Travel online this week
A few days after the Visit Grpalm springs eater the tourist office has approved a resolution to oppose referendum in La Quinta, Calif., which would impose stricter restrictions on vacation rentals, the tourism board has promoted a board of directors Tourism economy study which reads like a cheerleading brochure for the short term rental industry.
In doing so, neither Economy of Oxford Neither the Tourism Research Unit nor its client tourism board seem to have taken note that destinations around the world are increasingly involving local communities in the development of visitor policies. It is no longer about tourism above all.
In a post-Covid world, after years of overtourism in certain destinations, such as Barcelona and San Diego, California, where critics sometimes denounce a Airbnb and Vrbo assault, aren’t the locals supposed to be more than an afterthought?
However, the unvarnished reality – OK, let’s face it – is that business as usual thinking remains hardened in most tourist boards, and the actual execution of a new world order in tourism policy could be ambitious, but exaggerated.
The assumptions made by Tourism Economics in its study, released Oct. 13, appear to be that almost everything about tourism and accelerating visitor spending is positive for communities in the United States, including La Quinta, and that anything that blunts these dynamics is negative.
Writing about pending tightened restrictions on vacation rentals in La Quinta, a golf destination about 25 miles from Palm Springs, Calif., Tourism Economics said: “The proposed regulations on STRs (short-term rentals) would result in massive economic losses. In 10 years, La Quinta would experience a decline of 122,000 annual visitors (-55%), $102 million less in visitor spending (-62% from baseline), 530 fewer jobs, and 9.5 million dollars less in local tax revenue.
All of these findings are not bad news for Visit Greater Palm Springs, which paid for the research.
Neighbors for neighborhoods Q.L. (La Quinta), a community group, supports the upcoming ballot measure that would phase out currently grandfathered vacation rental permits and prohibit new ones when “non-accommodated” in certain non-exempt areas. town.
The group’s concerns revolve around disruption in residential neighborhoods, including “night parties”, crime and rising rent and house prices, said Donald Nimis, a spokesman for the group.
Nimis said housing in La Quinta caters to both middle-income and affluent residents, but middle-class areas are bearing the brunt of the negative impact from vacation rentals because they are already not allowed in more luxurious developments run by the Homeowners Association. The city’s vacation rental density in ungated communities ranges from 5% to 11%, Nimis said.
In its defense of the short-term rental and tourism industries, Tourism Economics cited findings that short-term rentals were responsible for just 1% of a 14.9% increase in house prices in United States, building on pre-Covid 2014-2018 data, which seems like ancient history in the annals of global vacation rental industry sprint and expansion.
Unlike the tourism economy that nearly dismissed the impact, the CEO of a regional US Federal Reserve bank recently cited investors turning homes into short-term rentals, and thus limiting the supply of rentals to long-term, as contributing to a shortage of affordable housing in New Jersey. , as an example of trends occurring elsewhere.
“Tourism is important, but so is residential housing,” Nimis said. “A policy where you reallocate residential housing to tourism is really self-devouring,” he said.
Regarding the tourism economy’s projections of declining visitor spending, jobs and tax revenue over the next decade if voters pass the ballot measure, Nimis argued that the research neglects the economic impact of long-term renters, some with lots of California-generated disposable income to spend at local Costco or area restaurants, who could move into idle vacation rentals.
“Their basic assumption, in my opinion, in calling all these economic losses, is that the units will remain empty after this law is passed,” Nimis said.
Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, countered that tighter regulations on short-term rentals in the Palm Springs area would negatively impact local residents.
“The losses would directly affect residents and their quality of life through several channels: a weaker housing market, lost jobs and income, lower tax revenues (and associated government services), and some loss of amenities and attractions. that depend on visitors. but definitely improve the quality of life for residents,” Sacks said.
Sacks said that in many cities and towns in the region, second homes make up 30-40% of housing stock.
“The mostly single-family homes with private pools that are rented out short-term in these communities don’t translate into affordable housing if they’re not rented out,” he said.
But a housing crunch could indeed contribute to higher rental rates and house prices — more than the 1% contribution from vacation rentals that the tourism economy claims for the United States. Who really believes this number? Let’s go.
Sacks said it would not necessarily follow “that residents would automatically fill in the gaping hole that would be left by visitors” in the short term.
He said there has been a lot of community engagement through City Council task forces and subcommittees in the greater Palm Springs area, and that his study was designed to contribute to the conversation about vacation rental and tourism issues among residents and policy makers.
It is clear that vacation rental policies cannot be uniform across communities around the world. My Uber driver in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, said on Tuesday that there is plenty of residential accommodation outside of the tourist areas in the area, so the more visitors the better.
On the other hand, it’s irrefutable that many cities across the country are being hurt by excess short-term rentals — even though, in many cases, native landlords are generating much-needed revenue — as they tighten the availability of affordable housing. or these destinations are overrun with tourists.
What is clear, however, from research commissioned by Visit Greater Palm Springs, is that old and discredited assumptions that unfettered tourism is the panacea for economic development must give way to more nuanced approaches. that give local residents more power over politics.
After all, Barcelona’s tourism boss was recently fired, and some attribute the dismissal to a poor relationship with locals over the making of visiting policies.
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