Civ5 and Tourism

[Guta]

One thing that I would like to see in Civ 5 is tourism. Many times while playing Civ 1-4, I would look at all the coasts, mountains, lakes, etc and wondered, "hmm, what if there was tourism, it would make me want to conquer that coast or that mountain range, because once modern times come, I could cash on all the touristic attractions and tourists coming to see them".

Just imagine:

- The "nicer" the place is, the more money could a "touristic building" (i.e. hotels, spas, golf courses, beaches, ski resorts, and so on) bring. Various criteria could be used to determine whether a tile is attractive or not for tourists.

- Factors like pollution (and lack thereof), transportation (road, railway, commercial airport), political stability (recent wars, proximity of battlegrounds to a resort, number of wars waged, etc), political ties with another land the tourists are coming from, and many more could determine whether a certain tile is interesting for tourists or not, and hence the income from it

- Naturally, "Open Borders" would have to be in place to have foreign tourists come to your touristic resorts, otherwise only domestic tourists would visit them. Some spies might use the chance though, and come as tourists

- Too big a city too close to a tourist place would diminish its value (except maybe capitols for sightseeing), but Wonders in a city would increase the value.

- Small islands (1-3 tiles) in the middle of nowhere could be settled with a kind of a "touristic colony", i.e. a giant island-sized resort

- Player could choose to exploit fish resources for food, or as a tourist attraction (scuba diving, for example). Same for whaling - choose between killing whales for food and other stuff, or make boat sightseeing tours

- Mountains could allow "ski resort" to be built upon them, maybe by introducing a mountain-tile only resource "suitable for skiing" or similar, so a resort could not be built on every single mountain out there. Even in Alps, Whistler or Vale there isn't a ski resort on every single mountain

- Tropical and/or warm(er) areas could allow beaches and beach hotels (obviously, building a "beach" in polar regions won't attract a lot of tourists, at least not those who would like to swim )


I am sure there are many more ideas out there

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Ahriman]

Tourism has really been of very minor economic importance until very recent times (jet travel age, I'd say). Before then, there just weren't enough people with enough wealth to be able to afford the leisure time and travel.

There are a few particular exceptions (particularly if you count religious pilgrimages, like Rome and Mecca), but that's the general rule.

The examples you mention (hotels, spas, golf courses, beaches, ski resorts) are all *very* modern.

I don't think this fits in the huge time period that Civ represents.

And the idea of starting a war to conquer a place for its tourism potential is pretty hilarious

 

[Danielos]

Considering the merciless exploitation of forests and natural resourcres that occur in every civ-game, I would be surprised if there were any wildlife left for the little civ-people to appreciate. They sure live a miserable life...

 

[Guta]

Tourism has really been of very minor economic importance until very recent times (jet travel age, I'd say). Before then, there just weren't enough people with enough wealth to be able to afford the leisure time and travel.

That is true - but, same could be said for spaceships, not to mention other modern stuff like electronics, electric power, etc.

There are a few particular exceptions (particularly if you count religious pilgrimages, like Rome and Mecca), but that's the general rule.

That is actually a very nice idea - religious and touristic "pilgrimage" could add new life to all those Wonders that are obsolete after some time. This actually happens in the real life as well - think about how much money Pyramids, Stonehenge, etc are bringing in nowadays, many, many years after those wonders lost their original function.

The examples you mention (hotels, spas, golf courses, beaches, ski resorts) are all *very* modern.

I don't think this fits in the huge time period that Civ represents.

Well, so are jet airplanes, TV and radio, ICBMs, Apollo or other space programs, Quantum Physics and so on

And the idea of starting a war to conquer a place for its tourism potential is pretty hilarious

On the other hand, RL wars were (and are!) waged for less than pretty landscapes - football (soccer) wars in South America come to mind, for example

 

[Guta]

Considering the merciless exploitation of forests and natural resourcres that occur in every civ-game, I would be surprised if there were any wildlife left for the little civ-people to appreciate. They sure live a miserable life...

Well, there you go - too much civilization usually means there is not much nature left. And that definitely impacts tourism.

 

[oynaz]

I actually think that this is a great idea!

 

[The Cosmic Kid]

I think this idea has potential. But since, as Ahriman mentioned, it would not play a part in the whole game, but only in the modern era, I don't think it warrants a whole complex subsystem. Maybe something simpler, more along the lines of a "Tourist Hotel" building, which provides +1 commerce in "touristy" tiles like coasts, mountains, and (if they still exist) forest preserves. Or perhaps a "resort" improvement.

 

[Steve the Noble]

My first thought is that tourism concepts fall under the general culture umbrella.

However, I could see a tourism-related modern era city improvement that improves wealth and/or happiness.

But a boatload of tourism factors is better off in SimCity instead of Civilization.

 

[Andrew_Jay]

Tourism has already been represented well enough:

- Money earned by holy cities
- Culture (I can't remember if IV did this, but I know III increased the culture/turn as the wonder got older)
- Forest preserves in IV

Anything more explicit, as the OP is suggesting, is going overboard.

 

[Chalks]

Perhaps a "tourist resort" city improvement to give +income, but I don't think taking it any further fits the Civ concept.

 

[Andrew_Jay]

Perhaps a "tourist resort" city improvement to give +income, but I don't think taking it any further fits the Civ concept.

Perhaps better as (to use IV terms) a National Wonder. Not every city can be Orlando, you will always have your Milwaukees. But that just reminds me, IV had a park National Wonder - another example of tourism in the game.

I suppose you could also have a more "resort"-oriented National Wonder that gave additional bonuses for luxuries in that city, for example.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

Civ3 (I think in the Conquests expansion) had a feature where as ancient wonders/great wonders would become tourist attractions over time and simply begin to produce commerce for the city.

In Civ4 I believe the property of shrines that would get you +1 per city with that particular religion was meant to represent religious pilgrimage, in that people from those cities your religion spread to would come visit the holy city and spend money.

I really think tourism is a pointless feature to include in Civ as its only been a phenomena of the past century...if you consider that for almost all of human history most people lived and died in the town they were born in with little extensive traveling during their life.

 

[Silurian]

Maybe with railways you can build hotel that provides two gold in its city and on e health in another city. Can only be built in city with mountain or coast tile in BFC

 

[alanthreonus]

I think this idea has potential. But since, as Ahriman mentioned, it would not play a part in the whole game, but only in the modern era, I don't think it warrants a whole complex subsystem. Maybe something simpler, more along the lines of a "Tourist Hotel" building, which provides +1 commerce in "touristy" tiles like coasts, mountains, and (if they still exist) forest preserves. Or perhaps a "resort" improvement.

I think this would be the best way to go. A building could be built, or a technology could be researched that would add some commerce to certain tiles, but there shouldn't be a complex system.

 

[thungrim]

I believe this is already abstractly represented via "culture" and "trade".

 

[timtofly]

Tourism has been around for awhile, just not in masse like today.

From Wikipedia:

Wealthy people have always travelled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings, works of art, learn new languages, experience new cultures and to taste different cuisines. Long ago, at the time of the Roman Republic, places such as Baiae were popular coastal resorts for the rich. The word tourism was used by 1811 and tourist by 1840. In 1936, the League of Nations defined foreign tourist as "someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours". Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945, by including a maximum stay of six months.

Leisure travel
Leisure travel was associated with the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom – the first European country to promote leisure time to the increasing industrial population. Initially, this applied to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. Cox & Kings was the first official travel company to be formed in 1758.

The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. In Nice, France, one of the first and best-established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old, well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic – reflecting the dominance of English customers.

 

[The_J]

This could be a good idea for a mod.
Thinking in civ4 rules:
- Give coastal tiles more commerce
- Give forest commerce, but no hammers
- Same for hills, but maybe only with snow
- Several buidlings for producing money
- Would need a economic victory
well, no idea, what to do with the units and the rivals .

 

[Fire Bringer]

Maby you could use forest for tourism or production.

 

[Erufailon]

I seem to recall there being a tourist attraction thing in Conquests (Civ III). Some wonders would start producing commerse after 1000 years. Should be easily modded in any case. Improvements like hotels or beaches and stuff

 

[The Cosmic Kid]

Perhaps better as (to use IV terms) a National Wonder. Not every city can be Orlando, you will always have your Milwaukees. But that just reminds me, IV had a park National Wonder - another example of tourism in the game.

Yeah, a National Wonder might be a good idea, too. Though the way the National Park did it made no sense; Yellowstone is not a metropolis of engineers, priests, and spies!

I did like that the National Park actually had a generic name. It always bothered me to have everyone building their own Globe Theatre and Moai Statues...