What destinations are experiencing "undertourism"? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 6 months ago by Pixel@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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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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[-] ABCDE@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Bhutan as there are limits on tourism imposed, and a mandatory $250 a day fee. There's a mismatch in that lots would love to visit but cannot, not because of infrastructure that I know.

Kampong Saom/Sihanoukville in Cambodia, the Chinese took over the city then abandoned a lot of the projects when the money dried up (COVID); it's like a weird ghost town/city with a skyline of half finished buildings.

[-] Pixel@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 months ago

Appreciate the thoughts. I'm not disagreeing with you I've heard Bhutan is debatable from a handful that have been there, simply because there's a sizable amount of tourism from India and Bangladesh. The infrastructure for getting around and staying overnight is definitely there, but the diversity of attractions is very limited as well (heavily focused around temples), so I feel like it's a bit of an edge case.

Since I heard this though, as I understand it, it appears that the freedom of movement for Indian citizens in Bhutan has been limited and the Sustainable Development Fee tax got reduced from 200 USD to 100 USD, because of how dramatically it impacted the amount of "high value tourism" they were getting.

I liked Solana Cain's new photo essay in the Globe and Mail today about Bhutan. I probably ought to put it on my radar.

[-] pavnilschanda@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago

Much of Indonesia outside of Bali. They have the "Wonderful Indonesia" campaign yet I don't see that many international tourists here. The fact that most non-Indonesians don't know what Indonesia is and how they think Bali is its own country is a clear indicator.

[-] Pixel@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 months ago

I remember visiting a youth summit here in Canada, and the Indonesian ambassador to Canada was present. I remember he got pretty exasperated that the only thing people in attendance knew about Indonesia was Bali (and thought it was Indonesia's capital), despite being the world's fourth largest country in population. He gave us all Indomie and ginger chews though - nice guy, but he got me hooked on Indomie for much of university.

[-] BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I know about where Indonesia is on a map, but I never remember that all those islands are part of the same country, or that they are so densely popular.

That's based on my slightly more familiarity with the Gulf of Mexico Caribbean islands being mostly separate nations and fewer densely populated cities.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 7 points 6 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.

[-] BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

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.

[-] MrsDoyle@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

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

[-] merari42@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Yep. For example, Crimea has nice beaches and massive tourist infrastructure, but is obviously not very touristy right now.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 6 months ago

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.

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I feel like people haven't been going to the moon as much as they used to.

this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024

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