That nationalism is a kind of collectivism or modern tribalism is illustrated by a current phenomenon: foreigners seem to be so hated that, according to some people’s views, “we” are neither allowed to import from “them” nor to “them” export. On the import side, foreigners – foreign producers or their governments or the latter’s taxpayers – are resented because they produce goods at such low costs that “our” producers cannot compete. As for “our” greedy merchants importing things that “our” consumers want, they are all greedy non-patriots. Since the seventeenth or eighteenth century, an important dimension of progress, one might think, has been the economic and moral suppression of these emotions.
On the export side, take a closer look at tourism, where a new protectionism seems to be emerging. Inbound tourism is an export to foreigners, both from other countries and from other regions (and as such is included in national accounts and the trade balance). Tourists, like foreign importers, use ‘our’ resources (capital, labor, land) to meet their demands. Hence the emerging claims for limiting tourism. Tourists are invading ‘our’ environment and undermining, at least temporarily, the amenities to which they are not entitled – even as some of ‘us’ want to welcome some of them into their homes or commercial locations.
The Financial times reports (Eleni Varvitsioti and Barney Jopson, “Greece is taking tough action against excessive tourism“, September 8, 2024):
Greece has said it will crack down on short-term holiday rentals and cruise ship traffic as part of a series of measures to curb excessive tourism in the Mediterranean country. …
Following similar limits imposed in Spain, Greece is also taking steps to regulate short-term rentals on online platforms such as Airbnb. Mitsotakis announced a one-year ban on new short-term rentals in three parts of Athens. Tourists often start or end their holidays in the historic Greek capital before traveling on to an island destination.
Andreas Chiou, president of the Greek Association of Real Estate Managers, said the ban was prompted by pressure from hotel owners.
It seems that “we” should not let “our” greedy shopkeepers, owners of restaurants, hotels or Airbnb accommodations benefit from tourism. The fact that these are just as much citizens as the locals who suffer from travelers is ignored by many people, so used to governments taking sides among their flock.
Imagine that a government (local, provincial or national) places signs in the area under its jurisdiction warning ‘We hate tourists’ or ‘Here we only sell locally’. This would be a return to previous eras of humanity, reminiscent of the tribal or collective ‘we’. These emotions ignore the idea so well developed in John Hicks’ book A theory of economic historyThe rise of the merchant, which began in the city-states of ancient Greece, marked the first phase of the transition from customary or command society to market society.
Note here, by the way, an example of the symmetrical property of “appearances.” It can be said that tourists create externalities for certain local residents, but the local population also creates externalities for certain tourists: if the local population were not there, many tourist facilities would be improved: untouched nature, less crowded beaches and the Acropolis, and so on. Private ownership is a powerful means of internalizing externalities, but in any liberal philosophy the local population does not collectively own the shopkeepers, nor one’s home, preferences and freedom.
It is true that travelers incur costs, but they reimburse them by paying for the resources they use and what they consume in hotels, Airbnb rooms, restaurants, etc. Only in public places, in the sense of the common areathey, like the local population, generally do not pay any fees. This is a general problem of public property, and few would object to non-discriminatory fees or taxes being levied equally on tourists and locals using the commons. Higher general port charges may be justified, as opposed to special taxes on cruise ships. Even in public museums, foreigners and locals usually pay a fee, or should do so.
Note how in free markets, greater demand for private goods and services, both by locals and tourists, will automatically lead to higher prices, lower quantity demanded and thus to rationing of scarce supplies – assuming of course that the ‘benevolent’ government does not do that. limit these prices. In the case of protectionism, as with dirigisme in general, discrimination replaces prices. A free market society largely avoids such public discrimination by renting individuals and their voluntary associations or companies resolve any conflict through freedom of contract. Collectivism – whether rationalized by ideology, the greed of the rulers and their supporters, or by special interests capturing the government – is a modern remnant of tribalism. as Friedrich Hayek argued.
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The ideal of protectionism in tourism