After a short-lived hiatus, tourism is well and truly back. While this is a relief for millions of globetrotters who are keen to experience the world’s most exciting places once again, locals in these destinations might be watching with trepidation.
After all, over-tourism has hollowed out neighbourhoods from Buenos Aires to Barcelona, with locals taking measures to retain the “local” character of the places they call home.
However, it looks like we are most definitely not returning to the pre-pandemic hordes of tourists, at least not for the next few years. As such, now might be the time to take stock of why living in a traditional tourist hotspot is actually a good thing.
Properties in popular destinations retain their value
If you are fortunate enough to own a home in an established or emerging tourist hotspot, you’re in luck. Property values in such areas, especially in city-centre locations, tend to be sky high and constantly rising.
This can present a number of opportunities. For one, if you have owned your home for a long time, you could re-mortgage and secure a massive windfall. You can even use a free online mortgage advice service such as Trussle to find out exactly how much equity you have built-in your home, as its value has risen over time. You could use the cash from your re-mortgaging to renovate your home, which could also enhance any long-term holiday rental income you receive from it.
Tourism hotspots are always accessible
If you live in a tourist hotspot, getting home from a night out is likely to be easy. Infrastructure is often built with high-spending tourists and city centre office workers in mind, meaning residents often have access to the best public transport links in the city. By living in a tourist hotspot, you will never be far away from a metro station.
There are plenty of amenities
Tourists want amenities, and businesses are all too happy to provide them. If you live in a tourist hotspot, you’ll never be short of hot restaurants, bustling bars, cutting-edge galleries, and cosy cafes to while away your Sunday afternoons. Granted, this one can be something of a double-edged sword. As residents of tourist hotspots in some cities have noticed, it might be nice to have six different steakhouses on your block, but not when this also means that your nearest dentist or budget supermarket is an hour away.
Jobs are easy to find
If you want to live close to where you work, basing yourself in a touristy area will give you plenty of opportunities to do so. This is especially true if you are moving to a touristy area from abroad and might not yet speak the local language. Touristy areas have an abundance of jobs for both long-time locals and recent arrivals, often with the opportunity to earn some serious tips from moneyed tourists.
Living in a tourist hotspot can definitely be a pain, but it also has its perks. Let’s hope that, as international travel resumes, we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
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