‘Abhorrent’?
Dear Editor:
Apparently, questioning the level of tourism in Elora is now “abhorrent.” That’s quite a word. Abhorrent means morally reprehensible or repugnant. I can think of behaviours deserving that description. Racism, violence and serious criminal acts come to mind. A resident suggesting that perhaps there can be too much tourism does not.
Calling a contrary position abhorrent strikes me as the kind of Trumpian hyperbole increasingly used to delegitimize disagreement rather than engage with it. We should resist that, regardless of which side of an issue we are on.
Sarah Barber and MacLean Hann (‘Support local,’ Oct. 8)make an entirely legitimate argument that tourism supports their businesses and employees. I don’t begrudge them making it. Local businesses matter.
But local residents matter too.
The interesting question isn’t whether tourism has benefits. Of course it does. The interesting question is whether every additional tourist necessarily makes the community better off.
Economics gives us good reason to question that assumption. Research on over-tourism recognizes that visitor growth can eventually create significant costs through housing pressures, congestion, infrastructure demands and impacts on residents. The academic discussion increasingly concerns balancing those costs against tourism’s benefits and finding efficient tourism levels, rather than blindly maximizing visitor numbers.
Barber and Hann report that 95 per cent of their employees live within Centre Wellington. My own informal survey of 15 employees at Elora businesses found only one living in Elora and another two elsewhere in Centre Wellington. Obviously, my sample is small, and their businesses may be different. The truth is likely somewhere between those experiences. But again, that’s a reason for discussion, not condemnation.
I believe Elora has moved past the point where additional tourism improves the community overall. Others believe we haven’t. Let’s debate that.
Supporting local shouldn’t mean unquestioningly supporting unlimited growth in tourism. It should mean finding a balance that supports local businesses and the people who actually live here. We can disagree about where that balance lies without declaring the people on the other side morally repugnant.
That’s what a healthy community does.
Michael von Massow,
Elora