[esperent]

Local people live in these places too and they stay there all year round. The woman selling crispy snacks to tourists at 500% markup will also sell them to locals for the normal price all year round, just as crispy snack sellers do in non tourist areas. It's different for the souvenir sellers of course.

This doesn't discount the real poverty that exists in many countries, and I'm not dismissing that. But if you're seeing poverty in a tourist area it probably means it's ten times worse in the places where tourists don't go and you're not going to solve that by stressing out over whether you should feel guilty for haggling or not. It's not your job to solve poverty in places you visit and feeling like you should is more a case of "Western guilt" than anything else.

You'll have a much more lasting impact, and gain much more, by seeking out human interactions that are not purely financial, sharing your culture and experiences with theirs, than you ever will by buying tourist crap in every place you go.

[Beltalowda]

Adding to that, the worst part is if you're living in a developing country and are paid just a local salary. You're still charged >300% because everyone assumes you're some rich western dude, but I certainly wasn't. It was a real drag.

[esperent]

The struggle is real. But something that made me feel a bit better was learning that my partner also gets overcharged even though she's local - but she comes from another region with a different accent. Not quite as badly overcharged as me, maybe she gets charged 200% while I get 300%, but still.

There's also a few street vendors who don't overcharge, they're lovely and I make sure to remember them and go back. Not something you can do as a tourist though.