Coastal tourist dollars don’t stay local

They also don't mention the appalling rudeness of some entitled customers (I'm looking at you Sydney), who throw a tantrum when they can't get what they want. Although to be fair, the fall of public manners is not confined to tourists.

In mid-winter one can drive around Kiama, Gerroa and Gerringong and count the number of vacant short term rental properties in total darkness, while young people move as they can't find a place to live and homelessness rises. We have young people squatting under tarpaulin near the Bombo cliffs.

As Anatole France said more than 100 years ago, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Properties in the NSW and Queensland coasts are now built specifically as short term rentals and not for residential use. There is a staggering rise in the number of American-style gated communities.

Flogging the NSW coast as an endless resource is highly problematic. Developers, like greedy bloodhounds, scent fast bucks. The commodification of NSW's beachside towns is music to their ears.

They rip up greenfield land and knock down properties (many are rentals) to cater for predominantly rich Boomers.

In what is the most blatant case of environmental vandalism, the developer of Ingenia Lifestyle Komoko at Blueys Beach, on the NSW mid north coast, has bulldozed 60 hectares of coastal forest to build an over-55s gated community.

Airbnb's and other short term rentals have acted as parasites on the economic body politic of coastal towns for too long. The money is not invested in local infrastructure, in surf lifesaving clubs or youth community centres.

These absentee landlords are speculators on the social capital and collective spirit created by locals in good times and bad.

While tourists may not be the central cause of the rise of localism, it's a factor.

The tsunami of holidaymakers overwhelm neighbourhoods, push up the prices of houses and apartments, as well as rents and food.

I want tourists to have a good time but it's blatantly clear thatbenefit-sharing must be a key part of tourist management to maintain public support.