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.
My hometown Brno used to be dead in season (June to September). There are lots of places geared to tourists but mainly for domestic weekend tourists and students. So in season students go home and other people go to some more exotic locations for longer periods of time.
Now it is somewhat better than that but still there are few tourists in season.
I’m surprised I guess, BRQ airport has seasonal connections across Europe…
When you look at it in context:
City population: ~450 k people. Students: ~50 k only about 10-15% from Brno.
So this city loses about 1/8 of population in summer months.
Edit: bad math 1/8 not 1/5
While this is no longer current information, I feel inspired to share about the situation in Aruba during the pandemic.
My wife and I visited and we heard a sobering story from a bus driver of how desperate the situation became due to lack of tourism. The economy is very dependent on visitors, and he spoke of suicides, out of despair of course when people feel they have no options.
You may find that many small islands are tourism hopefuls though not well known as travel destinations. When the economy is already very small, even a little investment in tourism could be disproportionate. As a tiny example, try Malapascua in the Philippines. It is so very small and access is challenging due to strong currents. I know it well because I’m a direct descendent of the natives who lived on this microscopic island.
I don’t want to go to North Korea because what if I sneeze in the presence of a photo of the Great Leader and get a 50 year jail sentence?
Lofoten Islands near the equinoxes.
We did a trip during the spring equinox and while things were still not cheap, it was not crowded and you have 12 hours to explore the northern lights and 12 hours to explore the islands.
A little snow on the ground still bust safe to hike a little.
The fall equinox you could definitely hike while it’s not crowded plus it’s warmer then.
