Although the connotation for the language “tourist traps” is quite often less than appealing, a number of these places are now actually interesting on a less than mainstream sort of way. You can find people nowadays that will rather enjoy quaint, off-road, eccentric places than typically the most popular tourist spots. Tourist traps, generally, are roadside or tourist attractions that have acquired bad reputations. And this reputation has been steadily drilled into public consciousness by unscrupulous individuals who are after a quick buck. Their main victims are unsuspecting out-of-town visitors or overseas tourists who would not dare raise issues for concern with upsetting the locals’ sensibilities. Today, tourist traps are becoming synonymous with cheesy out-of-the-way places that offer nothing more than cheaply made trinkets with exorbitant price tags. More frequently than not, these places are surrounded by small stores offering food, beverage and a sampler of the neighborhood brew. Interestingly, these small stores make a substantial income from tourists who just would like to get away from the madness of the place. And yes, all these places have rest rooms – usually the one consistent element that produces them appealing to passer-bys. Unfortunately, many of them ask for a specific fee for performing normal bodily functions.
Tourist traps originally started as innocuous roadside attractions. There is a time when cross country traveling on solid ground became all the rage among erstwhile travelers – think for starters moment of pre-commercial airlines flight period. These places were (and still is) frequently advertised all throughout main thoroughfares. Huge billboards and even haphazardly staked signs were intended to catch the attention of tourists without planned itineraries.
These “places of interest” were considered as brief interludes to a traveler’s journey – except that many of these places had hardly any to supply, or in certain extreme cases, were outright shams. These places usually charged for entrance fees, but their main almost all income was from selling merchandise promoting the place. Postcards, cheap shirts and even cheaper caps were the norm. However, there had been other unique pieces like rocks harvested from the area, beaded jewelry created by the locals and other unique curiosities that you’d most likely see in another part of the country (at a fraction of the price.)
Today, tourist traps remain virtually the same. A number of them evolved from previously respectable tourist attractions which became so outdated people open trip karimunjawa wonder why they still exist. Others are places specifically intended to attract more visitors to a specific location; great samples of these are establishments with novelty architecture (buildings with unusual shapes like a giant tea cup house or a large doughnut-shaped bakery); and small town places with one unique product (like the World’s Largest Ball of Twine.) Others yet, are legitimate tourist attractions which are overrun by commercialism and unchecked tourist population.
Not totally all tourist traps are gateways to a prolonged hell, though. You can find enough activities in many of these places; enough so that a number of then are dubbed unofficially as “family attraction stops.” There might be services that provide arcade games, carnival rides, pony rides, thematic restaurants, and even wax museums. However, if you’d rather not work the trails of the tourist traps, below are a few suggestions regarding ways to differentiate legit tourist attractions and tourist traps – and eventually, avoid them altogether.
There’s a superb line as to what tourist attractions and what tourist traps are. Most legitimate attractions simply succumb to the decision of commercialism; or rather, the entrepreneur minded individuals around the area make the most of the glut of tourists, and inadvertently making a tourist trap.
One great indication of a tourist trap could be the price. If everything is apparently swimming in inflation, from the entrance tickets, to the merchandise and even the foodstuff offered in the area (anything at all that may be rightfully constituted to highway robbery,) then this is probably one heck of a tourist trap. If a specific location is just an excessive amount of for the wallet, then it will be better to try your luck somewhere else. That is probably one of the greatest reasons as to the reasons you need to not sign up to the offered packaged tours. Inadvertently, one of them will incorporate a tourist trap; and since it’s a packaged tour, you really can not bail out of it.
Another indication could be measured by ratio. When there is a balance involving the ratio of interesting things to see / do / experience versus the merchandise being sold in the area, then you are likely in a legit tourist attraction. Naturally, there will always be merchandise sold in these places, but its main focal point could be the structure or architecture it represents. Tourist traps, on another hand, have hardly any to represent, and they thrive on selling merchandise. It therefore goes without saying that in order to keep consitently the economy afloat around tourist traps, entrepreneurs have to sell merchandise and price them expensively too.