I don't go to Margaret River as often as I should. For a start, it's a lovely place (envisage the term "boutique country and you'll be pretty close to the feel of it), and with the addition of a new highway, not too far away. With its beaches, restaurants and wineries, it makes for a relaxing (and indulgent) retreat.
But as I walked from shop to shop, digesting one meal and eagerly planning the next, I couldn't help but notice that in the midst of designer labels and local arts, there was of course a number of shops selling the kinds of tacky souvenirs that sadly adorn any location with a tourist target-market. I have no particular moral issue with folks trying to make a living off-loading as much cheap shite to any folk silly enough to buy it. But, surely there is a better way.
To that end, I propose that any tourist items - which includes all items featuring the name of the place in question or some associated geographic feature - must be manufactured in the place in question. There is something inherently stupid in buying a souvenir of one's time in Margaret River which has been imported from China. Aside from being symbolically illogical, it hardly helps the local economy in the way a tourist purchase should, and it's also environmentally stupid.
So, let's change things. Go to a place, like it, feel obliged to take a bit of it away with you? Take something actually made in that place, rather than brought in just so you can play the tourist game. Me? I bought chocolate. And some secondhand books. Okay, they probably weren't made in Margaret River. And that bottle of port, from Portugal, probably wasn't either. Damn.
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