How to make Tourism Viable Tropico 4 - up to 200k profit a year.

This guide will show you how to actually make tourism work in Tropico 4. There is a ton of complaints about the viability of tourism as the sole industry on an island, with people only earning around 30k per year. I explain how it is not only viable, but can be incredibly strong with proper planning, giving you more money than you know what to do with within 15 years.

Why Tourism?

Tourism has some huge, hidden advantages over industry in Tropico 4.

• Profits are made over the course of the year, not just when freighters come, making large debt rare]
  
• Profits start coming in sooner. Industry must wait for raw materials
  
• Completely Sustainable
  
• Output not dependent on number of hours worked
  
• All buildings directly make money
  
• No need for educated workers, industry requires high school educations
  
• No reliance on teamsters
  
• Little to no pollution
  
• All tourism buildings can be concentrated in one place, where as industry requires farms/mines and factories
  
• Fun! Tourism can be much more interesting to play

How does tourism work?

Unlike Industry, the mechanics behind tourism are not well explain in Tropico 4. As these are never explicity laid out by developers, there is some guess work here, but this model seems to predict behaviour well.

• Tourists are split into 4 catergories: Slob, Eco, Spring Break, and Wealthy. In addition, each of these tourists can bring children. Each of these tourist groups like different attractions, which are specified in the construction menu.
  
• Tourists arriving at your island have a "Spending Limit", which determines how much they spend at hotels and attractions. They can spend up to their spending limit at each attraction they go to.
  
• Each attraction can only extract a certain amount of money from a tourist, This is specified in the info panel of the building. A tourist spends either their spending limit, or the maximum spending limit of the attraction, whichever is lower.
  
• Tourists can only enter an attraction if they're spending limit is above the entry fee.
  
• Tourists, like tropicans, search for open slots at attractions. When they find one, they travel towards it, enter the attraction, and leave.
  
• Tourists spend some time wandering around the area of attractions.
  
• Tourists leave the island after some period of time. Their overall impressions contribution to your tourism rating.

So what does this all mean?

• Given the limited time the tourist has on the island, we should cluster attractions together to ensure tourists visit as many as possible
  
• Tourists will still only visit 3-4 attractions, we must maximize the return from each attraction
  
• Maintaining lower tier attractions actually decreases the overall income you receive, because your tourists waste time they could be spending in more lucrative attractions. Early on you can build the lower tier buildings, but you should delete them later.
  
• To maximize income, you must attract tourists that go to the attractions that bring in the most money.

The Best Attractions

So - with this in mind - what are the best attractions? Simply put, they're the attractions that suck the most money out of tourists.

Luxury Liner

Attracting Wealthy and Spring Break tourists, this building can extract up to 80 dollars per tourists, has no construction time, and is staffed by uneducated workers.

Marina - Set to Charter Fishing

Attracts Spring Break tourists. While normally this only extracts 50 dollars, in this mode all profits are increased by 50%, giving this an effective extraction of 75 dollars. The effect on local fish is negligable. Requires uneducated workers only.

Caberet

Attracts Wealthy and Spring Break tourists. Extracts 60 dollars, which is quite high. Build two and set them to different dress codes to cater to everyone.

Aqua Park - Set to Child Daycare

Attracts Children. Normally extracts 45 dollars, now it extracts 90 dollars, making it the most profitable building in the game. Won't be full very often, but still worth building.

Cosmic Pin - All You Can Drink

Attracts Spring Break Tourists, and most importantly draws more of them to your island. Spring break tourists are the best kind, so this building is well worth getting.

Other Good Attractions

The Zoo

Attracts Eco, Slob, and Children. Extracts 50 dollars.

Botanical Garden

Attracts Eco and Wealthy tourists (if the mode is set correctly). Extracts 50 dollars. EDIT: Also improves surronding beauty.

Casino

Attracts tourists based on the mode - extracts 50 dollars.

Museum of Modern Art

Attracts wealthy and slob tourists. While it only extracts 50 dollars, this can be improved by showing Tropican art.

A Breakdown by Tourist Type

For each tourist type, one should target 3-4 attractions chosen to maximize profits. Tourists can visit an attraction multiple times, and a slight cost to overall impressions. Because of this, and contrary to popular belief, Spring Break tourists are by far the most profitable. This is for a few reasons. First, the attractions they go to can extract the most money. Second, they are the easiest to attract with two edicts (Mardi Gras and Spring Break Package) and one building (Cosmic Pin)

Suggested attractions for each type are below. Feel free to add buildings that give at least 50 dollars, but be careful not to move your spring break tourists away from their high value attractions. Remember - building lower tier attractions LOSES money because it wastes the time of your tourists.

Spring Break

• Luxury Liner: 80 Dollars
  
• Marina - Charter Fishing: 75 Dollars
  
• Caberet - No Dress Code: 60 Dollars
  
• Cosmic Pin - All You Can Drink: 50 Dollars
  
  

  Wealthy

  
  
• Luxury Liner: 80 Dollars
  
• Caberet - Dress Code: 60 Dollars
  
• Botanical Garden: 50 Dollars
  
• Gourmet Restaurant: 50 Dollars
  
  

  Eco

  
  
• Botanical Garden: 50 Dollars
  
• Marina - Tours: 50 Dollars
  
• Zoo - 50 Dollars
  
• Gourmet Restaurant - 50 Dollars
  
  

  Slob

  
  
• Zoo - 50 Dollars
  
• Cosmic Pin - All You Can Drink: 50 Dollars
  
• Casino - Nickel Slots: 50 Dollars
  
  

  Children

  
  
• Aqua Park - 90 Dollars
  
• Zoo - 50 Dollars

Other Important Buildings

• Build a garage on either side of your tourist settlement so your works can efficiently get in
  
• Build a market near the garage so your workers don't need to go all the way back to town for food
  
• Build a police station in your tourist area for better crime satisfaction
  
• Build a garbage dump near the tourist area to improve environmental happiness in the area
  
• Add gardens, fountains, and trees in those unfilled spaces to improve the beauty
  
• Add a pub to access Mardi Gras and Spring Break to get those all important Spring Break tourists, but make sure you don't let anyone work there!
  
• An airport with addons can increase the number and quality of tourists on your island. Feel free to get it, but keep it on coach service to keep those Spring Breakers coming.
  
• A TV station set to 'Learning with Larry' at the center of your tourist area will skyrocket all your ratings.

Hotels

Hotels aren't very important here - the standard ones do just fine. As you get your nuclear power plant, feel free to upgrade to luxury and skyscrapers. No need to change the fees - they'll be fine set automatically.

EDIT:
It turns out Motels don't create any pollution, while hotels do. So, I'd recommend building Motels as they will increase overall impressions.

Character Builds

This comes down to personal preference. My favourite here is:
Professor : faster learning = better services. Travel Agent is also viable.
Hotel Corporate Buyout: Free Hotel, Better Tourism, and Better US Relations

Sociable: Better Tourist Rating
Well Traveled: Better Tourist Rating
Scholarly: Faster Skills

[Two Gun Bob]

Let me suggest a tweak in the proposed tourist class strategy; instead of "focusing on the highest end tourists", alter that to "avoid slob tourists". The difference is subtle, but it's easier to implement and allows better tourist/tropican attraction separation. Use the hotel fees as the filter to keep them out, and use higher fees in the better attractions to keep most tropicans out of them. You'll naturally have the occasional wealthy tourist find its way to the budget cabaret, but natural crowding of tropicans will keep that to a minimum. And if your top paid tropicans manage to get into the high end tourist places, well you don't care who spends their money there. And there's no reason an earely tourism push can't replace resource gathering for when you industrialize. Let some other banana republic grow your corn.

[Pokesus]

I won't like to live in a place built for tourists.
I already lived in a city like that and wasn't good.

[Pog Patrol]

Having a blimp set to Presidential Presence is also pretty good, as wherever the blimp goes, it will give the boost that visiting it would normally give.

[Aranwen1]

the answer is yes. i was dumb to ask now that i think about it. if you dont have enough entertainment / services to provide for them in the tourist area they walk over which takes a very long time

ruins turned into a museum makes an amazing amount of money. only downsides are its all tourists and not in all maps. it will easily out earn all the others.

[ExiaRS]

Tourists won't come to Tropico area as far as I remember.
Tropicans will come to visit unless you rise up prices so they don't have a money to enter (of course, this apply only to buildings which accept Tropicans) as far as I remember.

[Aranwen1]

if you dont have a road connecting your tourist area and tropico area will they still cross into each others zones?

[Anderson]

Thanks.

[Skirlasvoud]

So, under tourism rating, there's a long list of activities, ranging from relaxing, to drinking, to cabaret and banking. If I were to follow your guide, several of these activies are never catered too. Are you saying that these activities don't matter at all?

[Adam Jensen 007]

wow nice 400 likes

[Mortarion]

Any tips on providing your own pupulation with entertainment and keeping the tourists in the expensive attractions? Most people only say you need to build these places far apart, but my tourists still manage to go to the tropican part of the island.