I agree - either lower people's standards or try push a "beauty is in eye of the beholder" mindset

For example Gary, Indiana. You only hear the bad things, but never that it has great beaches and trails, if you're willing to settle for a bit less on everything else. Here's a video I took a few months ago https://imgur.com/PItmK2v, I don't think people necessarily picture these sort of views from the armpit of Indiana but it's a daily reality here.

I somewhat agree. The truth is there are a ton of towns in the US that you never heard of that do surprisingly well with tourism. You can tell by all the hotels near the town. All you need is a few few restaurants, bars, coffee shop, a cute little market street, a historical attraction, and maybe a hiker/biker trail.

They do, just no-one wants to visit them.

Leading to overcrowding and increased competition for the same locations