How tourism affects small towns

Grady Maylin, Aiden Holmes, Brady Garnier & Sergio Martel

April 3, 2024

Tourism can have a huge impact on businesses in small towns. 

There are two sides of tourism; the side where it helps businesses and boosts the local economy, and the side where it hurts our small towns across the country. A place where tourism has been a problem has been a RV park. 

“I occasionally had trouble with people at the RV Park. I remember I went to Pennsylvania for a wedding and the people looking after it said, ‘Don't come down here, there are problems you don't want to get involved with.' One guy got mad at another guy because he parked two feet on his space,’’ said Janet Gerlach, a previous local RV Park Owner.

Tourism affects us. A way that tourism affects us in a positive way is that our businesses bring in a lot of money. 

The way it brings in money is by people spending money at local places in towns, people go to restaurants, grocery stores, gift shops, and get tours by local residents.

The amount of tourism that happens in Brookings, OR  is significant. “The RV business started totally being a tourist attraction, then it became that 30% are people that lived there who would keep their RVs at the park year round and would come on weekends,” Gerlach said. 

This money helps our businesses thrive in ways that other towns don’t, but it comes at a cost. 

There are bad effects. The bad effects of tourism include pollution, and environmental damage like deforestation, or natural habitats getting destroyed. 

Vehicle emissions are a toxic chemical that contain greenhouse gases that can cause climate change. This happens when more people that come into this town stay in homes or hotels and they constantly are driving to different places in the town.

These toxic chemicals can kill living organisms on land and in water. Over 1 million sea animals die every year, there is an estimated 100 million tons of plastic and trash in the ocean. This also hurts humans by drinking polluted water that isn't filtered and food that has other toxic chemicals.

However, tourism isn't just all bad, it has positive effects that include an increase in jobs, more income, increase of wealth in a town, and economic growth.

Tourism can bring tons of money to a town, businesses thrive off of tourism because people are eating at their restaurants, shopping at gift shops or shopping at stores to get groceries, or even buying tons of souvenirs. This is a big part of the economic growth of small towns.

Brookings has become a popular tourism destination for people from all over the world because of its unique weather in the summer and outdoor attractions. However, tourism does also benefit the town by bringing more money into its local economy helping to support local businesses within the town.

How did Brookings become such a popular tourist destination? First of all, its location being on the highway and right on the beach causes people to drive through here whether they intended to or not. Also many people like to travel there because of the Chetco river and the very nice weather that is brought in the summers due to the chetco effect from the valley. 

According to a news report, the Chetco Effect ¨can warm the town of Brookings, Oregon as much as 30 degrees more than neighboring towns,¨ Chief Meteorologist Holden LeCroy said.  Another reason a lot of people like to come here is because of the great fishing the town has to offer. There is also lots of beautiful scenery all throughout the area. 

This is a good thing, but also has its drawbacks. 

Some of the negatives of tourism in Brookings include over crowded beaches and river bars, increased traffic, trash being left in public areas and increased work for the police of Brookings, fire and EMSems services. 

The river bars and beaches being crowded can cause spots where the locals would usually have enjoyed there sommer to possibly be taken up by tourists. This also tyes in to the littering problem. Often times the dumpsters that are provided on the river bars are full, and trash gets left out sometimes on the beaches and river bars. Another issue is the increased traffic. Though it does not compare at all to the traffic in a big city such as Los Angeles, or New York City to the locals it can still be a frustrating inconvenience. 

Another downfall is the strain that is put on the first responders in the area. For example the extra call load they take on. More people equals more problems for them to deal with. There are many tourists who visit the area that don’t know the waters or the area very well which can lead to issues. For example there are always people who travel to the area and go check out the river earlier in the summer or in the spring and think it is safe to swim put it moves faster than expected. Also more traffic in the area can lead to more car crashes and thing like that. And on top of all this the first responders still have to deal with their regular call load that they would with the locals. 

So there are many good things that tourism bring and there are bad things that tourism brings to the area. They bring more money to local businesses and to the economy. And for many places tourism is what helps them stay afloat. There are also the downsides to tourism like increased traffic, pack river bars and beaches, ect. However tourism still plays a big role in keeping Brookings going

The people of Brookings want to promote Sustainable Tourism by encouraging tourists to visit in a way that's respectful to the environment and the local community. 

You can regulate visitor numbers by making some places use permits or caps on the number of visitors to prevent overcrowding. To boost off-seasons we should Create attractions or events during off-peak times to spread out the visitor flow throughout the year. 

If you want the tourist to be respectful you need to educate them by informing visitors about the impact of tourism and how they can help preserve the town's charm.  

If we encourage tourists to support local, rather than international chains, it will keep the town's unique vibe and make local business owners like tourists more. Ensure that the town's infrastructure can handle the tourists without compromising the quality of life for residents. 

Adjust marketing strategies to target responsible travelers who are more likely to respect the town's culture and environment. 

Get the local community involved in decisions about tourism to ensure their needs and concerns are addressed. Remember, it's all about balance. You want to protect the town while still allowing it to reap the benefits of tourism. 

What Brookings residents can do to make tourism better is by making a limit of how many people are able to come around and stay or our small town will be packed up. 

Photo Credit: https://negativespace.co/city-tourists-travel/