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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a topic that can very easily become too sensitive and controversial  :roll: but I will be frank and speak as an experienced traveller who has been going to Europe since the early 1980s and has also lived in Europe on two different occasions, first as a child and then as an adult.

Has Europe changed? Yes. The themes touched above are real. I'll summarize some of the most obvious ones.

1. The tourist hordes have exploded, especially in the last 15 years. It's not just Americans but there are now huge numbers of Chinese and other Asians and Latinos travelling to Europe. I have nothing against the diversity of tourism, but I do remember when you could go to the Sistine Chapel and have the place to yourself and maybe a handful of other tourists. I was once totally alone in the chapel for about 10 minutes. I remember that clearly. But now all the major sites in all the major cities are packed, packed, packed. In the Louvre you can barely see the key artwork for the hordes of tourists. Most of them don't care about the art, they just want their d*mn photo of the Mona Lisa so everyone is holding up their phones and snapping away and it's now impossible to see the painting clearly.

2. Tourism used to be mainly in the peak seasons with minimal tourism in the off seasons. But now for the big destinations it's pretty much year round tourism. There's no longer an off season for Venice, for example.

3. The gulf between America and Europe has changed. In the 1980s the European lifestyle and environment was still different enough from the US that it felt very different. This was most easily obvious in food. In 1980s America if you wanted special French or Italian cheeses, even reggiano parmiggiano, you had to go to specialist shops (if your city had them!). Good bread in the US? Hah! Going to France or Italy was a revelation for the food on offer, all the fabulous pastry shops and restaurants and delis and cafes that offered food and coffee that made American culinary world so dreary and dull by comparison. But today? It's the same. In many cases it's even better in the US. America's dining scene is FABULOUS these days. You no longer need to go to Rome to get great coffee, or Paris for a great croissant or baguette. Actually, the coffee in Paris is terrible compared to America, the French coffee was never great but we didn't realize it in the 1980s and now we do.

4. The globalization of cities. I can go to certain kinds of neighborhoods in most of the big European cities and eat in the same ethnic restaurants, drink in the same hipster coffee shops, be surrounded by the same kinds of people as I can in certain neighborhoods in DC or New York or SF or Boston. As the world globalizes, the more homogeneous our cities and lifestyles have become, particularly for the educated professional classes that like to travel. I've been in coffee shops in Mumbai and Hong Kong that would be right at home in Brooklyn or London. That familiarity and the prevalence of it in the main European cities means Europe is no longer the exotic destination it was.

5. Demographic changes. This is the most controversial part. I am not passing moral judgement. But that has been a big demographic change in Europe in the last 20 years. Places like London, and even Paris, now have huge demographics they didn't have before. London is probably the most changed city in my lifetime.  It really is no longer an English city for most practical purposes with the majority of Londoners now foreign born or children of foreign born. It's just different now both for good and bad reasons. And the same is happening to Paris. This is less of an issue in the smaller cities and in central Europe and Eastern Europe is barely touched by the waves of immigration.

6. Growing affluence. Key parts of Europe were always affluent but on the whole it's more affluent today than it was in the 1980s. So their cities have seen their own version of gentrification and that has changed the character of a lot of cities. The worst places are London and Paris, where the entire center is literally a rich man's playground with the tourists tolerated. The gentrification means so much local businesses and shops are pushed out to be replaced by the same upscale coffee shops and restaurants and fancy boutiques selling the same things you can easily find in the US, all frequented by the same kinds of people.

Despite all my observations, I still very much enjoy going to Europe. It's a wonderful place. I would never stop anyone from going there. [/quote]

Thank you for this.  I posted earlier about the numbers of tourists.  I also agree about the globalization angle.  I was in Rome last year, and I really didn't do any shopping.  There was very little there that I couldn't buy here.  Outside of the main tourist attractions, everywhere is starting to look very much the same.

I still love traveling in Europe, but after taking my dc to London, Rome and Paris, I really have no desire to go back again.  I'll be trying to seek out the less-traveled destinations, if there are any left.  [/quote]

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