8 ms·

I agree. Show me a tourist-only country that is not "third world" level It's kind of obvious - tourism requires low skilled laborers.

rhino369 7y ago
I think its more the fact that if it wasn't third worldish it wouldn't be tourist only.
- buboard 7y ago
  vicious cycle - similar to the resource curse
umeshunni 7y ago
> Show me a tourist-only country that is not "third world" level Iceland (3 tourists per resident - 70,056.87 USD GDP per capita)
- buboard 7y ago
  > As of 2016, the tourism industry is estimated to contribute about 10 percent to the Icelandic GDP;
  - briandear 7y ago
    Tourism is 9.6% of France’s GDP as well.
    - mijamo 7y ago
      And that makes it clearly not tourist only.
      - ceejayoz 7y ago
        That'll be because there's no such thing as a tourist-only country.
- csomar 7y ago
  From Wikipedia: > Tourism accounted for more than 10% of Iceland's GDP in 2017. That doesn't sound like a tourist-only country.
  - JoeSmithson 7y ago
    Is there any such thing as a "tourist-only country"? Even in developing countries that are popular with rich tourists, like Thailand, tourism is <20% GDP.
    - umeshunni 7y ago
      > Even in developing countries that are popular with rich tourists, like Thailand, tourism is <20% GDP. When you spend your entire vacation at a resort, it might feel like the entire country is a third world "shit-hole" dependent on tourism. That's probably why the OP feels like this.
    - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      Also, Thailand is a upper middle income country. Developing sure, but slightly richer than China and Mexico on a gdp per person basis. Singapore and Hong Kong get a lot more tourism (per GDP) and are both high income city states.
  - umeshunni 7y ago
    According to the World Tourism and Travel council's report, Iceland is #21 on the list of countries most reliant on tourism. The highest is Maldives with 25%. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there aren't any countries where 100% of GDP comes from tourism. https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/2018/power-and-performance-rankings-2018.pdf https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/2018/power-and-pe...
icebraining 7y ago
Malta has a strong component of tourism in its GDP, and it's not third-world level. It's not "tourist-only", but then again, no country is - only in the Maldives it surpasses 30% of GDP.
maccard 7y ago
What's your benchmark for a tourist only country, and what's your benchmark of third world level? A quick google showed me [0]. 10% of your GDP (as in Iceland) is pretty substantial. It actually looks per their stats that the third world level countries are more likely to _not_ rely on tourism. [0] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/Mapped-The-countries-that-rely-most-on-your-money/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/Mapped-...
- buboard 7y ago
  > What's your benchmark for a tourist only country Mostly as % of workforce working in tourism - but may also be % GDP. And yeah there are outliers, but still : Iceland 300K people - Malta 400K people. http://banjaraman.com/sustainable-tourism-need-of-the-hour/ http://banjaraman.com/sustainable-tourism-need-of-the-hour/
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Tourist only countries are less developed because they only have tourism (and not much manufacturing, high end services, etc...), not the other way around. If they had other things, they wouldn’t be considered tourist only and would necessarily be more developed (like say Thailand, which has a lot of tourism but a lot of everything else also).
- buboard 7y ago
  I don't disagree, but tourism can be a trap like Oil - it makes the country complacent in other forms of development - and in cases outiright hostile to them.

rhino369 7y ago

I think its more the fact that if it wasn't third worldish it wouldn't be tourist only.

buboard 7y ago
vicious cycle - similar to the resource curse

umeshunni 7y ago

> Show me a tourist-only country that is not "third world" level Iceland (3 tourists per resident - 70,056.87 USD GDP per capita)

buboard 7y ago
> As of 2016, the tourism industry is estimated to contribute about 10 percent to the Icelandic GDP;
- briandear 7y ago
  Tourism is 9.6% of France’s GDP as well.
  - mijamo 7y ago
    And that makes it clearly not tourist only.
    - ceejayoz 7y ago
      That'll be because there's no such thing as a tourist-only country.
csomar 7y ago
From Wikipedia: > Tourism accounted for more than 10% of Iceland's GDP in 2017. That doesn't sound like a tourist-only country.
- JoeSmithson 7y ago
  Is there any such thing as a "tourist-only country"? Even in developing countries that are popular with rich tourists, like Thailand, tourism is <20% GDP.
  - umeshunni 7y ago
    > Even in developing countries that are popular with rich tourists, like Thailand, tourism is <20% GDP. When you spend your entire vacation at a resort, it might feel like the entire country is a third world "shit-hole" dependent on tourism. That's probably why the OP feels like this.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    Also, Thailand is a upper middle income country. Developing sure, but slightly richer than China and Mexico on a gdp per person basis. Singapore and Hong Kong get a lot more tourism (per GDP) and are both high income city states.
- umeshunni 7y ago
  According to the World Tourism and Travel council's report, Iceland is #21 on the list of countries most reliant on tourism. The highest is Maldives with 25%. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there aren't any countries where 100% of GDP comes from tourism. https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/2018/power-and-performance-rankings-2018.pdf https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/2018/power-and-pe...

icebraining 7y ago

Malta has a strong component of tourism in its GDP, and it's not third-world level. It's not "tourist-only", but then again, no country is - only in the Maldives it surpasses 30% of GDP.

maccard 7y ago

What's your benchmark for a tourist only country, and what's your benchmark of third world level? A quick google showed me [0]. 10% of your GDP (as in Iceland) is pretty substantial. It actually looks per their stats that the third world level countries are more likely to _not_ rely on tourism. [0] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/Mapped-The-countries-that-rely-most-on-your-money/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/Mapped-...

buboard 7y ago
> What's your benchmark for a tourist only country Mostly as % of workforce working in tourism - but may also be % GDP. And yeah there are outliers, but still : Iceland 300K people - Malta 400K people. http://banjaraman.com/sustainable-tourism-need-of-the-hour/ http://banjaraman.com/sustainable-tourism-need-of-the-hour/

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

Tourist only countries are less developed because they only have tourism (and not much manufacturing, high end services, etc...), not the other way around. If they had other things, they wouldn’t be considered tourist only and would necessarily be more developed (like say Thailand, which has a lot of tourism but a lot of everything else also).

buboard 7y ago
I don't disagree, but tourism can be a trap like Oil - it makes the country complacent in other forms of development - and in cases outiright hostile to them.