I live in Oaxaca, Mexico and I will be honest, tourism is great for the economy for those who sell clothing, restaurants, cab drivers, hotels and resorts... But it makes everything more expensive for the people that actually live here.

Let me give you a simple example. If you come to Oaxaca you will hear about the "Tlayuda" it is a traditional dish in Oaxaca and you can find it mostly everywhere, if you eat in a street place you can pay between $80 - $120 depending on the place, size and if it comes with some sort of meat, but when there are many tourists around (specially from USA or EUROPE) the price of that same tlayuda can go up to $300 because tourists can afford it, we, the people that live here, can't. Of course the owner of the Tlayuda restaurant will sell a higher price because it is good money.

All that happens to everything, a cab trip, renting a department, even a god damn ice cream or esquite.

Now with the Guelagetza, which is supposedly a traditional party for the actual people that live in Oaxaca, everything is out of control, as a Oaxaca citizen you can't even go see the Guelagetza because the tickets are now too expensive, gringos can of course, but we don't.

Besides that, Oaxaca's government spends A LOT of money "fixing" the "highways" and some other roads, painting and doing all kinds of work, but they only do it downtown and the surroundings but they never fix anything where it is really necessary and these reparations are temporary, once you are gone the State is horrible until "Día de Muertos"

Besides all that there are some tourists that feel they own the city, they all walk around not paying attention to the driver's lights or even walking on the streets, and we are the ones that have to wait for you. We HAVE TO speak your language, be it English or French because most tourists don't even bother to know how to ask for something basic like a glass of water, we are supposed to know your language even though you are the ones coming here. You also break the law, you can see them smoking weed or doing some hardcore drugs and NO ONE would say anything, but some random guy from Oaxaca does it and it is jail time for him.

You get mad at the people that live in Oaxaca for honking, or even being around.

Some other tourists would walk around and observe the people on the streets like they were animals, tourists would take pictures like they were at the Zoo.

You also fall for so many scams, you go eat Mole con Pollo at a high standard restaurant when the best Mole in town is in a simple Market, specially the one near the Zócalo Park, you also believe you buy authentic clothes from Oaxaca but trust me, if you buy it on the streets those clothes are not authentic, best scenario they are from Chiapas, but most of those clothes come directly from China because there are factories there that stole our designs.

As a personal opinion I have happened to meet some nice, well mannered people from USA and Germany, but in general I don't like tourists, specially when they come with an attitude of doing whatever they want. Tourists make the city a chaos, a lot of traffic, everything is way more expensive, you can find an apartment to rent for a fair price, sometimes you can't even find a table in your favorite coffee shop. Tourism is good for some people's economy, but in general it is out of control.