SodaCanyonRoad | Tourism über alles

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Tourism über alles
Bill Hocker | Sep 21, 2015 on: Tourism Issues

NVR LTE 9/21/15: Rural tourism is essential to state's economic future
Visit California's take on WineryLand in Disneyfornia.

What can one say? Ginna Beharry's online response is worth repeating:

    RURAL TOURISM? Sounds a bit like an oxymoron. How "rural" will an experience be if the visitor is stuck in traffic for an hour? Does a $165 food and wine pairing constitute a "rural" experience? The return on "marketing investment" spent by Visit California fails to take into consideration the cost of tourism to the local residents - the cost of deterioration of infrastructure, the use of water, the costs of disposing of waste created by tourists, the social cost of the low wage jobs created by the industry. No mention of balance in this article. Where's the tipping point? How many tourists can you cram into a "rural" experience before it doesn't feel rural any longer?