Tourism economy is the best economy, for the tourists and their white western touristy values, not the working exploited local class who gets priced out of their life by rich owners.

Rich owners get disproportionally richer by tourist money (by definition much more than the locals, because that’s what makes tourism possible), and then the local economy bends around them.

“It’s up to locals to learn to manage it well and not get corrupted” - my brother in Christ this is basic individualism and victim blaming in a trenchcoat. “Corruption” isn’t a magical thing, it happens because of the proportionally obscene extra money in the pockets of the few.

It’s basically this: tourism doesn’t happen between equals, and the money of the richer tourists goes down the road all money does in capitalism. Concentrated further unless redistributed via politics, and politics bends to money over time.

If you live in tourist towns, as in going around exploring instead of having your future stolen and become nearly unable to both live and leave, you’re part of the people rich enough to enjoy the benefits, whether you know it or not.