Backpackers Turn Australian Streets into Toilets

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Some streets Sydney, Australia are becoming extra congested and dirty and residents are blaming backpacking tourists, according to The Daily Telegraph .

The newspaper reported recently that backpackers are being accused of clogging Sydney streets as they try to sell their vans before returning home. Among complaints are that they camp out on busy footpaths and urinate in the streets.

Local residents and business owners sent letters to Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore asking him to take action.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the problem may have increased after a car market moved to smaller premises about a year ago. A hostel manager said that there was an oversupply of people selling vehicles in Sydney.

"With the downturn in global economies, we have more backpackers leaving Australia than arriving, so they sit there for days and weeks because they have lots of time and not a lot of money," Great Aussie Backpackers hostel manager Peter Miller said. "I've got no problem with backpackers themselves. The problem . . . is with the selling of vans in the city."

A French backpacker said he has been trying to sell his van for five weeks before he heads out to New Zealand. He’s dropped the price from $6,000 to $3,500.

The University of Western Sydney surveyed residents in 2008 about whether their suburbs have changed, if they blamed backpackers and what action they had taken.

Research done by the university included data from the Sydney Sexual Health Centre that said backpackers were more likely to report a higher number of sexual partners, drink alcohol to excess and have an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections compared to the local population. It led to a safe sex campaign.

The 2008 Backpackers in Global Sydney report also led to needs such as more budget housing and acknowledgments from residents and public officials that backpackers weren’t always to blame.