Hot take but tourism economy is the best economy and best quality of life.
Tourism encourages the best values:
Environment is much safer and local government is held more accountable
Great career diversity - even low tier jobs are service jobs instead of factory work and high tier jobs are real product business owners not finance or some other bullshit money shuffling.
Cultural industries like art, bars, history, museums - all thrive under tourism economies
It’s up to communities to learn to manage it but well managed tourist spot is legit one of the best place to be a human in. I lived in tourist towns almost all of my life and it’s the best, especially in seasonal places where you have a low season vibe with communities just chilling and enjoying the rewards of high season.
The real issue stems from corruption where instead of managing this golden goose someone manages to squeeze all of the eggs to their own pocket and leave the rest unmaintained.
Hard hard disagree. I grew up in a tourist town, and every kid I talked to for over 20 years had one goal on their mind: getting out of there as soon as they could. Job opportunities outside of tourist focused seasonal industries were practically non-existent. Your choices were wait-staff, landscaping, or deli/grocery store clerk. Any other industries had at most 1 business in the single industrial park in the area. Tourists destroying local beaches was and continues to be a major issue. Everything closed after the tourist season so there’s nothing to do other than drink or do heroin, and during the summer there’s too many tourists to be able to go out and do something. Tourist areas consistently have the highest rates of substance abuse and homelessness. Low wages from low skill industries focused entirely on serving the out of town seasonal tourist economy combined with high CoL as prices are determined by what tourists can pay, not locals, and little long-term housing as rentals are focused towards short-term leases for the tourist season and competition for housing is fierce with wealthy out of towners buying summer homes.
Skill issue? Maybe. But conjecture? Hardly. The data says that across New England summer tourist towns consistently have the highest rates of drug usage, alcohol addiction, homelessness, and highest CoL for their region. And this is in large part attributed to the lack of job opportunities outside of the seasonal tourism sector, expensive prices caused by the focus on wealthy tourists, and the competition for housing caused by both landlords seeking seasonal rentals and the wealthy buying or building summer homes that will sit empty for 9 months out of the year. This is also backed up by the findings of the committee in my hometown that was created to solve the issue of young people moving away and the looming crisis that will happen as the town becomes more and more one massive retirement home with too many retirees and not enough staff.
Of all the people that I knew who grew up in my hometown (which is at least 2 generations of teens that I trained at work plus my generation), I found 2 types of people: those who left and never went back, and those who never left and never will.
Tourism economy is the best economy, for the tourists and their white western touristy values, not the working exploited local class who gets priced out of their life by rich owners.
Rich owners get disproportionally richer by tourist money (by definition much more than the locals, because that’s what makes tourism possible), and then the local economy bends around them.
“It’s up to locals to learn to manage it well and not get corrupted” - my brother in Christ this is basic individualism and victim blaming in a trenchcoat. “Corruption” isn’t a magical thing, it happens because of the proportionally obscene extra money in the pockets of the few.
It’s basically this: tourism doesn’t happen between equals, and the money of the richer tourists goes down the road all money does in capitalism. Concentrated further unless redistributed via politics, and politics bends to money over time.
If you live in tourist towns, as in going around exploring instead of having your future stolen and become nearly unable to both live and leave, you’re part of the people rich enough to enjoy the benefits, whether you know it or not.
I’m a digital nomad in south east asia and I lived in villages, industrial towns etc and I can 100% say that locals have a much better life in tourist towns.
There’s a reason tourist towns have so much immigration because people actually want to be there despite vocal minority raging on the internet - the stats don’t lie.
Hot take but tourism economy is the best economy and best quality of life.
Tourism encourages the best values:
It’s up to communities to learn to manage it but well managed tourist spot is legit one of the best place to be a human in. I lived in tourist towns almost all of my life and it’s the best, especially in seasonal places where you have a low season vibe with communities just chilling and enjoying the rewards of high season.
The real issue stems from corruption where instead of managing this golden goose someone manages to squeeze all of the eggs to their own pocket and leave the rest unmaintained.
Hard hard disagree. I grew up in a tourist town, and every kid I talked to for over 20 years had one goal on their mind: getting out of there as soon as they could. Job opportunities outside of tourist focused seasonal industries were practically non-existent. Your choices were wait-staff, landscaping, or deli/grocery store clerk. Any other industries had at most 1 business in the single industrial park in the area. Tourists destroying local beaches was and continues to be a major issue. Everything closed after the tourist season so there’s nothing to do other than drink or do heroin, and during the summer there’s too many tourists to be able to go out and do something. Tourist areas consistently have the highest rates of substance abuse and homelessness. Low wages from low skill industries focused entirely on serving the out of town seasonal tourist economy combined with high CoL as prices are determined by what tourists can pay, not locals, and little long-term housing as rentals are focused towards short-term leases for the tourist season and competition for housing is fierce with wealthy out of towners buying summer homes.
I have the exact opposite experience and I also grew up in a tourist town.
Just like any other town you leave to get education and come back with your money and get a house to enjoy your home town :)
What you’re describing is mostly skill issue and conjecture.
Skill issue? Maybe. But conjecture? Hardly. The data says that across New England summer tourist towns consistently have the highest rates of drug usage, alcohol addiction, homelessness, and highest CoL for their region. And this is in large part attributed to the lack of job opportunities outside of the seasonal tourism sector, expensive prices caused by the focus on wealthy tourists, and the competition for housing caused by both landlords seeking seasonal rentals and the wealthy buying or building summer homes that will sit empty for 9 months out of the year. This is also backed up by the findings of the committee in my hometown that was created to solve the issue of young people moving away and the looming crisis that will happen as the town becomes more and more one massive retirement home with too many retirees and not enough staff.
Of all the people that I knew who grew up in my hometown (which is at least 2 generations of teens that I trained at work plus my generation), I found 2 types of people: those who left and never went back, and those who never left and never will.
Tourism economy is the best economy, for the tourists and their white western touristy values, not the working exploited local class who gets priced out of their life by rich owners.
Rich owners get disproportionally richer by tourist money (by definition much more than the locals, because that’s what makes tourism possible), and then the local economy bends around them.
“It’s up to locals to learn to manage it well and not get corrupted” - my brother in Christ this is basic individualism and victim blaming in a trenchcoat. “Corruption” isn’t a magical thing, it happens because of the proportionally obscene extra money in the pockets of the few.
It’s basically this: tourism doesn’t happen between equals, and the money of the richer tourists goes down the road all money does in capitalism. Concentrated further unless redistributed via politics, and politics bends to money over time.
If you live in tourist towns, as in going around exploring instead of having your future stolen and become nearly unable to both live and leave, you’re part of the people rich enough to enjoy the benefits, whether you know it or not.
I’m a digital nomad in south east asia and I lived in villages, industrial towns etc and I can 100% say that locals have a much better life in tourist towns.
There’s a reason tourist towns have so much immigration because people actually want to be there despite vocal minority raging on the internet - the stats don’t lie.
People in Ireland tell me the focus is on keeping the tourists safe, not the locals. So criminals just learn who it’s okay to target
So you think without tourists it would be more or less safe?
And one pandemic and your entire economy is dead
One boat stuck in a canal has had the same effect on other industries.
Historically mass plague has been far more uncommon than shipping/supply chain catastrophe. To an absurd degree.
Making tourism economies one of the most stable over the longest period of time. They also bounce back faster and more efficiently.
While also being less prone to permanent damage or shifts from a mass upset.