Social media influencers are invading some of Britain’s most popular tourist destinations and beauty spots causing chaos – while infuriating locals.
The internet is awash with videos of TikTokkers descending on some Britain’s most picturesque locations – posing on cliffsides, getting stuck on beaches and fighting on Snowdonia.
They have been seen enjoying themselves at attractions also including Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and seaside hang-outs in Cornwall.
However, locals near some of these sites are complaining about the impact of these tourists with photos and video showing piles of rubbish left behind and fights breaking out over issues like parking and queueing.
Unsavoury scenes see influencers seemingly disrespecting monuments – including a woman who ran away from security and touched the stones at Stonehenge.
Footage has also been shared of a TikToker signing her internet name on a Cornish beach
A TikTokker caught on camera and shared online pictures of the confrontation at Stonehenge
A TikTok user condemned ‘idiot tourists’ plaguing Snowdonia in Wales over the weekend
People have been seen climbing on the abandoned Ramshaw tank in Derbyshire’s Peak District
Other influencers filmed themselves signing their social media handles on beaches and climbing on top of an abandoned tank.
One video showed a woman at the Stonehenge monument in Wiltshire touching the 13m-tall standing stones before being ushered away.
The TikTok user who uploaded the footage described her as a ‘bad tourist’, with comments in response including ‘The no touching is to protect the bioculture on the stones’ and ‘Shouldn’t she get a ticket or something?’
Another clip was posted by a TikTokker writing her online profile name Barbiana in the sand at a beach in Cornwall.
She told viewers: ‘I’m a city girl, don’t get me wrong, but look at this – you can’t beat this, it kind of looks like Greece.
‘Of course I had to sign my name out, always, before leaving the beach.’
A third revealed how cars have been clogging up the area around Snowdonia in Wales, while there has also been footage of people clambering on an abandoned tank in Derbyshire’s Peak District countryside.
The Snowdonia video was posted by someone who told viewers: ‘I thought there was some stupid people in the world and then there’s this – three rows of cars, middle row completely locked in.’
And the footage of the Ramshaw tank in the Peak District was shared by the group Derbyshire Young Walkers, who accompanied it with the caption: ‘Has anyone been to all three of these amazing hidden gems?! The Peak District is full of them!’
The two other attractions they recommended were a waterfall beside an aqueduct in Chatsworth, Derbyshire, and the nearby Hidden Druids Caves in Birchover.
Complaints from UK locals come as fed-up residents in the Canary Islands in Spain have also launched protests demanding a crackdown on British holidaymakers – with graffiti appearing on walls saying: ‘Tourists go home.’
North Wales Police shared photos of vehicles being towed away at Pen y Pass in Snowdonia
Cornish locals have slammed ‘idiot’ holidaymakers who had to be rescued by lifeguards after driving onto the beach and getting stranded in their cars
A visitor to Stonehenge has been accused of touching the monument despite warnings
THE CORNWALL TOWN THAT’S DIVIDED OVER STAYCATIONERS AS CRITICS SAY THEY DESTROY THE AREA WHILE SUPPORTERS SAY THEY BRING IN VALUABLE BUSINESS
Cornish coastal resort St Ives was named the happiest place to live in Britain in a Rightmove survey – yet the town is divided over staycationers.
Some residents believe the tourist trade is crucial to the local economy, providing plenty of trade – yet others warn they can overwhelm the area.
Skipton in North Yorkshire took second place and Leamington Spa in Warwickshire came third in Rightmove’s survey of 21,000 people.
Research showed ex-fishing community St Ives having an average property price of £440,000 – more than 17 times the average salary of Cornwall’s year-round residents.
There have been concerns raised about staycationers coming to dominate the town, which was described by some as now resembling a ‘theme park’.
About 540,000 day trippers and more than 220,000 staying tourists go to St Ives in Cornwall every year – but many locals are opposed to the vast number of visitors
Local residents are being evicted to free up Airbnb rentals, critics say.
Families who have lived in St Ives for generations are reportedly being forced out as millionaires snap up homes, renting them out for up to £7,000 a week.
The tourism industry accounts for about 2,800 jobs in St Ives – equivalent to about one in four people living there.
And the resort is believed to have the second highest visitor-related spend in Britain, with tourists splashing out £85million in the area each year.
Yet incomers have put pressure on local housing stock supplies and campaigners are calling for a ‘tourism tax’ on second home purchases as well as a limit on Airbnb properties.
Camilla Dixon, co-founder of campaign group First Not Second Homes, has said: ‘We have a town where the rich people come to on holiday, when in some part of St Ives more than a third of children live below the breadline.
‘It is having a detrimental effect.’
And RNLI lifeguard Stefan Harkon said: ‘People in the town feel that they are just operatives in a theme park. We work in an area but we can’t live in it.’
Yet local shop owners have insisted they ‘completely rely’ on holidaymakers in St Ives and urged locals to ‘just move forward’ amid the backlash.
Sarah Hocking, owner of clothing store Fabulous, told MailOnline 85 per cent of her trade was funded by tourism, saying: ‘You live in a town that is manic at times but you kind of just work around it.’
‘What we don’t want to do is frighten holidaymakers off by how we talk about them.
And Jane Friggens, running St Ives’ Allotment Deli, said the town ‘relies on an increase in footfall’, adding: ‘Can’t we all just move forward and get on?’
MailOnline revealed yesterday how UK visitors were responding by daubing their own messages, including one reading: ‘F*** off, we pay your wages.’
There was also a 10 per cent surge in Tenerife bookings despite the local backlash.
But staycationers sticking in Britain for holiday breaks are increasingly under fire.
Fuming locals living near Snowdon hit out as Easter tourists saw their cars being towed by police after parking illegally and clogging up the Welsh attraction, while there were also scuffles as queues snaked up the mountain.
Photos shared online showed a lengthy line of hikers heading towards the summit of England and Wales’ highest peak last weekend.
Others revealed illegally-parked cars blocking pavements before police towed many of them away, with trucks pulling unwanted vehicles from the snaking country roads.
North Wales Police said 29 vehicles parked near Llyn Ogwen and another nine in Pen y Pass at the bottom of Snowdon were removed on Good Friday.
Snowdonia is the largest National Park in Wales, attracting 4million visitors each year – and the crowds were especially intense this past Bank Holiday weekend.
Traffic Wales said the A5 was closed near Ogwen Cottage outdoor pursuits centre on due to the vast number of cars needing to be towed.
The force posted on X, formerly Twitter, a picture of vehicles parked on both sides of a narrow mountain road – urging: ‘Please park responsibly on the roads and avoid obstructing emergency vehicles. Blocking their way could lead to serious consequences.
‘Let’s be considerate of our fellow road users in need and make way for emergency services. Your cooperation can save lives!’
An angry local has shared a TikTok video with the words: ‘Idiot tourists showing up in Snowdonia again! How some people get through life is beyond me.’
There were also disputes among people queuing on the mountain, with one TikToker sharing footage and saying: ‘There is no allocated queue for Snowdon.
‘People choose to queue of their own accord. There is no one telling you that you have to queue.
‘People think it’s really against the rules to join an imaginary queue. It’s not Thorpe Park, it’s a mountain.’
Another shared photos of a woman accused of disrespecting the Stonehenge monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
The witness wrote: ‘You’re not supposed to approach or touch Stonehenge, but this woman walked over the fence and proceeded to touch it while blatantly ignoring workers and security demanding she stop.’
Lengthy queues of hikers headed up Wales’s highest peak Snowdon over the Easter break
A video posted on TikTok shows vehicles queuing on the narrow roads in the picturesque Derbyshire countryside as staycationers tried to head to their Easter getaways
Locals were delighted as police were seen towing cars away – with trucks pulling unwanted vehicles from the snaking country roads
Icy ground and snow-capped mountains have not deterred dogged explorers trekking to Snowdon in Wales – with some even wearing shorts to battle the elements
One of Britain’s most popular beauty spots was described as ‘almost impassable’ after coastal erosion buried the only access to the beach at Durdle Door in Dorset.
There was also criticism about cars clogging the Peak District, with one TikToker posting: ‘Crazy Peak District traffic today! Cars everywhere.’
The clip received more than 44,700 likes on TikTok and photos of the traffic backlog caused outrage on local Facebook groups.
One person wrote: ‘I am afraid that it has all gone too far. The main aim of the National Park was conservation of countryside and wildlife and encouraging people to respect and enjoy nature.
‘I don’t think that remit covered leaving dirty nappies and litter and just generally slobbing about with their chips and beer.
‘If this is helping local business they can stick it. A cafe or shop can only cope with so many people not hoards who will be just as happy in Blackpool.’
Elsewhere, there have been complaints about rubbish dumped at the abandoned 19th-century Gaewern slate mine near Corris Uchaf in Gwynedd, south Wales.
Volunteer Anthony Taylor blamed wannabe social media stars for ‘killing’ the historic mine – which closed in the 1970s – by littering it with plastic bags, inflatable dinghies and even human excrement.
He says it has increasingly attracted the attention of influencers snapping selfies after the cave’s fame spread thanks to a popular YouTube video in 2018.
A crude 6ft long banner – written in black paint on a white board – was held aloft by three people over the over the A30 at Bodmin in Cornwall, saying: ‘Turn around and f*** off’
One of Britain’s most popular beauty spots was described as ‘almost impassable’ after coastal erosion buried the only access to the beach at Durdle Door in Dorset
A TikTok user shared footage of people heading towards the summit
The centuries old mine became the site of a bizarre phenomenon following its closure in the 1970s when people began dumping old cars and televisions into one of its main chambers
Volunteers carry a dinghy out of the cave after it was left behind by visitors
And Mr Taylor, 42, worries the site could end up closed to public access for good unless visitors start behaving better.
He told the BBC: ‘Instagram seems to be the killer of a lot of things. People turn up, take a picture and then leave – it’s just disgusting, really sad and disheartening.’
TikTok and Instagram videos show visitors to historic sites across the UK which have prompted complaints from onlookers.
Locals’ anger about second homeowners hitting Cornwall resorts such as Newquay and St Ives have also prompted volunteer wardens to go on patrol with CCTV.
Visitors have been shamed online for driving their cars on to Cornish beaches and leaving them there – with one even spotted submerged in the sea.
Locals set-up a Facebook group called ‘Utterly Preposterous Parking in Cornwall’.
People in the Cornish seaside town of St Ives say it has been turned into a ‘theme park’ after being swamped by tourists and Airbnb rentals.
And three people were seen holding up a crude banner on a bridge over the A30 at Bodmin in Cornwall, telling drivers: ‘Turn around and f*** off.’
At the same time, tourists arriving in Dawlish in neighbouring Devon were greeted by a man dressed as the Grim Reaper with a sign saying: ‘Welcome holidaymakers.’
Complaints about ‘self-entitled’ and ‘rude’ day trippers parking for free on beaches have also been made in other coastal resorts, including in Wales and West Sussex.
Another, known as Barbiana, also posted footage of herself on a Cornish beach
A TikToker was among those complaining about cars clogging the Peak District in Derbyshire
Holidaymakers were also greeted by a person dressed as the grim reaper in Dawlish, Devon
One Anglesey resident said: ‘I’m not a fan of selfish, inconsiderate and self-entitled behaviour.
‘I wouldn’t dream of driving on to a beach, but it seems that some people think they can park wherever they want.’
Another said: ‘It is totally selfish to drive cars onto that beach – clearly not appropriate, but some people don’t care about others.’
And makeshift signs taking aim at visitors and second home-owners have also appeared across the UK.
Holiday properties in Anglesey in south Wales have been covered in posters declaring ‘Nid yw Cymru ar Werth’ – Welsh for ‘Wales is not for sale’ – by activists demanding council tax on second homes be increased.
A spoof English Heritage blue plaque was also placed on a wall in Burnham in Norfolk, calling it ‘a dying village poisoned by wealth’.
Residents of the picturesque seaside community on the east coast of England bemoaned rich celebrities buying up properties for second homes and holiday rentals there, pricing out locals.
And villagers near a beauty spot in the Lake District barricaded themselves in with makeshift roadblocks, plastic fences and fake signs in a bid to keep tourists away.
Campaign group Nation Cymru has said four times as many houses have been sold second homes across Wales compared to the rest of Britain, ITV reported.
Yet social media’s influence on getaways shows little sign of abating, as new figures suggest video sharing site TikTok is the ‘go-to platform for travel inspiration’.
Almost half of adults, or 47 per cent, are now turning to the website to plan their holidays – with 39 per cent spending an extra four to seven hours each week doing so compared to two years ago, according to research by Tourism Australia.
Three Audi-driving visitors were berated by locals for deciding to park on the sand in Newquay
Holidaymakers have been dubbed ‘idiot tourists’ after cars ended up in a river and parked in the sand in Cornwall
A blue Mini was seen submerged in Cornwall’s Calstock river last August
A blue plaque spoofing those made by English Heritage was put up in Norfolk village Burnham
Tourists gather at St Ives Harbour in Cornwall during hot weather around Easter in 2022
Anti-foreigner graffiti has been appearing on walls in Canary Islands resorts popular with Brits
A British tourist appears to have hit back at anti-holidaymaker graffiti with this message
A record 6.5million visitors went to Tenerife last year, an annual increase of 11 per cent
Slogans include ‘too many guiris’, using a disparaging Spanish slang word for foreigners
Their survey of 2,000 Britons found 46 per cent say they trust TikTok recommendations more than other holiday review websites.
The UK’s top five favourite long-haul destinations were said to be Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand.
And 57 per cent told of being more likely to visit a place after seeing it on TikTok.
Sally Cope, Tourism Australia’s regional general manager for UK and Northern Europe, said: ‘It’s a natural fit for people to seek out their next destination inspiration whilst scrolling.’
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