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.
I think Greenland will fit the premise of your question in a few years.
There’s not a ton of tourism infrastructure yet, but there are currently a lot of subsidies going into roads, airports, lodging, etc. to induce more tourism.
https://traveltrade.visitgreenland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Strategi-EN-feb2021.pdf
This is a great find. I remember about a year ago, people were speculating that Air Greenland was going to become a partner of Air Canada - my hopes were dashed when that didn’t materialize.
I’d definitely like to go there someday too–it’s just a bit too remote for me at the moment.
I can see its tourism becoming what Iceland was like 15-20 years ago.
I’m in South Greenland atm and it’s just amazing! No tourists, no tours, no souvenirs just incredible nature and huge mountains. I’ve not been to Iceland yet, but the nature here is just so amped up it’s insane. Bonus icebergs floating around all year!
Those are the exact things I’m looking for (just waiting for a few more roads to connect towns). I’m glad to hear it’s living up to the expectations I’ve heard of!
I went to Iceland a couple years ago and the landscapes are amazing, but there are definitely areas where you run into a lot of tourists, busses, etc.
I’m visiting the Faroe Islands later this year and I’m hoping to experience some rugged landscapes in relative isolation there too.
There will never be roads to connect towns, there’s too many mountains. Best take a boat or a helicopter 🚁. Definitely have Faroe on my bucket list too.
I would have thought so too, but they’re working on at least one. Although you’re right about a lot of places being unfeasible–anything more than dirt/gravel in a very limited number of communities would be cost prohibitive.
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 visited Brno out of season eight years ago, and while there were tourist attractions available, it was hard to get to some of them. The Punkva Caves only had buses twice a day, for example.
So instead we mostly stayed in and relaxed, which was a welcome break at that point in our trip and I remember Brno fondly because of it. And my wife was giddy with joy that she was able to find a copy of Infarkt in a comic shop.
Costa Rica when I last went in ~2016 had vast resorts that were empty around Monteverde. $6 a night for a room.
Was this after the volcanic eruption? I remember hearing that impacted tourism a lot.
Wow was that a seasonal issue? Monte Verde is quite well known as a tourist destination.
North Korea
To clarify, I’m not looking for hidden gems…
I…I kinda figured that one out
I would be interested to go there, definitely. Just maybe not while the regime is still in place. But I am bettng Pyongyang is quite impressive and rural areas, while super-poor may be too.
Dom Joly writes about visiting North Korea in his book The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the World’s Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations.
Apologies for the Amazon link, I couldn’t find another direct way. If you do audiobooks, he reads all of his own I think and he’s brilliantly funny and enjoyable to listen.
Thanks!
Mogadishu has tried increasing tourism for years but no one wants to visit.
It could be because you would immediately get robbed, raped and killed as a tourist there, but what would I know.
I think I’m going to need a source for that…
On top of that, there’s little tourism infrastructure in Mogadishu so I doubt that. There’s basically Omar and Ali’s Visit Mogadishu outfit and his guest house, and that’s really about it.
https://apnews.com/article/somalia-syl-hotel-attack-alshabab-7a9bdd2dd1da050e942819afe2ba4b4a
Hotel siege March 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65861346
6 killed at a hotel siege June 2023
20 killed Hyatt August 2023
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61196325
6 killed seaside restaurant 2022
None of these sources point to tourism promotion in Mogadishu.