Tourism and Entertainment

[Foehammer]

How do you pro dictators manage entertainment for tropicans with a tourism-based economy? I always end up with low entertainment happiness because I price my entertainment buildings out of my citizen's budgets. If I offer lower-cost entertainment, then my tourists seem to ignore my beachside attractions and drive into the city. I know you can make the mall tropicans-only, but the mall seems like a giant money pit in general.

[Astral]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mULmy-Cyh54

[MikeH]

If at all possible, avoid tourism. That's the best Advice. If you must.

Only attract Wealthy and Spring break tourist. Don't build things that will attract the others. There is a Tourist cap and you want it filled with Spring break and wealthy. If you try to diversify then your expensive attractions won't have enough people that visit them and you loose money. You need a part of the Island sort of sealed off from the rest. You can build apartments for your tropican employee's, Market, Hospital, and Church so their needs are met.

I only used tourism when the mission called for it. You can use it to provide a steady stream of income if you have the Island space. For me, I would rather use that extra beach for a extra dock and industry.

Someone said that building a mall will fix all your food hunger issues. I have not tested that and I certainly don't build them unless I have to do so. If it does, then the cost would be a good trade off.

Tourism only works if you focus on a certain groups. This is why the buildings are labeled on who they draw in. Building things for the children do not seem to pay off, like the Roller coaster.

I watched Astral_systems video above. It does a great job of showing what buildings to use. I would have left out the tenements because the building project an anti beauty rating

Mike.

[ajengine]

Long reply

In part tourism is a great thing and can boost your economy well, if done correctly. In my personal experience tourist buildings need not be given their own "secluded" corner but speaking from a planning point of view they need a layout progression.

First check out three things

1. A good stretch of beach on the island
2. A beautiful place on your island ie. anywhere the beauty rating is high and not too close to your main town housing/industry/farm/mines/power plants (unless solar)
3. A nice flat stretch of land.

Once you have these three points on the ground there are two statistics you need to focus on

4. Your general population employment and housing levels. Average/satisfactory housing and bad employment after the basic industries have been setup is the best time to go tourist.
5. Your economy must be producing a decent positive "balance" from exports and must be powered (electricity). I say balance not account size. Positive balance around a 50,000 is a must.

If you check mark on all of the above you are ready to welcome the tourists. General advice here seems to be that you attract the high class and the spring breakers for the money - while that is effective you'll most probably have a China situation on your island with just the odd curious visitor and the rich folk prancing around in fenced off localities in a highly industrialized island. To spruce things up without your accounts showing red - you need to get everyone in on the loop (personal experience).

* Build one of everything from attractions and entertainment and set them to attract the upper class like nightclubs, pubs, art museums, gourmet restaurants (yes tourists visit the entertainment stuff too) set all of these in the upper class mode to begin with. Concentrate your building activity around your selected tourist beach. The beautiful place on your island is for the lower class the beach is for both the higher & lower classes.

* LAYOUT 1 If you are a clever planner (you have to become a better planner for better profits) you will find a way to share all the entertainment stuff between region of dense people housing and this beach region. In a progression of planned locales the layout would be:- Island housing -> Entertainment establishments -> Tourist hotels -> Attractions/Luxury attraction -> Beach side development incl. bungalows, villas, marinas, beach sites, tourist dock(s) & luxury liners. Build 3 marinas and put one on each work mode - they fill up eventually.

* On the flat piece of land noted earlier build your airport and put coach service and later when you get to it build an aerodrome with first class service. Buy all expansions on all buildings - they'll pay off later.

* LAYOUT 2 Again if you are a clever planner you'll expand to your beautiful piece of land and build around this beautiful locale without destroying the beauty of it [constantly check the island conditions -> beauty overlay]. Put all entertainment facilities here and all possible attractions Set them all to lower class attractions like "No Dress code" Casino with "Nickel slot machines" etc. I recommend saving the blimp ride for this place and setting it to "Presidential presence" work mode. In a progression of planned locales the layout here would be:- Airport/Aerodrome -> Island Housing -> Entertainment -> Low class tourist accommodations including motel/hotel -> beauty locale with attractions.

* If you are a superb planner you'll manage to place your Airport/Aerodrome right in between these two layouts and the Island housing required for these two layouts can be combined in to one. You'll effectively have one housing sector servicing both these tourist hangouts with the 2 tourist locations and the housing layout sharing 2 entertainment hubs in all. The two entertainment hubs can clubbed in to one but then you'll still have to have 2 buildings of the same type; one for high class and one open to all.

* Some island topographies are not suited to this layout style, you'll have to get creative there. All tourist accommodations need to be "Auto 75% occupancy fee" mode in the least.

* Put banks "Investment banking" and malls in each of these entertainment hubs. The loss by the malls will be covered by banks. Tourists and people generally fill malls and keep it on normal store mode - get a garage and metro exit near the mall - need the goods and people flowing.

* Last but not least put a few police stations and newspapers/radio stations/TV stations near your tourist accommodation and entertainment/attractions. This keeps crime low and liberty high - which is very important for all except slob tourists.

When you have done all of the above in some form check your tourist impressions in the almanac - If you have the lowest impression at 40+ which would be a high class tourist checking in (they have not visited anything so no impession) and only 10 or 11 tourists like that with a number close to a 100 having an impression in the range of 70+; then kick your feet up and watch your economy soar. $Cha-Ching$. You'll usually make the paradise island (1 million from tourism profits) achievement in 10-12 years after completing this setup.

If you are smart you'll figure out more cost effective layouts on the tougher islands. Islands with a lot of elevation are not very touristy especially if they have 4 or less beaches in total.

Switch up to "four-colored brochures", keep job and service quality high and tourism will pay but beware; it needs a lot of manpower (bad employment will be solved - believe me) and an initial economic downturn (1 or 2 years) is unavoidable as all buildings need up keep and salary but tourists do not arrive. Your balance can go from 50000 to 5000 in a mattter of months.

Tourism makes a fledgling economy grow really strong, if you have the manpower to spare. With these profits you can get ambitious on your industries go nuke program while enriching uranium and locate Higgs boson with your space program or something (sandbox makes it easier)

Happy sight-'showing' with the tourists.