5 ms·

greece is betting the bank on tourism at the moment and it's realy terrible. As much as 85% of foreign investment is tourism and real-estate related and this is

by seydor 3y ago

greece is betting the bank on tourism at the moment and it's realy terrible. As much as 85% of foreign investment is tourism and real-estate related and this is unsustainable. The brain drain keeps growing because tourism is bottom-of-the-barrel, unskilled, no-value-added industry. It's sad that the governments keep pushing it so much. It's not just the criminal issues, most of tourism is evading taxes, overwork workers and defraud social security. It even seems to be reaching a breaking point, as there is a huge shortage of workers despite the unemployment.

lostlogin 3y ago
New Zealand (pre covid) had tourism overtake dairy for top spot in our economy. I initially thought this great, but I was very wrong. Tourism damages and destroys a lot of what it touches.
- RantyDave 3y ago
  And, as we discovered, can be snuffed out of existence in an afternoon.
- coldtea 3y ago
  It's a race to the bottom and highly volatile. Even if your country opts for "high standards tourism", and prevents the shitty all it takes is a few seasons with fewer visitors or mass tourism style visitors /1, and standards will be lowered very easily. You can only prevent this when your economy isn't dependent on it, but can use income from other stuff (exports, industry, etc) to weather such periods. (/1 which can happen due to whatever, a recession, covid, some war, another close destination getting more fashionable or undercutting you heavily, some major accident or local issue turning people off your place, and other reasons)
4gotunameagain 3y ago
It's not only the government, it is also the EU. Almost all of the co-funding you can get as a new businessman is for tourism. An industrial growth in the south does not benefit Germany. They need to maintain the primary trade deficit. Plus a country that has 25% or its GDP on tourism, is easily controllable. See the massive campaign that portrayed Greece as dangerous during the 2009-2010 crisis, causing tourism to plummet.
- senko 3y ago
  > It's not only the government, it is also the EU. Almost all of the co-funding you can get as a new businessman is for tourism. While EU provides the funds and has some oversight, ultimately the government decides which projects to back and which areas in the economy to focus on.
  - coldtea 3y ago
    >While EU provides the funds and has some oversight, ultimately the government decides which projects to back and which areas in the economy to focus on. Not really. Such funds come with strings attached, and are tied to general development plans made to benefit Germany first, and 2-3 countries with strong influence second. There's some leeway, but not much - and if you don't go for it, you can see funds drying up. It's not about official channels and equal represenation and such BS -- that's for the starry-eyed naive people who also believe election promises. Those decisions are taken by back-channels, putting favorable people in key decision points (organizations, ECB, etc.). Satellite countries are also used, exchanging their votes on different issues for favorable treatment, billateral agreements, and so on.
readthenotes1 3y ago
The new president in Colombia is also all-in on tourism, saying it will replace oil and gas as a source of revenue. Kinda crazy to me, but I'm no president

by seydor 3y ago

lostlogin 3y ago

New Zealand (pre covid) had tourism overtake dairy for top spot in our economy. I initially thought this great, but I was very wrong. Tourism damages and destroys a lot of what it touches.

RantyDave 3y ago
And, as we discovered, can be snuffed out of existence in an afternoon.
coldtea 3y ago
It's a race to the bottom and highly volatile. Even if your country opts for "high standards tourism", and prevents the shitty all it takes is a few seasons with fewer visitors or mass tourism style visitors /1, and standards will be lowered very easily. You can only prevent this when your economy isn't dependent on it, but can use income from other stuff (exports, industry, etc) to weather such periods. (/1 which can happen due to whatever, a recession, covid, some war, another close destination getting more fashionable or undercutting you heavily, some major accident or local issue turning people off your place, and other reasons)

4gotunameagain 3y ago

It's not only the government, it is also the EU. Almost all of the co-funding you can get as a new businessman is for tourism. An industrial growth in the south does not benefit Germany. They need to maintain the primary trade deficit. Plus a country that has 25% or its GDP on tourism, is easily controllable. See the massive campaign that portrayed Greece as dangerous during the 2009-2010 crisis, causing tourism to plummet.

senko 3y ago
> It's not only the government, it is also the EU. Almost all of the co-funding you can get as a new businessman is for tourism. While EU provides the funds and has some oversight, ultimately the government decides which projects to back and which areas in the economy to focus on.
- coldtea 3y ago
  >While EU provides the funds and has some oversight, ultimately the government decides which projects to back and which areas in the economy to focus on. Not really. Such funds come with strings attached, and are tied to general development plans made to benefit Germany first, and 2-3 countries with strong influence second. There's some leeway, but not much - and if you don't go for it, you can see funds drying up. It's not about official channels and equal represenation and such BS -- that's for the starry-eyed naive people who also believe election promises. Those decisions are taken by back-channels, putting favorable people in key decision points (organizations, ECB, etc.). Satellite countries are also used, exchanging their votes on different issues for favorable treatment, billateral agreements, and so on.

readthenotes1 3y ago

The new president in Colombia is also all-in on tourism, saying it will replace oil and gas as a source of revenue. Kinda crazy to me, but I'm no president