How cities can fix tourism hell • Hacker News Board

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#111

Post by skilesare » Tue, Nov 20, 2018, 5:00 PM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #93

frio wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Venice is an extreme case, I agree. That's one of the places that we visited that had the small kind of bed tax I'm thinking of; unfortunately that probably isn't fixing their problems. Many of their tourists stay in cruise ships (which have to have the lagoon dredged to support them; sinking Venice itself...); a bed tax doesn't target them, and they're completely and utterly overwhelmed regardless. It was a fascinat…

Significant bed tax in Venice leads to people staying in Mestre or further afield and commuting in. From your post it sounds like cruise ships are the main problem. Why not increase the cost for them to dock? A tourist tax doesn’t really increase the cost of staying somewhere - if I’m willing g to spend $200 on a hotel in Venice it doesn’t matter if it’s $190 for the hotel and $10 for the tax, or $100 each. On the ot…

Put up a toll booth on the highway in? Doesn't London do something like this where it costs a ton to come into the city center?

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#112

Post by CryptoPunk » Wed, Nov 21, 2018, 5:30 AM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #61

CryptoPunk wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you assume that local businesses generating more revenue doesn't contribute to local incomes? It does, almost by definition. In a housing supply restricted market, tourism can contribute to higher housing costs, but that can be fixed by removing constraints on housing supply, like zoning. And even when this effect is present, its effect on quality of life is counter-acted by the positive effect of tourism spen…

> Why do you assume that local businesses generating more revenue doesn't contribute to local incomes? Local businesses do not always generate income from tourists. For example, some of the destinations complaining about overtourism are upset at cruise ships, where the tourists do all their eating, drinking, and sleeping on the boat, and they only walk through the city during the day without spending any significant…

The reports I've seen all give a very high average spending level for tourists. I don't think there's any credible argument that they don't inject massive consumer spending into the local economy.

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#113

Post by CryptoPunk » Wed, Nov 21, 2018, 5:36 AM UTC

icsllaf wrote: post #56

CryptoPunk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like thinking that a city exporting its goods to a foreign market with high income consumers causes inflation in the city. The businesses that cater to this influx of tourist spending employ locals, which pushes up local wages and spending. The goods/services produced are also not scarce. They can be increased in supply. In fact higher volume retail shops result in more economies of scale, which can reduce loc…

>The businesses that cater to this influx of tourist spending employ locals Tourism is an industry that pays less than most. Most tourism/hospitality jobs are low-income and menial which compared to the exponential rise in both property value and everyday goods, is peanuts. Hawaii, a state whose largest contributor to GDP is tourism has 1 in 6 residents living under the poverty line. The lack of other jobs and focus…

You can raise wages just as effectively by increasing the demand for low-skilled labour as by increasing demand for high-skilled labour. The direction that the upward pressure on wages is coming from changes, but it's there nonetheless.

If the locality is fortunate enough to have home-sharing, the profits from tourism accommodations also flow to local pockets, creating potentially thousands of high income micro-hoteliers.

Moreover, not all tourism spending directly contributes to what are traditionally considered "tourism jobs". For example it contributes to more revenues for restaurants, retail businesses, etc.

As for Hawaii, I think a much better explanation for its poverty levels is the migration of people from other parts of the US to enjoy Hawaii's homeless-friendly climate.