But it just seems a really, really expensive thing to do, and who cares any longer? This isn’t the 1960s when almost no-one want to Paris, so it was a big deal. Just stand in your back garden and burn £500 in notes if you want to show how rich you are. That also saves you days of travelling.
@BoM4 (and BiND 🙂 )
Who was it said that you could perfectly capture the feel of yacht racing by standing under a cold shower while tearing up £50 notes?
Chris,
I don’t know who said it, but I can assure him it works for cruising as well. This year’s been a bit different but I’d hate to work out my cost/mile sailed for even the best year.
Did the foreign tourists just stand still while the resorts walked away (taking the beaches with them)?
I do wonder if there’s going to come a time when all this will end. Like people don’t go to see the Mona Lisa and get a selfie to look at the painting.
I was in the National Palace Museum in Taipei a couple of years ago on a quiet day and saw a 20-something Western guy walk around the exhibits and just take a photo of each. He barely looked at them to line up the shot. No chance at all that he’d sit down and look at them later, just pick a few for social media. That museum has some of the very best examples of Chinese craft and culture (thoughtfully liberated by the Kuomintang).
BiND: This year’s been a bit different but I’d hate to work out my cost/mile sailed for even the best year.
But at least when the wind drops and you’re chugging across Lyme Bay, you have the satisfaction of knowing that red diesel is on your side. 🙂
@dearieme
I think “absent of mind” perfectly describes Joe Biden…
I was in the National Palace Museum in Taipei a couple of years ago on a quiet day and saw a 20-something Western guy walk around the exhibits and just take a photo of each.
To be fair, Asian tourists pretty much invented that form of travelling. He was just returning the favour.
I went to Dubrovnik a couple of years back. Endless streams of people having selfies in front of buildings because they had been in Game of Thrones. So not only were they not actually looking at the thing being photographed, the building itself held zero interest to them. They’d literally spent thousands to go see some movie sets that they had already seen on TV quite a lot.
TMB,
Unfortunately they’ve changed the rules and clamped down, thanks to the EU. We’re only allowed to claim duty free fuel if we’ve got heaters and only the there’s a set ratio, 80/20 heating/propulsion I think. I don’t have a heater but to be fair I try not to use my engine but when I do they aren’t exactly gas gusslers.