this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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What destinations are experiencing "undertourism"? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/19371857

I'm curious to learn about places around the globe that have a significant amount of underutilized tourism infrastructure. In many cases, I suspect that governments are propping up unsustainable tourism operators or investing in tourism with a "build it and they will come" mentality.

Here are a few examples that I'm aware of:

  • Qatar - The country has an oversupply of hotels relative to the number of visitors, and its tourism economy heavily relies on layover tours due to the strength of Qatar Airways' network.

  • Saudi Arabia - In an effort to diversify its economy away from oil, the country is pushing a massive tourism development agenda, despite having many factors that make it less appealing to visitors. Religious tourism seems to be a primary focus.

  • North Korea - For obvious reasons... For example, only a few floors of the Ryugyong Hotel are ever occupied.

  • Northern Japan (Aomori, Akita, Sendai) - These places are heavily fueled by domestic tourism, and are basically deserted for half of the year (despite attractions and so on still functioning).

To clarify, I'm not looking for hidden gems or places that are simply underrated travel destinations. Instead, I'm interested in learning about locations where there is a clear mismatch between the available tourism infrastructure and the actual number of visitors.

I want to find places where I might end up being the only visitor to a museum or one of few tourists on an airport bus. The fact that these museums and airport limo buses even exist is where the question stems from.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I feel like the basic premise has different subgroups which vastly alters the reason why there is a ton of this infrastructure:

  • Seasonal tourism

Tourists come, but only for part of the year. The most extreme example would be Mecca, which gets flooded with religious tourists for a few weeks every year. However, most seaside towns and ski spots get included as well.

  • White elephant projects

The government builds something to attract tourists, and this is commonly tied an international event. The Olympics have left tons of modern ruins in its wake from governments overspending to attract tourists and gain prestige. There are also local convention centers and other projects meant to bring people in

  • General decline

You had an area that was once popular, but now isn't. Atlantic City, New Jersey is a good example, it was the only place to gamble on the US East Coast and therefore had tons of casinos and hotels. With the rise in Indian gaming and cheap flights to Vegas, going to Atlantic City stopped being as popular. You could also include rust belt cities which built out decent infrastructure for a population far larger than what they have.