Hello VT, I lived in your state for a couple of years and absolutely loved it however I could never get over the tribalism, something which has been particularly prevalent in this sub during the fall.
When I lived in VT I had one car with Mass plates and one with VT plates the difference in road interactions were chalk and cheese. However, face to face people were incredibly nice and our rural neighbors were awesome!
I see many folks on here whinging about leaf peepers and no doubt they will also complain once the ski hills open up. However, these tourists bring huge amounts of money into Vermont. Tourism is a $3 billion industry, that supports over 30,000 jobs in Vermont, or 10% of Vermont's workforce (Tourism VT website).
I am from down under, a similar portion of our economy in New Zealand is tourism which obviously comes with increased traffic (especially in areas of outstanding national beauty), terrible drivers etc. However, generally we accept tourists with welcome arms as they generate money and for the most part are respectful.
It’s not just Vermont, Montanans are similar to tourists and people moving in, although I think a lot of that animosity is politically generated. Regardless 48% of their funding is federal, so they technically need more people to actually moved there to become a self sustaining economy.
Anyway, I suppose my question is: Is Reddit a reflection of how Vermonters actually feel or do most understand the importance of tourism to the state?
TLDR; why do Vermonters whine about tourism when they bring in so much money?