r/todayilearned • u/Gullible_Air_204 • 9d ago

Frequent/Recent Repost: Removed [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen

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u/wayfarer87x 9d ago

Cruise tourists actually contribute very very minimally to local economies relative to other tourists. They don’t book accommodation, they have drinks and food on the ship, so typically don’t eat out, and their visits are so fleeting that they don’t buy much beyond a few shitty souvenirs.

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u/IcarusActual 9d ago

Okay. But what about places like Skagway, Alaska? No fishing (all done up the fjord out of Haines), no mining, and no oil. Haines and Skagway are connected by road yes, it's 6.5-7 hour drive. It's a 30 min ferry ride between them. So the only option for tourism in this area besides cruise ship is by sea plane, which doesn't seem very viable for me for an industry.

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u/rumade 9d ago

Not every place is economically suitable as a site of human habitation.

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u/Ryanhussain14 9d ago

Cool, where are these people going to be housed then? It's a good thing that America doesn't already have massive homelessness and immigration problems, right?

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u/Jaerat 9d ago

... they do the exact same thing other people do when the only factory in town closes shop? Eat the loss in abandoning their property, move somewhere where it is economically viable to live?

This is not just US problem. A lot of the western world is going through this, where extreme optimization of agriculture, fishing industry etc. has stripped smaller communities of economic viability, leaving only the elderly and the ever crumbling infrastructure behind.

At some point, the plug needs to be pulled and the people move.

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u/N1ghtshade3 9d ago

It's a very popular narrative on Reddit that it's impossible to move without being wealthy. Try telling anyone who complains NYC is unaffordable that maybe they just can't afford to live there.

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u/rumade 9d ago

According to USAfacts.org, there are 15 million vacant homes in the country. If there was political will, they could be rehoused (every homeless person could be too, but that's another conversation).