damned tourists

I am sick of hearing "oh, tourists are a curse, oh tourists spoil the tango in Buenos Aires".

For a start, not all tourists are the same. I have been in Buenos Aires for some time now and I have been hit in dancefloor by Argentines more than I hit someone else. So don't come around telling that tourists are a curse.

Tango won't finish without tourism, it won't be spoiled by tourism, but tango, to flourish, needs tourism (please, if you are going to refute this sentence do it with arguments, not just the same old line "you're a tourist, what do you know about it"). I was speaking with someone that works in tourism for the last 30 years and was told that salóns like Canning had little over 15 people when the economic recession and swine flu attacked together.

The other day I went to have a class with the great Jorge Dispari and Marita "La Turca". There were 5 of us in the whole class. 4 of us were tourists, the other was a great friend of the family and goes to classes everyday. This is not Pablo and Dana or Frumboli's class, this is the most traditional of teachers who refuses to teach figures and only teaches walking. 4 "tourists" versus 1 local. And I find that the ratio, though not so steep, is always like this, even in milongas. Yesterday in Sunderland there were at least 50 "tourists" in a milonga with 200 people. I was only hit once in the milonga. Strangely enough, it was an old milonguero (who promptly apologised!). A good milonga, definitely yes. Would it survive without tourists (definitely yes). Would it be the same, no, it would lose quite a lot.

Respect tourists, they help tango flourish.