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.
Usually anywhere with civil unrest or at war. Most people would say that is obvious. But people also don’t realize how quickly that can change.
I visited Egypt a few years back and it was like that. It made for a nice visit, because none of the temples, tombs etc were overcrowded, though that meant the souvenir sellers were desperate. Cairo Museum was almost empty. Our tour guide there said was going to give up and start a restaurant with some friends. She spoke several European languages and was learning Mandarin, but was struggling to make a living. She hated the Islamist revolutionaries for damaging the tourism industry.
A view of the Arab Spring: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56000950
It doesn’t even need to be the place, but close enough.
I was in Jordan during the Israeli counterattack on Gaza. There were understandably protests, but beyond that the entire country was more pissed off that they lost their tourism season for the year.
Yep. For example, Crimea has nice beaches and massive tourist infrastructure, but is obviously not very touristy right now.