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Improving the article: Tourist Trap

A tourist trap is an establishment (or group of establishments) that has been created or re-purposed with the aim of attracting tourists and their money. Tourist traps will typically provide services, entertainment, food, souvenirs and other products for tourists to purchase.

Tourist Traps Trends
Tourism is constantly changing with observable social, economic and lifestyle trends in society having an influence. What was once old and traditional tourism centred around the three S’s (Sun, Sea, Sand), the new tourism has said to now focus on the three E’s (Entertainment, Excitement, Education). Tourist traps take advantage of these trends with deceit. Whilst appearing to be an authentic product of cultural tourism, tourist traps have an underlying low cultural value.

Sight Markers
Attractions for which the tourist traps target are said to be brought about by sight markers. A sight or object becomes an attraction when a marker is placed. The marker serves the purpose of promoting or advertising to indicate where an attraction is located. As a result, less known sights placed by well known sights are made visible. It is not uncommon to see tourist traps placed among well known attractions to take advantage well established sight markers. A tourist trap of this nature has been placed in the USA upon the convergence of four states – Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. Surrounding this point of attraction are souvenirs and services, a casino and a recreation centre operated by the navaho people who earn profits from visitors of the Four Corners Monument.

The Tourist Trap Model
The tourist trap model is used in economics to describe the cost incurred as a tourist due to the limited information they have when buying a good/product. As a result, goods become overpriced and tourists are left exploited due to price uncertainty limited budget to cover search cost (e.g. time). For more information, See Chapter 5 of: Managerial Economics/Economics of advertising