A town’s identity can be sold to visitors until residents can no longer afford to participate in it.

A town can market its own character until the character prices out the people who had it. The pubs, festivals, and shops become an offering for visitors, and the residents who made those things worth visiting can no longer afford to take part in them.

If you visit places like this, spend where locals do rather than only where visitors are directed. And if you live in one, the ordinary participation, the local club, the regular event, the small shop, is what keeps a place a place rather than a display of one.