Downtown Tourism: Boon or Bane?

By N. David Milder

Introduction

As my years spent in the downtown revitalization field increased, I gradually realized that I unconsciously had been working with the view that bigger and better defined a successful downtown. With time, I also realized –perhaps in an embarrassingly late fashion — that making a downtown better was much more important than making it bigger. Indeed, for many communities, a bigger downtown would essentially change the whole character of the town.

As I came to realize that better was more important than bigger, I also began to think more critically about tourism. Downtowns large and small are often lured into economic growth strategies with large tourist attraction components. NYC’s mayors and economic development agencies, for example,  for decades have targeted tourist growth and lauded how many millions are attracted annually, how much money they spend, and how many jobs they generate. Smaller communities, especially those in rural areas, often see tourism as a major way to overcome the small populations and low consumer spending power in their market areas. It is often seen as a way to strengthen a Main Street’s retail shops. Well regarded organizations that work to support Main Street and downtown revitalization often suggest increasing tourism as a viable component of an economic growth strategy – as do many economic development consultants. Unfortunately, tourism can be a two edged strategic sword, a boon or a bane – or even a boon and  a bane. In my experience, too may downtown andMain Street leaders leap at a tourist growth strategy without properly thinking through its possible drawbacks as well as its advantages

Some Boons and Banes

The Character of the Community. Over the past year, several articles have appeared that indicate that I am far from the only one who is concerned about what is, for me, the worst  possible drawback about tourism: that too many tourists can change the character of a downtown and/or the community in which it is located. For example, the November 18, 2018 edition of the Washington Post had an article headlined:

“DETOURING. Top world destinations are overrun. Take our suggestions for roads not taken.”

Earlier in the year, the German newspaper Der Spiegel noted that European tourism officials were reporting frequent problems of “overtourism,”where too many tourists and/or unacceptable tourist behavior threaten to severely diminish the very attractions that lure the tourists.  In response, local officials:

“…want to redirect the streams of tourists, as officials in Rome are trying to do, or even to limit them, as Dubrovnik is doing. Barcelona is no longer approving new hotels, Paris has strictly regulated Airbnb and other apartment?rental platforms….(1)

Nicole Gelinas, in a very thoughtful article in the City Journal, has argued that:

“While much of this change ( increased global travel) is positive in economic terms, the ongoing invasion of global cities by people who stay for a few days or a few weeks can fundamentally transform the character of places whose unique charms are what attracted tourists in the first place.” (2)

Gelinas goes on to argue that in the West’s central cities, tourist pedestrian behavior has changed their character:

“Central­ city sidewalks designed decades or centuries ago can’t handle today’s foot traffic, particularly when people don’t walk like the local commuters and residents of decades ago did.Today’s pedestrians walk slowly, several abreast, stop frequently to take photos or look at maps on their ever­ available phones, and wheel bulky luggage behind them, ensuring that fast walkers can’t pass. Tourists to a large extent have become the central cities.” (3)

Unhappily, Yogi Berra’s quip that “nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded” is increasingly applicable to many of our most attractive city centers, public spaces  and arts venues. Can you really appreciate the Mona Lisa at the Louvre if you are standing 50 feet away in a dense crowd (while few are looking at the marvelous Raphael’s and Titians nearby?) Or appreciate an exhibition at NYC’s MoMA in rooms packed like a sardine can, but with people and no olive oil? Most visitors to both museums are tourists – 75% at MoMA, 70% at the Louvre.

Many NYC residents stay away from Times Square because it is too crowded, filled overwhelmingly with tourists and passé attractions – we no longer feel it is one of “our” places. It is this ability of overtourism to make local residents feel dispossessed that is most troubling.

Sadly, too,  problems being caused by tourism are not confined to large central cities. In smaller towns, it is tourism’s insidious ability to make local residents feel dispossessed that is perhaps even more troubling, because a strong sense of community is what so many residents cherish about living in them.  I have run into small town residents who feel that way in a number of communities such as Montauk, NY, Chatham, MA, and Lambertville, NJ.  Montauk used to be known as the Hampton’s blue collar community, a great, affordable place that middle income folks could go for terrific fishing, attractive beaches,  and some good, if funky, eateries. Today, it is the pricey summer recreational town for affluent hipsters. The whole tone of the town has changed.  

In a very useful article, Tomoko Tsundoda and Samuel Mendlinger looked at the economic and social impacts of tourism on the small and very attractive town of Peterborough, NH( 4). They showed that there long has been an awareness of  a number  of wide ranging impacts, both good and bad, that tourism can have. On the positive side are:

  • Increased jobs
  • More  business opportunities
  • More interesting shops and entertainments
  • Heightened demand for local housing and commercial properties
  • More tax revenues

On the negative side are:

  • Loss of the community’s character
  • Higher retail and restaurant prices
  • Higher housing prices
  • Businesses favoring tourist patrons over local resident patrons
  • Low-paying or unsustainable new jobs
  • Increased traffic and poorer air quality
  • More quality of life crimes

One of their most concerning findings was that wealthy families and working families may view the benefits of tourism quite differently.

Much can be said about each of the above impacts, but that would take a far longer article than this one. My key point here is that downtown leaders who are thinking about avidly pursing a tourist growth strategy should carefully assess these potential impacts on their communities.

Tourism as a Strategy to Improve a Downtown’s Retail

I do want to do a bit of a deep dive here because in recent years I have so often heard this argument offered by downtown leaders  to explain why a tourist growth strategy should be developed.


I would say that,  in my experience, almost invariably when clients and client prospects have suggested pursing tourist growth, their primary reason for doing so is to improve the downtown’s retail.  To put the potential benefits in some perspective, it is useful to look at how much of tourist spending goes to retail, see the table above. It shows that, for example, tourists in NY spent about $64 billion in 2016, but only about 9.9% of this hefty amount went for retail. Expenditures for recreation and entertainment were slightly larger 10.0%,while expenditures for food and beverages was much higher, 23.7%. All of these expenditures can help the types of merchants that downtown can attract – if there are those types of shops already present or if the tourist spending potential is large enough to spark their development. In many instances, these types of operations do not exist, and the tourist spending potential is not sufficient to stimulate their creation. Retail in MS accounts for a seemingly impressive 26% of tourist expenditures, but this is partially due mathematically to the extremely low expenditures for recreation and entertainment. In NC, on the other hand, tourist spending for retail rivals, in absolute dollars, those expenditures in NY, and surpasses it on a percentage basis, 20.2% to 9.9%. In NC, the percentages of tourist spending that go for both recreation-entertainment and food and beverages are relatively low, but the level of absolute dollars spent does suggest that retail merchants in that state are rather good at capturing tourist dollars.

The above table shows the percentages of tourist spending that went for food services, retail and recreation in 11 multi-county regions in PA in 2016.Retail  accounted for a lower percentage of tourist spending than food services or recreation. The highest percentage for retail expenditures among the 11 regions was 18% and the lowest was 12%.

My observations over many years suggests that towns with strong tourist sales all have strong retail offerings: outlet centers (e.g., Manchester, VT), major urban retail streets like Fifth Ave, Rodeo Drive, Michigan Ave, or ritzy tourist havens where lots of rich people have 2nd, 3rd or 4th homes (e.g.,East Hampton, Bal Harbor, Palm Beach).

Unique offerings in the other towns can indeed sell, but I hear more about how they can sell than I see merchants actually doing it.

In the towns most downtown leaders would want to emulate,  quality merchandise is offered to tourists in attractive and often charming shops.  Unfortunately, there are also towns that are tourist nightmares. I shall refrain from mentioning any of them, but they are usually busy, gaudy, and filled with a lot of shlock merchandise. As with obscenities, you know them when you see them.   

Suggested Take Aways

The above leads me to make the following observations:

  • Most downtowns should not expect tourism to be the savior of their retailing. Retail expenditures will probably typically account for only 10% to 20% of local tourist spending. Tourism can provide local retailers with the equivalent of the  whipped cream and cherry on top of a sundae, but not the two scoops of its ice cream.
  • Attractive local hotels and restaurants are likely to capture most local  tourist expenditure dollars.  Is a tourism growth effort worth it if those types of enterprises are by far the primary beneficiaries?   
  • Crappy retail shops selling crappy merchandise will usually not capture many tourist dollars.But the real danger is that, if there is a lot of such shops, they just will attract a lot of crappy tourists. This can create town – tourist problems.
  • The major retail needs in many smaller communities are grocery stores, pharmacies, a hardware store, etc., the types of neighborhood retail that tourist expenditures are unlikely to support. If tourist focused retail is dominant, and these needs are not met, then some hairy town –retailer/tourist problems can emerge.
  • To attract lots of tourists, your town needs to be well-located and accessible. If you do not have significant levels of auto traffic now, or strong nearby scenic magnets, assume that you probably cannot quickly build a base of local tourist attractions that will significantly increase the flow of tourist customers.
  • To succeed you probably need enough local attractions to keep tourists in your downtown for four times the length of time it took them to travel there.  Your downtown needs some real there, there.      
  • If there are significant tourist flows nearby and your downtown is not capturing significant traffic from them, correcting that should be the first order of business of any tourism development program.
  • Tourism that endangers the community’s character is never worth it. Why kill the goose that’s laying golden eggs?
  • Yet, tourism certainly can be beneficial for a downtown. Programs to attract more tourists should be thoughtfully designed, with an eye on possible emerging problems, not just a look at potential financial gains for local businesses and residents.

ENDNOTES

1. Der Spiegel staff. “Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love.”  Spiegel Online.  http://www.spiegel.de/international/paradise-lost-tourists-are-destroying-the-places-they-love-a-1223502.html . Posted: 08/21/2018 01:20 PM

2. Nicole Gelinas. “Planet Travel. Globalization has created a tourist boom in world cities—but masses of tourists create new challenges.” City Journal. August 31, 2018. https://www.city-journal.org/html/global-tourism-16143.html

3.Ibid.

4.Tomoko Tsundoda and Samuel Mendlinger, “Economic and Social Impact of Tourism on a Small Town: Peterborough New Hampshire.”  J. Service Science & Management, 2009, 2: 61-70
Published Online June 2009 in SciRes (www.SciRP.org/journal/jssm)