Why does tourism NOT produce gold?

I think a policy choice for something like .25 GPT for each point of tourism would be cool. I can't speak to the difficulty of getting gold, as I've only used Portugal. I'll say that the AI could definitely use it though. America in my game was a tourism powerhouse with -500 GPT.

CivJunkie68 said:

I could not disagree more as I'm making -88GPT: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=502917

Click to expand...

Well you have built roads on places where you dont need them. Thats like throwing money away...

Exotic = 0 Gold.
Familiar = +3 Gold.
Popular = +6 Gold.
Influential = +9 Gold.
Dominant = +12 Gold.

You gain gold from every civilization you are influencing, based on how influential you are. If you are Exotic, Influential, Influential, and Dominant over four other civilizations you would gain +30 GPT. This also gives you a little bit more reason to focus on Tourism early.

The basic problem with this idea is that it wouldn't help you in making more money in the early game (when you need it the most) and it would give you more money in the late game (when you already are getting too much).

From a realistic pov it would make sense but from a gaming perspective it would just be either meaningless or game breaking.

CommunistCookie said:

Culture empires don't have any gold problems, they have just as much access to trade routes as everyone else. 0.5 would be ridiculous for the latter half of the game.

Click to expand...

seriously. I could probably pull in 5000 tourism as brasil in a golden age if I keep playing past the tourism win they get before airports.

Iry said:

Exotic = 0 Gold.
Familiar = +3 Gold.
Popular = +6 Gold.
Influential = +9 Gold.
Dominant = +12 Gold.

You gain gold from every civilization you are influencing, based on how influential you are. If you are Exotic, Influential, Influential, and Dominant over four other civilizations you would gain +30 GPT. This also gives you a little bit more reason to focus on Tourism early.

Click to expand...

Would be a little closer but while realistic would be be balanced that someone who was steamrolling culture and dominant everywhere (Brasil) now always has the ultimate trading income and can win domination at the same time?

30 GPT isn't going to turn the tide of the game

Definetly I think the National Visitor Center should give some gold based on per city or amount of tourism. U need to set up for tourists definitely. Soon we should get back corporations!

To answer the question in the threads title:
Because that game mechanic is poorly named. It shouldnt be named 'tourism'. That name doesnt fit its role. Its more like 'propaganda'.

I agree that it would be logical and useful if a social policy or building (like the hotel) that made it attractive to dabble in tourism. Certainly if you achieve Influential status with a civ, it should get your something. If you dabble and prosper, it might actually turn into a victory path.

Essentially, making tourism a currency that's only useful for cultural victory is a wasted opportunity. It means you shouldn't dabble, because it's an all-or-nothing affair. Basically, how it works now is that you make a conscious decision to attempt cultural victory, and then you dump a bunch of energy into that doesn't pay off until when or if you win. Go big or go home.

If you think about it it already works this way. Your tourism influences how much power your ideology asserts over the other civs. Get freedom and get the +gold per trade route bonus if the person is following your ideology you are getting extra gold by trading with them. If you have the highest tourism you will eventually force everyone to your ideology and get a significant bonus from all your international routes. But again, this is improving late game gold, you are begging for early game gold which does not grow on trees but rather must be earned via trading/city connections. What a novel idea, using the mechanics the game provides you with for earning gold to do just that!

BSPollux said:

To answer the question in the threads title:
Because that game mechanic is poorly named. It shouldnt be named 'tourism'. That name doesnt fit its role. Its more like 'propaganda'.

Click to expand...

Or maybe cultural influence since it's about how often they wear your blue jeans while listening to your pop music.