should gringos pay more?
on tourist prices and local spaces
I saw a TikTok some time agoâit must have been around Carnaval time, because everyone and their grandma were in Brazil. A girl posted her outfit check from Rio de Janeiro along with an innocent question: Whatâs a fair price for açaĂ and where could she get it?
Instead of advice, she got almost 2.000 comments about how she should pay more because sheâs a foreigner, full of people mocking her for the sheer audacity to want the local price when sheâs not a local herself.
Comments like âyour currency is 6x stronger than ours so you need to pay 6x more for açaĂâ flooded the comment section. Who cares that this is not even remotely how currency exchange works? The point has been made.
Gringos pay more because they are gringos e ponto.
My first ever trip to Lisbon started with me being dropped off at the Sete Rios station together with a random American guy Iâd met the previous night in Lagos. We were hungover and starving, so a decision was made to grab lunch together before parting ways.
We found an OK-looking eatery close to the bus station that was, according to Google Maps, within our backpacker budget. As soon as we sat down, a shiny laminated menu landed on our table. Compared to what I saw just minutes prior online, it had completely different meals on it, prices of which started at double what we were ready to spend.
In a sudden rush of confidence, I used my Duolingo language skills to ask for the Portuguese menu and we ended up eating well that day. Problem solved but I suspect itâs not always this easy.
Tourist menus are nothing new, but in many countriesâPortugal includedâthis practice is not just annoying but also illegal. Itâs essentially a form of identity discrimination, legally similar to discriminating by sexual orientation or race. Alas, since it only affects tourists, a blind eye is turned to these scams and the gringo-go-home-pilled general public is increasingly in favor of this treatment.
But let me ask youâif you agree that refusing to make a cake for a gay wedding is bad, then why would you support someone getting ripped off for being born in the wrong place? And how do we determine who gets the local treatment and who doesnât? By accent and appearance? This slope could become very slippery real quick.
Back in my own city, Janek RubeĹĄ from the Honest Guide (still the best resource for visiting Prague to this day) recently pointed out in a podcast how restaurants around the Old Town Square sell coffee for 260 CZK. He articulates that âthatâs not an expensive coffeeâitâs a âgo awayâ sign for the entire local population.â
Here, there are no secret local prices anymore, as Prague residents have been deliberately pushed out of the heart of their city. No one goes âletâs grab a beer and watch the astronomical clockâ; thatâs a privilege reserved for folks used to paying 260 for a coffee or a beer in their countries. We donât get to enjoy our historical center because even for those who can afford the expensive drink, it comes with a side of an unwelcoming atmosphere and a pressure to spend like youâre on vacation.
Throughout my lifetime, there was only one small time window during which the existence at the Old Town Square was afforded to everyone undiscriminatelyâthe pandemic. As tourism vanished, previously tourist-only restaurants were suddenly begging for Prague citizens to give them a chance by offering reasonably priced lunch menus and 100-crown cocktails in plastic bags to stay afloat.
Once Covid was over and visitors started pouring back in though, it was back to the status quo. Our brief rule over the city came to an end once again.
That goes to show that if the number of cashed-up tourists reaches a critical point, local customers become undesirable from a business standpoint.
I say all that to give the Brazilian açaà warriors a warning.
One day, you might find yourself in a situation where not only can you no longer afford açaĂ, but you have become an unwelcome nuisance at your local public beach.
Despite everything I just said, I still think that there is a legitimate use case for charging locals and tourists differently, a good example of which is the recent development around local gondolas in Venice.
Venice is known for its gondolas, but it also operates larger gondola-ish boats called traghetti, used as public transportation to move Venetian locals around the canals. However, with the rise of TikTok, visitors caught on to the fact that they can experience a gondola ride for as little as 2 euros, and began overwhelming the transit system. This âopen secretâ resulted in long queues, endless photo sessions, and reduced quality of life for Venetians relying on these boats in their day-to-day lives.
It got to the point where Venice is now considering introducing a higher tourist price for a traghetto ride. And rightfully so.
Another example I recently came across is gorilla tracking. In Rwanda, one of only three countries that offer this ultimate bucketlist experience, there are not two, but three tiers of permit pricing. Non-African tourists pay the insane price of $1500. Africans and African residents pay $500. The cost for Rwandan locals is âonlyâ $200.
Is it kind of discriminatory? Yes, but this is about the fragile balancing act between protecting wildlife and still being able to use this asset to bring money into the country. Pricing the permit $200 flat for everyone would probably overwhelm the demand and put the gorillas in harmâs way. Pricing it at $1500 would lock Rwandans out of interaction with their own natural heritage.
Some people are completely against any sort of dual pricing, citing unfairness and the belief that the extra money isnât used for its intended purpose. Thereâs also a prevalent thought presuming that âsomeone is always going to be priced outâ and âitâs unrealistic for every French person to visit the Louvre anywayâ. While that might be true, Iâd like to think that every Parisian should be able to go to the Louvre at least. Whatâs the point of living in a place you are completely unable to enjoy?
Last but not least, experts concerned with profits are worried about price discrimination tainting a destinationâs reputation, which would lead to a potential loss of tourism-generated revenue over time. I disagreeâtourists have been falling for the same scams in the same spots for decades and there are no indicators of this ever changing.
In my opinion, there is a case to be made for government-enacted tiered pricing. Free or discounted access for residents to natural sites, museums, places of worship, or public infrastructure is necessary for people to feel connected to the place they live in. This system works all around the worldâI welcome the discount where I live, and I really donât mind paying a bit more than a local highschooler when Iâm abroad.
That being said, Iâm only in favor of dual pricing when it helps create a better local experience rather than just making the lives of visitors harder. There should be clearly defined rules for who belongs to which category, and some kind of system to verify it. Ideally, we should be made aware of where the extra revenue generated by charging tourists more is goingâthat seems like the bare minimum to ask of a governing body but in most countries, this part is indeed a corruption problem, not a tourism one.
When it comes to private businesses like cafĂŠs, restaurants, or corner shops, I wouldnât be so quick to support charging unsuspecting Americans six times the regular price if you want to retain your access to those spaces at all.
Let Prague be your cautionary tale for what happens to a city when we give scammers and tourist trappers the keys.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like this one about global gentrification.
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fialka
Excellent piece, so many great points you touched on.
I get why city centre touristy places charge more and as long as they're transparent, I'm fine with that. Wherever I go, I try to go where the locals go for a proper meal and I'll ask people for advice. I was told U GlaubicĹŻ in Prague is good, and when I ate there in April and found it excellent and decent value for money.
I always ask for a local language menu when travelling - not necessarily for the prices, but because it's fun to experiment and learn a bit of the language, especially with food. There are going to be similarities between different languages anyway, it's easy enough to figure out. It also helps that I'm an adventurous eater and will eat almost anything.
In Italy there are quite a few museums with a different price list for locals, EU nationals and 'the rest of the world.' I remember travelling there while living in Ukraine, where I was making a Ukrainian salary, which is not high at all, and I thought it was kind of unfair when there's one price for everyone at all Ukrainian museums, and they are super cheap for foreigners. And of course, most museums in London are free.
This is an interesting piece! I am writing about the business of tourism and the unfortunate reality for a lot of businesses in high traffic tourist areas is that their costs (especially rent) are often higher than elsewhere. The broad trends lately have been such that higher end travel has been stronger than budget travel, so the less price sensitive demand definitely exists. I canât blame the business owners for trying to maximize their revenue, but to your point it comes at the cost of accessibility for others not willing or able to pay the premium prices. I think youâre right that there should be efforts to maintain access to infrastructure and cultural sites, but unfortunately I donât think thereâs a practical solution to the expensive coffee in a prime location.