Tag Archives: stupid tourist tricks
TO THE VISITOR WHO TOOK OUR POLAR BEAR SIGN: Not to sacrifice journalistic impartiality or anything, but you suck
So now you’ve got our famous sign countless thousands of people took photos of themselves with as their requisite Svalbard “trophy” shot. What are you going to do with it – hang it on your wall so you can brag to your family and friends about your trophy? (Seems fitting for your judgement and very hopefully not theirs.)
Scripting reality: Two new travelogues utterly shred Svalbard…here’s an annotated guide to how much they got real
“Frozen f***ing hellhole.” “Fascists.” “Extremists.” “Suspicious.”
Hundreds of glowing travelogues about Svalbard are published annually by journalists and authors (who often take “hosted” trips). Two writers describing the archipelago with a barrage of words such as the above during the past week are not among the happy hostees.
Burned again by bad tourists: Visitors use, destroy grill at cabin; some owners ask if security cameras are needed
As long as a handful of tourists keep acting like idiots, they’re going to get called out for it here – and stigmatize the others.
Are you a loser cruiser? If these no-nos are obvious, you’re not one of the onerous one-percenters
Do you think it’s OK to hang out in local homes to see how they live, treat kids like animals in a petting zoo, pee on people’s cabins and/or pinch just a wee bit of fur off a stuffed polar bear because your special snowflake will appreciate it more than the others? OK, fine you’re a pathetic (and surprisingly not uncommon enough) jerk who won’t benefit by reading further.
Random weirdness for the week of May 10, 2016
We’re embarrassed as hell about our screw up last week regarding the “white paper” (which we’re reminding you on the first three pages of this week’s print edition), but at least we’re not the clear Wankers of the Week for once.
‘Not a people zoo’ – locals peeved at tourists peering and peeing at cabins near town
OK, let’s try this again: Just because locals are living the wild life doesn’t make them wildlife.
Numerous complaints about tourists – and maybe even a rogue tour guide or two – intruding on private cabins (occupied and not) have been voiced in recent weeks, with visitors doing everything from barging in uninvited to using them as wind screens while answering the call of nature. While cabin owners say the problem isn’t new, or necessarily increasing, there is concern efforts by the tourism industry to educate visitors about proper behavior don’t always seem to be taking hold.
Random weirdness for the week of March 1, 2016
We’ve long stated Longyearbyen residents are a bit dim in a way since, while the first sunrise after the three-and-a-half-month polar winter was Feb. 16, we don’t actually celebrate the first appearance of the sun until March 8. But here’s a real mental fuse-blower as everyone gears up for this year’s nine-day Solfestuka festival:
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Nov. 24, 2015
Major city center overhaul to include library, new offices
Longyearbyen’s main municipal building is scheduled to get a complete overhaul by next Christmas, with the information desk and city library moving to the ground floor just past a new entrance at the cafe in Kulturhuset, more and smaller government offices on the second floor of the building, and a new electrical system.
Random weirdness for the week of May 20, 2015
A seeming epidemic of tourists taking the piss is causing locals to…well, do some taking the piss themselves. “This guy stopped right outside the window while we ate breakfast last summer,” wrote Norma Setså, who posted a photo from her iPhone a local Facebook discussion page. That incident, coming after two other recent yellow alerts, has resulted in a free-flowing discussion and exhibition of visitors exhibiting themselves…
Random weirdness for the week of March 21, 2015
We’re not suggesting he be deemed a dangerous sex offender for life, but he seems to have topped Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin as this week’s Most Hated Person, at least among the locals on social media.
