Posted February 23, 2019
Does anyone understand tourism??
The theory and what you can find on all websites is: Satisfy all the entertainment needs of the tourists and loads of them will come and bring mad money.
But I did some experimenting and entertainment does not seem to affect them at all!
The only thing that seems to affect the number of tourists when you have loads of free rooms is the price of the rooms.
For example:
I had like 60 rooms for the wealthy (beach villas and sky hotel). Over time I built all entertainment buildings, with at least one in every category (drinking, gambling, etc) so that each attraction category was over a hundred. But the number of tourist families was always 30-50 with the price at 30. When I raised the price to 40, there were only 20-30 or something.
So I began experimenting with the entertainment.
I wrecked all the unprofitable stuff, spa, night club, and casino. Nothing changed.
So I tried it more extreme, I wrecked all entertainment except the stadium and the museum (the ziggurat thingy). Tourist numbers remained the same.
Then I destroyed ALL entertainment (even the bank) and fired the museum guy, still no change!
Every thing else was always perfect, no crime, highest beauty and liberty, pollution as low as you can get it. Tourism rating rose to and always stayed at 100, no matter what I did.
So, I am convinced that you don't need any entertainment at all for the tourists in Tropico 3, it is not even helpful!
(Should have realised this early when my 3-4 starter hotels were always full and madly profitable on auto-fee even before I started to build the first attraction!)
The best way to make loads of money would be to find a sweet spot for the pricing and only build as many hotels as you need to that price.
Then only build profitable entertainment.
The most profitable at full visits seem to be:
Ethnic Enclave: 10000-15000 right off the bat, up to 20000
Offshore Banking: quickly at 10000, up to 20000 per year with experienced banksters
Stadium: 15000 with fee at 30, set educated tropicans salary to 30 for more visitors, Taps or not doesn't make much difference, 30 fee does not mean 30$. So in the end fee 30 means about 175$ per visitor + 20 from free flowing taps
Museum, Zoo: at about 10000
Prefer the ones that your rich tropicans can use. Only build a few! Like 2-3, otherwise they will eat up each others profits. Stadium, bank and Museum. Nothing else. Set the fees as high as your hotel fees, that way every tourist can get in.
But maybe it would be most profitable to just build 2-3 offshore banks and let the tropicans have no entertainment at all.
And one last thing....the casino SUUUUCKS. On every website and forum you can read that it makes make profits, but I never got it over like 4000, and that was as the only building always full with Baccarat and fee 30. So even if you somehow got it full at fee 50 it would not yield more than 6000-7000. I think a fee of 50 would only have very few visitors unless you have many tropicans with a salary of 50.
The theory and what you can find on all websites is: Satisfy all the entertainment needs of the tourists and loads of them will come and bring mad money.
But I did some experimenting and entertainment does not seem to affect them at all!
The only thing that seems to affect the number of tourists when you have loads of free rooms is the price of the rooms.
For example:
I had like 60 rooms for the wealthy (beach villas and sky hotel). Over time I built all entertainment buildings, with at least one in every category (drinking, gambling, etc) so that each attraction category was over a hundred. But the number of tourist families was always 30-50 with the price at 30. When I raised the price to 40, there were only 20-30 or something.
So I began experimenting with the entertainment.
I wrecked all the unprofitable stuff, spa, night club, and casino. Nothing changed.
So I tried it more extreme, I wrecked all entertainment except the stadium and the museum (the ziggurat thingy). Tourist numbers remained the same.
Then I destroyed ALL entertainment (even the bank) and fired the museum guy, still no change!
Every thing else was always perfect, no crime, highest beauty and liberty, pollution as low as you can get it. Tourism rating rose to and always stayed at 100, no matter what I did.
So, I am convinced that you don't need any entertainment at all for the tourists in Tropico 3, it is not even helpful!
(Should have realised this early when my 3-4 starter hotels were always full and madly profitable on auto-fee even before I started to build the first attraction!)
The best way to make loads of money would be to find a sweet spot for the pricing and only build as many hotels as you need to that price.
Then only build profitable entertainment.
The most profitable at full visits seem to be:
Ethnic Enclave: 10000-15000 right off the bat, up to 20000
Offshore Banking: quickly at 10000, up to 20000 per year with experienced banksters
Stadium: 15000 with fee at 30, set educated tropicans salary to 30 for more visitors, Taps or not doesn't make much difference, 30 fee does not mean 30$. So in the end fee 30 means about 175$ per visitor + 20 from free flowing taps
Museum, Zoo: at about 10000
Prefer the ones that your rich tropicans can use. Only build a few! Like 2-3, otherwise they will eat up each others profits. Stadium, bank and Museum. Nothing else. Set the fees as high as your hotel fees, that way every tourist can get in.
But maybe it would be most profitable to just build 2-3 offshore banks and let the tropicans have no entertainment at all.
And one last thing....the casino SUUUUCKS. On every website and forum you can read that it makes make profits, but I never got it over like 4000, and that was as the only building always full with Baccarat and fee 30. So even if you somehow got it full at fee 50 it would not yield more than 6000-7000. I think a fee of 50 would only have very few visitors unless you have many tropicans with a salary of 50.
Post edited February 24, 2019 by jamotide
