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Newest form of “ugly American tourist”: hurricane gawker
The "ugly American tourist" is the stuff of legend. Loud, camera-ready, Bermuda-short-wearing, non-French-speaking boars traveling around the world asking how much things are is a stereotype most American travelers seek to live down. Now they have a new bad example to be embarrassed about: the hurricane gawker.
As AP reported this week, a new type of tourist is descending on New York. They come from far and wide not to help out or bring food and supplies but to drive slowly through devastated neighborhoods in brand new SUVs and take pictures of powerboats on people’s front lawns.
AP reporters spoke with a number of Staten Island residents who had seen these new hurricane gawkers gathering like storm clouds as locals waited for power, heat and insurance agents to make sense of their jigsaw homes. Some were bemused, others were downright angry.
"The gawking was amazing last week," resident Joanne McClenin told Fox News. "It was kind of offensive as a homeowner, because I felt violated."
A decline in this latest form of tourism’s numbers should be in direct correlation to the increase in normalcy as New York’s shoreline neighborhoods continue to recover.
For now, unfortunately, there is still too much to see.
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