[Cthulhu_]

Everything you mentioned is a contribution to the local economy, though?

Tourism is €215 billion of Italy's income, about 1/10th of its GDP. Rich tourists coming off cruise ships doing impulse buys at huge profit margins sounds like a good thing to me, from a purely capitalist perspective.

[m000]

It is the "local economy" only if you believe in trickle-down economics.

The area of visited by cruise ship tourists is typically a very small fraction of the port city. Worse, the establishments in that area only account for a small fraction of the overall local employment, and are owned by a handful of families or (worse) funds/corporations.

So money does flow, but not really to the local economy, apart from a number of low-paid service jobs.

You also appear to have a very outdated view of cruise ship tourism. What "rich tourists"? These days it is the less well-off that go on cruises, even choosing to cruise through their retirement as the cheaper option [1]. Nobody is going to make expensive purchases as they have already visited half a dozen ports before their current stop and have another half a dozen to go.

[1] https://globalnews.ca/news/10004079/retired-couple-51-consec...

[Ekaros]

Problem is that it doesn't actually work that way. The boat tourist don't spend too much, or comparatively spend lot less than those that visit cities in other ways. The infra to support the ships cost money, and then usually any activities are run by ship owners. Plus full board is standard so many prefer to eat there and also sleep.

It is much more efficient to focus on tourists that live in hotels, buy every meal from local restaurants or at least shops. Have actual time to spend in more than main attractions as such diffuse over larger area. And well have more time for shopping or do it at local airport.

[newaccount74]

Wait until they hear about people travelling in camper vans that cook their own meals and just park by the roadside for sleeping! Or even worse, bicycle tourists who bivouac by the river, they don't even buy gas!

[leoedin]

Camper vans are already a big problem for some rural areas. And they don’t tend to contribute much to the local economy. You phrased it like that was a gotcha, but it’s not really. Camper-vans and cruises are both high-impact low benefit forms of tourism.

I wouldn’t put bike tourists in that group - because they are incredibly low impact in comparison, and in my experience most bike tourists are spending money as they go - either on accommodation or food.

[nkrisc]

How many camper cans and bike tourists descend on Venice every day?

Sure, camper and bike tourists probably don’t contribute much to local economies, but they also have negligible negative impacts, so what’s your point?