Hacker News Reader

Comment by kstenerud | Hacker News Reader

It's the tourist effect. Tourists tend to be cheap, and have zero emotional investment in what they're touring or the people there.

You only spend money on things you identify with emotionally, which is mostly limited to yourself, your family, and your tribe (and people also spend money for signaling). This is also part of the reason why OSS and public service projects don't get many donations, except for short bursts when it's fashionable, and why you can't have nice things as a society without taxation.

View on HN

"You only spend money on things you identify with emotionally, which is mostly limited to yourself, your family, and your tribe (and people also spend money for signaling). This is also part of the reason why OSS and public service projects don't get many donations, except for short bursts when it's fashionable, and why you can't have nice things as a society without taxation."

The entire reason for taxes, and nation states. Those whose ambition is not paying taxes really do not understand what we're all trying to do together.

As someone that lives in Charleston, SC it's way too easy to hate on tourists. They jam up the roadways, fill up all the restaurant reservations, take all the parking, etc. However, at the end of the day, it's hard to overstate what a tremendous benefit it is for the local economy to have a firehose of money dumping into your town the better part of the year.

Charleston did a great job persevering the character of the city as well... That's partly why the tourists flock. Probably also why there's a vibrant culinary scene. So you gotta be careful what you wish for.

>Tourists tend to be cheap, and have zero emotional investment in what they're touring

Then why do souvenir shops exist? Wouldn't they be extremely unprofitable if this was true?

Souvenir shops basically prove this phenomenon. The goods they sell are universally crappy and not a true representation of the place. The sorts of things they sell are about proving to others that you went there, not about taking back a piece of the actual experience. A souvenir is the physical equivalent of a selfie.

I've found you can buy the exact same generic souvenirs off Amazon when you get back. Less hassle and much cheaper.

This.

Whenever I go I try really hard to find actual local craft and buy a single thing that is connected to place and will remind me of if.

Universally this one thing will cost me more but its actual local craft not Chinese import.

Souvenirs are a way to signal to your friends & family. People don't buy them because they serve a practical purpose.

Not necessarily. To suggest that souvenirs are only used for showing off is pretty cynical. For example, I cannot fathom how people buying fridge magnets use them to let everybody know about their trip. I doubt they buy them with the intention of signaling to their house guests every time the guests look at their fridge. A lot of people buy souvenirs (memorabilia) just for themselves because they evoke nice memories.

If the goal was to let everybody know that you went travelling, you can simply post pictures in some social media network.

That's precisely the argument he was making...

Buying impractical things for social signalling is not characteristic of frugality.

>Tourists tend to be cheap

Interesting take considering the existence of "tourist pricing".

>You only spend money on things you identify with emotionally

Is this usually how you decide what to eat? I've had $2 pizza in the past but it was because I was hungry and it was $2.

> Tourists tend to be cheap

Maybe that depends on where you live. In my village tourists tend to tip 25-100% of the final bill and spend 10x more than non tourists.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com