Is Tourism an Economic Disease? - VisualEconomik EN 

It is more like tourists prefer to go to cheaper and hence poorer countries where their money stretches more.

Tourism despite not being a raw commodity in of itself might have similar long term economic effects as the “resource curse”.

Portugal was already poor, before becoming a tourist hotspot. France is one of the most visited countries in the world and is far from being poor. The city of Amsterdam, also known as Disneyland for adults, is far from being poor. Your theory is not very strong, is it? Tourism cannot be the main activity of a country, that is the problem. As tourism cannot be the backpacking tourism we see today, must be a high value tourism like we see in Switzerland. Spain is not developed today because of tourism. They are developed because they joined the EU and invested well in infrastructure. Spain didn't developed due to tourism in the 60 and 70s, Spain was behind Portugal before joining the EU. Dubai may have little of the oil reserves of the country, but they have oil yes. Dubai is holding 4% of UAE oil reserves. In fact, the offshore Fateh field in Dubai is where oil was first discovered in 1966.

Southern European here. Having lived in Croatia Greece Portugal and a little bit in Italy. One thing you did not mention is that Europeans from central and Northern Europe have a bit colonial mindset towards us. They feel entitled to cheap holidays of any kind. Young? They want cheap beer and wild party, leave trash everywhere and make fun of anyone who tell them to behave. They will complain about destinations where there is no party as “something for the young”. Families with small kids? They like Croatia as for many of them it is on driving distance. They will filll their card with their own food, rent an apartment with a kitchen and occupy the space for a very cheap price for their standard, at the same time complaining about any price that went up. Independent professionals /liberals / well off seniors? They will look for a solution to make their cost of living cheaper. They will just buy/rent property and live in a very savy way as they use to. Meanwhile, a limited number of locals will make money from the “sezon” and be comfortable with that. But most of them will work endless hours with no quality of life. Generally most young people struggle find home due to inflated property value and on many places businesses operate only for tourism. Imagine trying to live in a normal neighborhood with a salary let’s say 1000€ month but rents being 800-1000 and all the shops around being “convenience stores” with ready made frozen pizza, overpriced fancy cheese, ham, wine, and chocolate. Lisbon has become a dystopia in which Americans “looking for themselves” rent rooms with a view for 1000 euros, buy a branded can of tuna for 5 euros. It will still be incredibly cheap for them in a pure colonial manner. When hearing about the average income, they will blame it on our “unproductive mentality” and so on, but they do not understand they colonized our cultures where liberal ultra competitive market is not in the peoples DNA.

your insight on spending is spot-on. i live in hawaii where tourism is the bedrock of our economy. we're not a country but the economics of it are the same... and tourists in hawaii spend like drunken sailors. it helps that a lot of them actually are drunken sailors as a large part of the transient population is military.

How about taking the issue the other way around, given country being relatively cheap is what drives the tourism there... If Spain was as ridiculously expensive as Norway, most of the tourists would have gone to Turkey or Balkans instead...

One thing that the video only touched upon a little bit, but it's very important, is the question of center vs. periphery. In many countries, probably including Spain, many of the tourist hotspots are in the periphery, outside of the big cities. In other words, if a young person from Benidorm doesn't get that tourist job, they might indeed get a better job - in nearby Valencia. This would lead to a slow erosion of the periphery, in favor of the big cities. The UK is a good example of a country where the tourist hotspots are also the richest places in other industries; so in a city like Liverpool, if a young person doesn't work in tourism, they might not work in any high-value-added industry, and the city stagnates. If a country wants to develop its periphery, keeping any tourism alive is of the utmost importance. If, on the other hand, the country considers it OK that the productive population concentrates in a few big cities, then tourism shouldn't be as encouraged.

Well in the initial map, you also showed relatively low tourist nations like Poland, Slovakia, etc in the same ballpark as tourist heavy areas such as Spain, Portugal, etc. I think many other factors come into play.

Tourists generally come in 2 types. Type 1 tourists going to NYC, Disneyland, Paris, London, Rome, Amsterdam, and other similar places are looking for an "experience" and are willing to part with significant cash to absorb as much as possible while they are there. Type 2 tourists are simply looking for a place to unwind, drink, eat and tan and don't particularly care where that is as long as it is cheap and relatively safe. Type 1 tourist destinations are usually unique and very hard to replicate. All type 2 destinations are competing with each other, since anywhere with a nice beach and a good stocked bar can be a tourist destination. Since these type 2 tourist sites are interchangeable (i.e. commodities) they all end up competing on price - leading a sad race to the bottom. But there might be some truth to the assertion that if you are making good money selling sand, sun and booze, you really don't need to be doing very hard, very expensive cancer research at the same time.

a country should never depend solely on tourism for the economy, a pandemic comes and you’re gone.

The issue isn't the type of tourist. The issue is areas not taking advantage of the infrastructure/money tourism brings in. Investing in education, transportation, and communication for example. This can make it easier for companies to set up consulting firms, regional offices, conference centers, and even advanced manufacturing etc. The hotels and airports that have been built up already for tourism will complement these other industries etc. NYC and LA do this very well.

I actually lived in many tourist areas, such as Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Southern California and Spain. While I do love Spain the most out of these, the issue I see is that "Cheap Tourists" come to Spain and that the government is to complicated. Setting things up takes a lot of time as the bureaucracy is way to slow and cumbersome. For many years there have been talks to make Mallorca a more "Rich People" tourist destination, yet, Ballermann and Magaluf are still the main drivers with cheap tourists from Germany and England. Overall, it is not the tourists but the governments fault as they work the same way as the students that quit in these areas. It is just to simple to make some money out of these tourists in the short term than investing and changing the long term perspective.

Main reason why Thailand struggle to develop their high tech industry. Bcoz their economy far too reliant on tourism

Back in the day our parents went back-packing in 3rd world countries, and found some magic that we could not find in our own nations. Those nations had no real economy compared to our own Western Countries, but they became reliant upon our imported money. They aspired to be like us. Then we imported western "Tourism" to those impoverished lands and took advantage of them. We "Culturally Appropriated" them and made them slaves to that imagery, created by us. Now they rely on western culture to survive, but we don't care if things turn bad.

The explanation of Dutch Disease was flat out wrong, which is a major black mark on a channel that's supposed to be about economics. It has little to do with corruption, and everything to do with currency appreciation. In any case, I wouldn't want to rely on tourism for my economy anyway. It's an incredibly fickle and unreliable sector. Vacations are one of the first things people cut when times are hard. Focusing on rich tourists does insulate you somewhat from that, as like it or not the rich don't suffer as much as the poor during crises, but it's still not ideal. Tourism is nice to get your economy started, albeit VE undersells the investments required for it here, but I wouldn't want to rely on it long term.

Tourism is good, best bet is to incorporate other industries with it (other than hospitality). For eg external tourists only contribute about 13 billion to India even tiny Korea has 11 billion+ also japan has 11 billion+. Korea has incorporated kpop/drama/cosmetics into tourism and Japan did the same with gaming and anime related stuff.

Sun and beach tourism does not necessarily bring in cheap tourists. Spain, Greece, etc are cheap but, for example, the French sun and beach spots are very exclusive, think French riviera, Bora bora, etc.

"He was going to be a noble price winner but he couldn't resist the salary of a concierge."

Great video. Tourism is a consequence of bad politics, its easy money, its easy corruption as you said. Some areas, like Madeira/Ballearic Islands/Malta/etc kinda need mass tourism to bring wealth, but the same cannot be said to continental areas/cities like Lisbon/Barcelona/Rome/Madrid cause tourism will create a pressure for low income jobs and remove many houses from the market and by so young graduates cannot affoard even a single room. So they will go to other countries and the gap will increase, you can see right now Dublin/London/Amesterdan is full of portuguese/spanish and italiens. People with degrees and needed on their home countries.

Misleading that Dubai has no oil, its part of United Arab Emirites that has a lot of oil.

If Spain tourism will be expensive , the tourism would be diverted in other countries . Dubai it's just a city in comparison to Spain that its an entire nation .Most of the workers of Dubai are foreigners that are underpayed compared to the emirati citizens . For exemple there are people that prefer to go somewhere else instead of Dubai , becouse it's cheap and better .

Tourism has become not just a disease on the economy, but more importantly it has become a disease on reality. I am distinguishing between the tourist and the traveler. When cruise ship passengers disembark in Sitka Alaska and watch Russian dancers', though the Russians left the area over 100 years ago. They are watching something Umberto Eco would call hyperreality. This kind of imitation place and event is legion, whenever something becomes a 'tourist destination'. And the tourism industry promotes this kind of thing wherever it rears its ugly head. But we are willing participants in this charade far too often. Consider tourist New York City versus actual NYC. Big Broadway spectacles are largely there for the tourists. Locals don't go very often to the top of the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. Those are almost exclusively tourist New York. Unfortunately with rising prices and the turning of NYC into essentially a large shopping mall, the New York that brought people there to achieve something is replaced by a place to come buy something. But that's another issue. The question is this... how to travel and actually come into contact with the place you visit. There are hundreds of ways not to do it. Most of those bad ways have to do with skimming across the culture in a bubble. Time for some bubbles to pop.

The pictures were so pretty I wanted to go on vacation. Not sure I caught everything you said. 😊

Dubai has no oil? the UAE poured buckets of oil money into developing Dubai dude "The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is among the world's ten largest oil producers. About 96% of the country's roughly 100 billion barrels of proven oil reserves are located in Abu Dhabi, ranking number six worldwide. The UAE produces an average of 3.2 million barrels of petroleum and liquids per day"

Surely what matters is diversification. That can't be created over night, but with proper assistance from central government, can be built up over tine. It seems to me that governments must bear much of the responsibility for failing to bring in other industries. It becomes easier to rely on subsidies. London and New York are, primarily, working cities. Financial and other office based industries are the actual bedrocks.

It is tourism that boosts economies. There are bunch of loosers in political and social arenas in every country who are often laying down their frustations on the tourists since they are incapable of managing the economy.

You got it backwards: tourism is more labor-intensive than iPhone assembly, cheap countries attract tourists if all else being equal

Its too easy to become corrupt when one or more people are given loads of money and power/authority/influence. Solution: 🤷

Really Interesting analysis of tourism per economy type

I dont know man. This looks to me like the normal rich North vs. poor South distribution. Tourism seems to have little effect on this reality.

Laughs in France 😂

London and Paris are huge tourist hot spots but they have huge industries

GREAT VIDEO! I loved it! Please make video of possible solutions, where they were adopted and results obtained! It would be very eye opening and great information to have! Thanks!

I don't believe tourism is bad for a country nor that it make some poor, I believe that the government's who rely solely on tourism are the ones making their countries poor. Much like a country who solely relies on oil or some other resource and doesn't bother to diversify itself even when it has the capital to do so.

Watching while on holiday in Spain. interesting

Having spent a lot of time in all the countries mentioned, and considering residency there, the government bureaucracy is the major problem affecting the economy in general.

People of southern Europe are much lazier than northern to work. They like enjoying sunny days outdoor not in offices like German or Scandinavian people.

I think there is some overlap with a previous video about temperature and GDP with similar limitations probably. I'd dig deeper into the availability/abundance of natural resources and its potential consequences to local people's industrious attitude - there more likely lies the link between human-generated VS naturally occurring "wealth". An Italian scientist born and raised in the industrious north from a touristy southern family who have lived in industrious parts of England and the US.

Tourist countries are not poorer Actually poorer countries are more likely to attract tourist due to the lower costs they have for tourists to stay

It would be interesting to see a correlation map between poverty and CORRUPTION.

I like Spain, Greece and Italy. My favourite holiday countries. Great food, nice people and good weather.🌞😎

There is huge boon in tourism. It can create many entry level jobs for people who would otherwise remain unemployed. Those countries were poor anyway relative to France, Germany or the UK. They didn't have coal, they had few significant rivers for hydro and the climate is just too hot to have a productive heavy industry before air conditioning. Try running a steel mill in a place where the summer temperature fit the definition of a heatwave for 5 months. Many tourist countries like Caribbean islands would have nothing without tourism and Mallorca is similar. Even if someone would invest in Spanish industry he wouldn't do it there so it's either tourism or unemployment

It's not tourism that is the problem it's how the money generated from it is reinvested into the country. it's not my fault if the taxes generated are wasted or fritted away in the southern Mediterranean counties it's the politician's fault.

So, essentially, what it always ends up boiling down to is corruption, regulation, and management. Sounds pretty straightforward to me.

This same things happens with cities investing in football stadiums

At the end of the Franco regime, Spain promoted itself as a tourist destination heavily. The Viva Espana song in 1974 being case in point. At that time Spain was trying to modernise from a lower base than other European countries such as France. Local tradesmen I personally spoke to said that they were told what their job would be under Franco - with not much personal choice.

In the UK, (typically coastal) places reliant on domestic tourism suffer in the sense that there is a lot of seasonality (ie people visit Cornwall in July, but not January), and the hospitality sector is generally badly paid. Whereas London, which attracts more international tourists, is large enough in terms of other industries that tourism doesn't 'make or break' the city as a whole, it's probably less seasonal, and it is able to cater to a wide range of tourist expectations and budgets (albeit towards the higher end), and the city has numerous other events, such as concerts or sports events, that people travel to as well.

I prefer backpacking staying in hostels to resorts as you meet more people and see things more from a locals POV. I don't get why some people spend hundreds just to sit on a beach that to me isnt really seeing a country properly. It shouldn't be all about money but the connections you make.

An interesting fact I learned is how most tourist areas prefer Americans, It's specifically because they throw money around a lot more than most Europeans who avoid even tipping.

The weird thing for me is that i knew all of this from SImCity 5 !! I love that game i learn so much from it.

Why is growth so important? Infinite growth is impossible but growth is seen as a natural law.

Tourism isn't the issue. Mass & cheap tourism is. The listed issues are part of unsustainable tourism, which instead of benefiting the locals, actually turn them against visitors even hostile as the example in the beginning.

14:05 That doesn't actually look like a very crowded beach. It's like a typical day in Tel Aviv, which sees far fewer tourists than the major hotspots in Spain or Italy, so most of the crowds are locals.

Tourism industry is like a mafia. A few rich people who own capital can earn lot of money in a easy way, but for the employees it is a low wage job that tend to be unstable.

great video. I know of the Dutch disease, but I never thought about how tourism can be one of the causes as well !

First of all Dubai, does make money out of oil, so it is somewhat oil dependent. I am surprised you haven't checked your sources. I disagree with the content of the video. You assume that every country wants to be like the US where it is all about innovation. Remember 9 out of 10 startups end up being bankrupt so innovation only benefits few, while many are left out. Tourism on the other hand is more inclusive. Again, innovation doesn't mean prosperity, the inequality index in the US is the highest among the developed countries....

Though not really a world traveler yet, I've been to some places, and almost none of the popular tourist locations had booming manufacturing, technology or just agriculture industries. In the cases of those locations being representative of the whole country, those countries are almost always economically poorer. I'm not sure about the chicken and egg of the equation but there's definitely a correlation there regarding tourism v. industry and sustainable employment and economy.

The biggest tourist countries are france spain italy usa britain. Hardly poor countries??

I guess from a consumer perspective I totally agree with you. We can allow ourselves nice vacations, but still enjoy a week at the beach doing nothing. So what do we look for? The innovative hotels. Private little pool is one example, new to us a few years ago, now popping up everywhere, and something we now won't do without (let's just put the ecologic part aside please ...). Second: We look for hotels where the reviews highlight the service quality. And we are ready to spend quite some money to be treated nicely. And this takes education, in languages for example, but also skills like how to be attentive to the different needs of the different clients, you also need a management that supports and controls all this, innovative reservation modes for dinner etc. So there is room for innovation and we are ready to pay for it. Thanks for the video!

soooooooo Gentrify tourism?

Spain's tourism industry has a limit to how much it can make, if they want to be richer they need to diversify. Any country that depends on only one industry, and that industry suffers for any reason whatsoever, it will be catastrophic for the entire country. Its of Spain's best interest to lean to high tech jobs, and a side effect of high tech industry is people will have higher quality of life due to the comforts it can bring.

The economic problems in Greece have nothing to do with tourism.

I agree I enjoy going to places for the sun, but they aren't business minded there, it gets boring after a week as there is nothing else to do other than sit on the beach ⛱️

brilliant totally new info and true

Ballance and diversification is essential

Without tourism, many places would be garbage. These places are holes w/o.

I live in Prague, residential district 5 mins walk from the downtown. I see the problem here in people who stay for short time, prolonged weekend, only for parties. People should stay longer and consume not only Beer, but some culture too. Short party visits should be taxed.

In Spain, tourism has wrecked agriculture. Not by taking away workers, but water. The tourism developers need water for drinking, water parks, and lawns, and the local governments approve the draining of aquifers to supply them. The result is a falling water table that leaves orchards and fields brown and lifeless. Laws that would prevent this are ignored, because the tourism industry has money. Having to import food is expensive, so anyone not in the tourism industry is going to have problems.

10:07 that is bit deceptive to call New York and California “the most touristy states in the country”. They may be the most visited, and/or have the most money generated from tourisms, but both those states have very diverse economies and are no where near dependent on tourism to the same extent as states like Hawaii, Nevada, Wyoming, or even Florida. A better measure would be the percent of GDP in a state generated from tourism.

Not for singapore. Their eco relies on tourism also.

The video is superb and nuanced, but the sound transitions are loud and horrible.

France & Germany are popular tourist destinations, and they are rich!

And then there is Thailand where tourism contributes 11.5 per cent to the GDP, a number which used to be even higher before Thailand became a middle income country which arguably was initiated and enabled due to tourism. Not even going to watch this one although I am otherwise a big fan.

Politicians being corrupt. Nothing new here, goes back to ancient times.

London and New York are rich in spite of tourism, not because of it.

In the Philippines, tourist places charge you differently and you need to haggle just to get a lower price. If you have a foreigner in your group, they're just gonna increase your price significantly.

Fantastic news and information good 👍 job thanx

Traveling is a pleasure but industrial products are a must.

There are indeed many types of tourism. I’m as easy going as the next person, but I will never go to Benidorm or Marbella! I just don’t want to be around “those people”.

Resource management is more important. If , you mis manage anything result will not be good.

Medical tourism in Singapore for rich patients from Asean. Thai medical tourism for middle class Arabian patient. Innovative medical care is a must for both countries.

Tourism in Lisbon made it an unlivable hell as hotels appeared like mushrooms and landlords forgot that the people are not tourists.If before 2017 it was a decent city to live,now it is a playgorund for tourist and politicians are bribed to build even more hotels.And this is while the salaries are still low.Venice is doing it right by putting a tax to go and visit the city.

Most tourists places are cheap because of non development

Dude you're a professional and you've been doing this for years. Please look up how to pronounce foreign places names if you're going to do some much stuff on foreign countries. Mallorca is pronounced ma-your-ka. Especially considering the originals of these YT channels are Spanish...

Without tourism the european alps would be depopulated and look more like parts of appalachia. In my own country (Austria) touristic infrastructure was developed after WW I and it was a success story. Before WW I, some parts of the austrian alps were poorhouses. Now they belong to the more prosperous parts of the country..

Tourism businesses are service centered. Countries with high tourism have a large percentage of service-centered businesses. Hotel cleaning, food preparation, foot massage, drivers, boat operators, basically service = servants.

Tourism has been great for Orlando. Disney turned swamp and farms into a city with a lot of innovation. I worked with computer simulation for military training in Orlando for 25 years.

Did I understand it wrong or was he wrong about Dubai having no oil?

Tourism is not a disease. But some people mentality might be. Technically US have a New York tourism disease. Name at least 5 tourist spot in the US that brings a lot of money by tourism alone. (aka not selling overly expensive products)

These places are also populair with the alternative people (basicly hippies), they live there on basicly nothing, mooching of the locals, bringing dodgy cultural influences to places that are already struggling.

educative, informative 👍

Correction. Sub Saharan Africa and Africa in general is not a country also just because a country is in Sub-Sahara it doesn't mean it is necessarily rich in resources. Take Kenya for example. It doesn't have as much minerals or minerals that are considered significant within its borders. It is actually considered the only Sub-Saharan African country that doesnt have access to any significant resources.

I live in London. Yes, there are more jobs and they are better paid but nobody talks of stress of life in the mega city, pressure of professional job, high expense, mental health issues. And add the climate into the mix. Compare that to Spaniards that often do simple jobs in tourism but they are happy. Not everything is measured in innovation and higher wages (you also need to factor in purchase power that is actually quite low by Western European standards given high cost of living). Just take a look at how many people are on antidepressants in so called high-end places like London or NY. And there is nothing wrong to want sun and beach. Have you seen how much holidays in the MED cost these days? Nobody denies that tourism creates certain issues but which industry doesn't? Just look at Oil or Financial sector

Let's be very clear. Spain and Italy may not be as rich as northern EU countries but thay are still wealthy countries.

Yeah, this doesn't hold water. Few observations: 1. Which of the countries, was the poorest, when we saw the map? Bulgaria, which is not your typical tourist destination. Sure, it has two major ones plus its capitol, but other than that? Bulgaria is not best known for it's beaches, but for it's rose oil, economically speaking. If there is strong correlation between how poor a country is and prevalence of tourism, why is not Bulgaria as well known for tourism as Italy or Spain? Why, also fairly poor country, is not Romania listed? They too have a touristy area between ports of Constanta and Mangalia, as well as Danube delta. A prime candidate for tourist heavy economy, if this correlation were so strong, yet they are probably best known for Dacia car company and gypsies. 2. Why would tourism take away people from jobs? People always go for those jobs, that earn them more money and financial security. How was tourism described in this video? Basically as a low paying seasonal job! The very antithesis of in demand job, like the ones in stem fields. You don't need a computer science degree to become a network admin or even a coder. It takes grit, willingness and experiment, but it doesn't need formal education. I spot a different problem. Among the regions mentioned were mostly islands. Meaning, there are very few mine-able resources in these areas (at least economically viable in comparison to other places) as well as lower population in comparison to a larger mainland, which in turn permits only for lower level of specialization an consumption. Why would you build a factory on Mallorca, if vast majority of your potential customers were on the mainland (even assuming strictly domestic trade)? Why would you build a material processing facility or even final goods assembly on Mallorca, unless source of said material was also on Mallorca and there were few other sources of said material? Everything would have to go by plane or ship. To transport something by plane, it needs to be of high enough value (say microchips), to justify the price for transporting a tun of cargo by air. You might be thinking, that building a processing plant could be a good idea, because you have a port, but wrong again. In order to get to the really efficient and therefore per tun cheap ships, you need aggregate production and consumption on the island to be on particular scale, which comparatively small island will never reach due to lack of population. You would also need storage facilities, because ships don't come as often as trucks, which also increase your expenses, further making you less competitive, than someone, who has their operation strictly on mainland and only export finished product to the island in necessary quantities. It seems to me, that geographic factors preclude creation of more innovative industries in places like these, because everything is more expensive to source from or procure for the island, than for equivalent operation on mainland. Even service jobs, which could be done over the Internet, would be more expensive due to relatively higher cost of living caused by these higher expenses. Meaning tourism is the only industry, which can be developed in areas like these, given the capital requirements to bridge this gap for other industries (I'm talking logistics hubs, better Internet connection, self sustaining agriculture using high tech solutions, harbor enlargement...) It is too big of an investment for a return, that will always be lower than equivalent operation on the mainland, due to better economies of scale, thanks to better access to customers as well as production factors (material, labor...) To sum up, higher cost of operating a business, which in part are caused by higher costs of living due to higher costs of logistics support for these places, are precluding other industries from operating in these areas, even though they may scale better than tourism (say accounting or IT services). Leaving tourism for these places as the only industry, which will develop part of its value chain, because there is some kind of attraction in the area, which draws people in, such as beaches or mountains (I'm looking at you ski resorts, I'm looking at you). The only way to turn this around, would be to find a mine-able resource, which would be refined on the island to the point, where value of the product would permit competitive edge over other producers.

An interesting insight

Currently in Spain tourism represents 12.5% ​​of GPD, far behind industry + construction. But in the real world it has to be seen as a financial lever for other sectors because it attracts foreign investment. It is the virtuous circle of development if correction of indesirabe side effects are done. Another thing is sun and beach tourism, which will decrease for obvious reasons.

Great video, but I feel you missed a couple points of why so many countries that are tourist destination are 'poor.' They're not poor because of tourism, they're poor because they have a 'poor mentality' in regard to work ethic. I reference this as the 'warm-weather climate mentality. Don't get wrapped around the axle regarding the exact time frame, but...if for the past 50,000 years you had a warm/temperate climate where you could easily grow or have access to food, with little regard to planning or a hierarchal structure of management of those resources...well...you're likely to not have those traits in your culture. If, when you're hungry, you can walk over to a tree and pull off a piece of fruit, what is the likelihood you'll put in the work to develop larger scale agriculture - you won't...and they didn't. The inverse is true also...traditionally (it's never always, but 90% is good enough to prove the rule) if you come from a cold-weather climate where a planing and management structure has to exist in order to plan for, plant, harvest and manage the resources of food - you're likely to have a more successful culture with a better work ethic. Tourists, shockingly, want to go to places that are pretty and have nice weather...these places usually offer easier living and, hence...there you go. You have to take the relatively recent population increase and availability of mobility/travel into account when looking at this, as these places traditionally had a diminished ability to support life than they currently do. This means, without the modern ability to filter water, commercially grow, or easily ship food, process waste and jump on an airplane and get somewhere, people wouldn't be in these places. Spain, for example, is mostly a desert...a temperate and beautiful one, but not terribly hospitable for supporting the number of people currently occupying and traveling to it. Mix this with a prevalence of a socialist (communist, marxist, fascist... - they're all basically the same) , vs. capitalist mentality, and you get a mindset that is less likely to defer gratification, ie. plant a tree who's shade you'll never sit under, or not take a tourist job in order to further one's education. There's never a single lever that explains why things are the way they are, but taken as a whole, I think this theory covers more than a few bases. This, certainly, is NOT the 100% rule, but seems to apply more often than not. Just an opinion :)

I feel soooo bad for Austria, a massive tourist destination. It's only 121% on your map... And yes, Italy is below average but blaming tourism is ridiculous. You might recall that Italy is a member of the G7 and holds a massive industrial and scientific sector. While your thesis is interesting, it simply lacks evidence as it tries to explain a complex matter by focusing on a single argument.

Banning All-inclusive Hotels would incentives spending more money prestige the hotel. Forcing cruise ships to give gift cards to the local currency would insure the first y fint Just walk around and the go back to the ship without spending money.