Posted by seryna on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

I have learned in class, and through experience, that Cefalu depends on tourism as its a main source of revenue. Both the town as a whole and the individuals who live here seeming to base their lives around tourism. It has been interesting to be able to make comparisons to my home town, because tourism also is a main source of revenue there. In Cefalu, every other store is a souvenir shop and everyone is extremely hospitable. They know that tourists are a main source of revenue and cater to the tourists. While this presents problems for the locals with the high cost of living, they still need the tourists to keep Cefalu running. This is one of the main differences I see between Cefalu and my hometown of Santa Cruz, Ca. In Santa Cruz, the shops and people see tourists as a burden. Even though tourism is essential for Santa Cruz’s economy, there is still such a negative connotation around it. People do not go out of their way to be nice and helpful, there are a few souvenir shops but not many, and a lot of the locals want the tourists to leave. It is almost like seeing two small beach towns who thrive on the same source of revenue, but they go about it in completely different ways.

It has made me wonder why there is such a difference in attitudes towards tourism at home versus in Cefalu, when it is essential in both places. One of my theories is in line with the overall attitude differences I have noticed between Americans and Sicilians. Generally, it seems as if Americans have the notion that we are better than all other groups, while the Sicilians I have met seem to appreciate all of the different groups of people who come through. It is also almost like at home no one has time to be over the top friendly and cordial to outsiders. Everyone is focused on their own lives and the money being brought in by the tourism, but not the way we treat tourism as a whole. In Cefalu, as I have said before, people seem to appreciate things more in general and that could transfer over to tourism.