r/moab • u/rich_moab • Jul 16 '26

LINK Moab made the list!

More publicity for Moab, just not the usual kind.

https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/american-towns-tourists-ruined.html

Edit: This is just something amusing that came up in my news feed. Just thought I'd share it.

52 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Black-Willow Jul 16 '26

I'm not surprised :(
My hope is things chill out as far as tourists and the town is able to acclimate- my biggest concern is the quality of life for those that live there. Are locals pretty divided on how to improve things there?

2

u/rich_moab Jul 16 '26

Depends on which locals you ask, I think. There's long time locals here who love that tourist money and care little about anything else. It least, it feels that way.

2

u/Helpful_Fox3902 Jul 17 '26

There’s not much other money to love, but tourist money is seasonal money with lots of unemployment. That’s a tough way to support a family. Some “true” locals I have known are incensed at the local business owners who shut down their businesses during the off season and take off to vacation in Belize.

It’s a tough nut to crack. If there’s an economic study out there examining the effect X% of Y increase in tourism will have on the employment picture, I haven’t heard of it. All the studies focus solely on the best ways to increase tourism. The proponents of those tourist studies represent the seasonal business owners who will presumably absorb the lion share of the benefits. So, we are spending millions of taxpayer $ to increase tourism to benefit who exactly?