I suppose if I was trying to boil it down, I’d say this is very much an area that was discovered by tourists and outsiders in the 18th Century. Obviously people who lived here would have their own take on the valley. But it was almost tailor made for the tourist invasion from a very early stage. Of course Llanberis gets developed as a tourist town once the railway was developed. And the centre of gravity moved down from Nant Peris to Llanberis.
Generally it’s really nice to see more people in the valley in terms of its vibrancy and people in the village but its starting to cause problems isn’t it, infrastructure wise.
Exactly. I keep trying to explain to the park, the council and so on, that tourism isn’t something that should just be encouraged no matter what. But they don’t listen. I just can’t get through to them that they need to really understand the impacts of it - really, what are the benefits to local people? I don’t think they look into it. They just carry on. [ January 2020]
There’s more money around, there’s less people working. It’s a less separate place here now than it used to be.
I think there are more tourists. Also there never used to be all the holiday houses there is now. People coming here on holiday here is important though. This is National Park. It’s a lovely wild place and people come here to appreciate nature from the city. So I do think its important for people to be able to come here.
I think we may have the place to ourselves this summer [2020]! it’s been amazing over the last few weeks (April 2020). I can’t believe the difference it makes.
I think it [COVID-19] has been a warning call. i hope people listen. We’ve been so dependent on tourism, its like we’ve forgotten there’s anything else. I think a lot of people here have enjoyed it with less visitors. Why couldn’t they just open it up to us first? See how it goes? if you think about what we have, what’s real … We have fields - basically wales is made of fields. rather than just focusing on the tourism industry (being turned into car parks etc), why don’t we look at using them for food production, for things we need locally, setting up local markets and so on?
There’s a perception that people come here and use the facilities and don’t pay anything. Getting something for nothing and not bringing anything. There’s an attitude that tourists are detrimental and maybe that needs to change. But all the pubs and cafes in the village are all thriving now. Businesses were only just getting through the winter… I was in the Heights last night [mid - January 2020] and it was busy. It was really vibrant. Couple on the next table with two daughters - we had a chat with them, they were really enjoying it.
I feel really ambivalent. If it doesn’t grow any more then its manageable. But its crazy in the summer. There’s just cars everywhere. There’s always this thing about tourism being great, the industry of North wales. A lot of money is put into tourism. Then I think well who benefits from that? Take Llanberis – the trains, they benefit. But they cause so much pollution. I’m not sure who else. People don’t go into Llanberis. Or eat in Llanberis. Café Mafon is full of locals. Pete’s Eats makes money from tourists, but climbing tourists, I thimk that’s different. The vic. People who own holiday homes. Why is money being pumped into tourism, why can’t we put it into something more … I don’t know ….real?
Look at llanberis now. I think there’s 200 and odd air bnb which is ridiculous really. You’ve got parking, that’s a really big issue, with people going up snowdon. But not only that, with Llanberis being as busy as it is, and then with all these air b n bs, you may get three or four cars turning up to one house. And Local residents are struggling to park as it is. You know, say you’ve got a family of four now, they’ve probably all got a car. Whereas before, it was probably only one car per household. But I really don’t know what will happen, or what to do….We just need to think about better park and rides, better car parks, rather than just sticking machines up and fining people. You know. Give them somewhere to park.
I love it here but unfortunately so do holiday owners and air bnb people. It’s horrific now. In the 70s and 80s all the people moving here were from Manchester and so on. But the new people arriving now are yuppies. They say they’ve moved here ‘for the lifestyle’, that’s enough to put you off isn’t it. They don’t mix. They don’t learn Welsh. They talk loudly in really posh English accents. i worry about that. The locals are being squeezed out. Its a shame and i think resentment is bubbling up.
Well we have never really done hospitality in Wales very seriously. I’m not saying that we have been inhospitable but its never quite been as a real job. Its not like working at the rockface or rounding up your sheep or any of the traditional things. If you can imagine a sort of iconic welsh people-type card game, or something like that its not Mr Bun the Baker but always Mr Jones the Quarryman, Mr Williams the Farmer, Mr Evans the Minister. But it was never really Mr Prydech the tafarn keeper. So maybe we need to change.
There’s definitely more tourism. Massively. Which is great in lots of ways but the good thing about it is there’s more employment obviously, although a lot of the employment is temporary, seasonal, not very well paid, its great to have a big buzz around of lots of people. It can be irritating as well – sometimes you want to be able to walk into the local café and there not to be many people there. The thing with the tourism I worry about is that all these things come in a cycle, boom and bust. and lots of people rely on it – its great while it’s happening but I do worry about what’s going to happen when north wales isn’t the number one place to visit anymore. After everything has changed to support it – hotels being built, properties being converted to b n bs etc and then there being a gap. I’ve worried about that for the past 5 years, ever since it started to get popular. It’s a bit like monoculture isn’t it – the monoculture of sheep maybe becoming a monoculture of tourism. And monocultures can’t adapt.
There’s a whole project in that – what’s the relationship with the landscape as a climber? There are quite a few Welsh climbers, but the majority English speaking. I’m not sure people are aware, really, I think to some extent there are people who avoid the whole question of the Welsh language and refuse to engage with it. So climbing in some ways is a bit of a colonial activity. And so I have a kind of mixed feeling about it. But there are welsh climbers and a few welsh names for climbs but not many. Its very much people coming and mapping the landscape again. Twm Morys gave a talk about welsh place names and I was fascinated, the stories are just fantastic. I thought this is so interesting in relation to all these English names that have been carved onto the rock faces. It would be interesting to go and translate them all, do a guide book with climbs with welsh names.
Just yesterday, for the first time I saw one of those laybys on the bends parked up - full - of lots of cars. And just prior to that, a whole string of people walking on the pavement between Craig yr Undeb and the steps dropping down to the lakeside. A whole course of walkers, not all in the same group. And within 100 yards there were 5 cars parked up in the layby. There were two cars of Asian families - it’s great the appeal of this place is spreading, the diversity.
The big change has been how - in my perception anyway - we’ve gone from being an unknown and certainly unfashionable and undesirable backwater to people turning up here to do their Instagram shots. And it sounds like its over-tourism. Very fashionable. Holiday homes, air bnbs, all of that stuff. I don’t think that has yet irreversibly changed the character of the towns and villages but there’s a great danger as in so many other places that the indigenous population, the people who were born here, lived here most of their lives, generations of people will get increasingly shuffled to the side rather than that being the dominant culture into which other people fit. So that concerns me. If you went to the lake district now, is it the original rural – maybe rural landed – but generations of people who have lived there forever is that the dominant, or is it the retired middle classes or anyone. I hope it is, but. The concern is to lose what is hear now. What is different. What is valuable. It is another diversity thing. We’ve got I don’t know, there is some sub-section of human sapiens that inhabits this part of the world and it is in danger of going extinct and that would be a great loss.
I’m not worried about tourism. There are people who have moved here because they came here as tourists, or climbers, and I think that’s healthy, they bring so many new things. They are like the lifeblood in many ways. I think the valley could do with more in the way of things to draw people in the way that Ffestiniog has done – things that are indoors. I think it was a missed trick not to do the bike track in Glyn Rhonwy. Because it wouldn’t have done any harm, and people need things to do.
People say we depend on tourism. But do we? I just saw something in a video by Nation Cymru on facebook that said tourism just contributes 4% to the economy. 4%!! And that’s not even taking into account how much it costs is it? I mean I don’t know how they work these things out, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that it costs us more than 4%, the infrastructure, the pressure on various things, caused by the tourism. I don’t understand why we don’t look at it more carefully. I don’t think it is the council being in the pocket of businesses or anything. i just think they are useless.
We’ve met a lot of people in the pub, just standing at the bar, and it turns out they are building sets for the royal Shakespeare company. Or a couple of teachers we met from Sheffield and we sat together in the quiz. And the next morning we went out and came back and they’d lefta bottle of wine on our doorstep! These are brief, they are transient, these relationships, but they are good. They bring a real enrichment. And without them the pub would not be here. It thrives on these busy weekends, and special events. We held our son’s wedding after-party at the pub, and John [the owner of the pub] said it was the best night of the year.
I heard the new Ty’n Llan [Nant Peris pub] owners are going to be serving lobster. I can’t see that working. The owners before the Cumberton’s tried that. Its not going to work because we have tourists who come just for the day now. Its completely changed. They drive here with cars full of everything they need, they park somewhere where they dont’ have to pay, they go on a walk and then they go home. They may stop in the pub for a pint, maybe something basic, but not a posh meal.
We thought it would be much quieter here than it is. We thought we’d be sort of hidden away - I remember Nant from my childhood, and this road was really quiet. But now we even get bus loads of tourists coming over our bridge! We had one load of Canadians. The bus parked on the road and they all came over and started wandering around our garden! Others have even been aggressive, saying they have a right to come in and take photos in our garden! Suddenly there are people in the garden, staring into the windows. I was there once, about to drop my kecks on the toilet, and a face appeared at the window staring in! It makes us feel really unsafe sometimes.
I come from Rhyl originally. My parents - my father - used to say that it was such a lovely place until the 70s or so, when the town decided to turn to tourism as its main focus. Before that, tourism was a bit incidental. It just kind of happened alongside lots of other things. But in the 70s, it was the time when people started going to the Costa del Sol and places like that, and Rhyl kind of re-invented itself as a tourist destination. My father was really angry, because they started bulldozing whole streets, communities, places he loved. Like down the west end, to make space for tourist attractions. It crushed the heart out of the place. I see that happening here now. I think the same thing is happening. It’s crushing. Since lockdown ended, and people have started flooding back - like a plague really - but there has been much more push back. I think people are angry about how they just come here and use the place. They have enjoyed it in lockdown. They are saying ENOUGH!
Have you seen the centre of the village [Nant Peris] today [Tuesday 21.7.20]? There are cars parked all over the green, making massive tyre marks and everything, when there is a car park literally across the road. People don’t even want to pay £5 to park. Its unbelievable. The attitude.
It’s certainly over the years we’ve spent more and more time just here. Rather than seeking entertainment, going to the beach or canoeing or climbs or walks miles away. I asked my son the other day if he’d be ok if we just left him here without a car. And he said ‘yeah’ I ‘ve got everything I need here, I’ve got the dog for company, the river for a swim, loads of little walks.
I think that’s why things like farm holidays have taken off. You go there and someone shows you their world and you begin to – it’s really relaxing to be shown around a place, rather than getting in a car and going somewhere and doing something. So that’s probably more of the future of tourism that I’d like to see, rather than coming here, climbing a mountain, going home. I mean what do you get out of that really? Some sense of achievement, but its tick box isn’t it?
When we were walking through the slate quarry the other day, with the dog. We were by the big pit and there were quite lot of people climbing off on some of the slate crags. And there was a couple coming up and they were asking about the slate quarries and we shared the little bit of knowledge we had, and told them about snakes and ladders, the route you can take through the quarries. And they were absolutely gripped. They said well actually we’ve just come up from Wandsworth because last year we decided to move out of London and we are spending weekends in different parts explore it, trying to decide which part to live. And I wish I knew more about the slate quarries so I could tell them. But you know, most people would really love to know – you know if there were kind of way-stations on the Snowdon path where a couple of people offer you a cup of coffee and tell you a story about the place. Or tell you about their lives. Coz I think people are genuinely interested. But the opportunities for those kinds of interactions are few and far between the way tourism is operating at the moment.
Something has really shifted since the lockdowns. People have got the place back for themselves and they are thinking ‘what’s in it for us’ with all these tourists. I know at least three campsites are not opening again, including the one in the centre of Nant, because it is too much trouble - the attitude of the tourists: they’ve had enough of people just upping and leaving and all the tents and equipment and rubbish just left there in the field. I think there’s a change in the tourists - these are people who haven’t been here before. I don’t know what you can do about it, but something has to be done! [March 2021]
Yeah, i mean we have to be welcoming but there are limits to what we should have to put up with.
After the summer lockdown [2020] was over and we got that inundation of tourists, we didn’t feel we could even go out - there was no social distancing. It was chaos. The locals, we stayed away. it was like we couldn’t go anywhere. And with almost everything shut, where IS the money coming in? People come for the day - they have been arriving in teh early hours, like 3am, parking on our street, getting out laughing and shouting to each other and going up Snowdon. It’s like they don’t think people live here or something. Or like we don’t count.