In Defense of the Tourist Trap: Why Following the Crowd Might Be the Smartest Way To Travel
Tourist traps aren't failures of imagination—they’re optimized cultural hubs built for your enjoyment.

This is part of Reason's 2025 summer travel issue. Click here to read the rest of the issue.
If you ever go to New Orleans, one of your first stops should be the very unhidden gem of Café Du Monde's French Market location. There you can buy some New Orleans special beignets and, if the weather is hot enough (it almost certainly will be) a frozen coffee to wash them down.
Café Du Monde is popular. The advice to go is often not popular.
If you scan internet messaging boards about what to do in New Orleans, posters will often caution against a visit to Café Du Monde. It is dismissed as the most hated of all destinations, a "tourist trap": an overrated, overcrowded cliché that exists to suck money from unsophisticated travelers in exchange for an unsatisfyingly ordinary experience.
Yet this aversion to Café Du Monde is obviously mistaken to anyone who does actually go there. The lines are long, yes, but they move fast. The beignets might not be literally the best in the world, or even in New Orleans. But they're good! Better yet, they're available at a reasonable price. And once you're done with your fried treat, you can walk to any number of other serviceable tourist destinations nearby.
Raging against this delightfully efficient travel experience is a particular strand of travel ideology that encourages you to avoid the "tourist track" in favor of more authentic, higher-quality experiences to be found off the beaten path. Travel content creators, whether on social media or the Food Network, traffic in glamorizing the latter travel experience. Not much travel media could persist without it. There's only so much content one could watch about other people going to see the Louvre or the Vatican or Times Square, after all.
Certainly, when one is traveling vicariously from the couch, it's fine to revel in hunts for the next world-famous hole-in-the-wall. When we're transporting ourselves in reality, the real rewards will often be found among the greatest hits.
There's a reason for this, and it comes down to two concepts: economies of scale and agglomeration.
Economies of scale is the idea that firms can lower their average costs by producing more units. In other words, if you set up your operation to make a lot of widgets, the cost of making each widget is a lot lower than what could be made by a small widget-making operation.
This is effectively what the largest landmarks and tourist traps do. The National Mall and the Eiffel Tower were built to receive millions of people. Therefore, they're easily able to provide you, the marginal tourist, a satisfying experience at an ever-falling cost. Your presence adds a tiny additional cost to operating bathrooms, maintaining walking trails and directional signage, and even paying staff to tell people where they need to go and where not to spit their gum. The marginal expense of providing you the opportunity of a forced--perspective photo where you hold the Washington Monument aloft is effectively zero.
This is hardly the case with more niche destinations.
The obscure hiking trail with the perfectly instagrammable view likely suffers from increasing diseconomies of scale. These places work when they're patronized by locals and a few regional tourists. Once they go viral, they're quickly swamped. Parking lots are over capacity, trash overflows, and the marginal visitor's photo opportunity imposes severe costs on everyone else. It's why these destinations top internet lists of sights being "ruined" by tourists, even if their root purpose is to be a visitable sight to see.
Gastronomical destinations operate under a similar logic. To return to Café Du Monde: This is a place that takes every advantage from economies of scale. Its food menu is very simple, with just one item: beignets. Its drink menu is a delightfully uncomplicated offering of coffee in its three natural states of hot, iced, and frozen. As a slight extravagance, they've added hot chocolate and bottled water to the menu. Café Du Monde can thus focus on pumping out a few dedicated specialties quickly and at a reasonable cost to both producer and consumer. These production savings can be poured into more staff, bringing faster service.
In contrast, a heretofore undiscovered café, restaurant, or bar typically isn't prepared to handle even a modest surge in visitors. Newfound publicity quickly takes them overcapacity. Small-time businesses have no good options for digging their way out of a rush of tourists looking for the next big thing.
In an effort to maintain their authenticity, they might try to keep everything—from location to the menu to the prices—the same as before. The result, then, is that you'll likely wait around in a huge line for hours. Perhaps, like good capitalists, they'll raise prices to manage higher demand. That's good for the business, of course: No one should begrudge them for seizing an enhanced opportunity for profit. But the higher price, like the longer wait, will take a huge bite out of whatever utility you might get from a slightly higher quality specialty dish from a more authentic local hole in the wall.
For all that effort to see something off the beaten path, the tourist's consumer surplus is just as likely to go down as up. Meanwhile, the more popular the tourist trap, the greater the benefits to tourists will be.
For travelers, there's an instinct to skip anything that seems too generic in favor of something more special and memorable. The fear of crowds and long waits overwhelms the desire to see something truly unique. Why go see the Mona Lisa in Paris, when everyone who visits Paris goes there and everyone visiting Paris at the same time as you will also be there? It's an understandable attitude, but a mistaken one. It fails to appreciate the urban agglomeration that creates the world-class tourist cities that give people a reason to travel in the first place.
Urban agglomeration is basically the idea that people want to be where the action is. Workers move to cities because that's where the jobs are. Firms move to cities because that's where the workers are. As more and more people pile into an area, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Interpersonal networks become thicker, and the division of labor becomes more specialized.
This agglomeration logic continues to apply, even as the costs and externalities of city life pile up. With more people come more traffic and more pollution. But the benefits of more people doing more and more things together always seems to outweigh the associated costs. Keep this agglomerative growth going, and eventually your city will be large enough, and the division of labor specialized enough, to create and sustain the unique cultural amenities that people travel across the globe to see.
There's only so many great artists and great pieces of art in the world. Urbanism's agglomerative pull means many of them end up in a handful of superstar cities. Millions of tourists then follow. The Mona Lisa wasn't painted in Paris. She lives there nonetheless because that's where the eyeballs and the money are. Paris, in other words, exists for you to go see the Mona Lisa. To say that you won't go see the Mona Lisa because that's what everyone does in Paris is to miss the point of Paris.
It's a point even the Parisians can miss. Carlos Moreno—the Sorbonne University professor most famous for creating the idea of the "15-minute city"—has argued that Paris could improve walkability and reduce traffic congestion by using neighborhood schools as playhouses and theaters after hours. On the other hand, "How many Parisians prefer to attend a concert, a ballet, or an opera at a neighborhood school rather than the Garnier Opera House, Opera Bastille, or the Bataclan?" counters the French urbanist Alain Bertaud. "Do these prestigious establishments have to be replaced with neighborhood shows that will give the spectator the satisfaction of walking there and saving about twenty minutes on transport?"
To be sure, not every "tourist trap" is worth the visit or worth the expense. A shirt proclaiming how much you love New York can be bought online. You should also always be on the lookout for scams. And not every minute of a vacation needs to be dominated by sightseeing. If relaxation is the goal, there's a lot to be said for finding a café, bar, or restaurant within walking distance from the hotel and making that your home base for the trip.
But if you are trying to see and do things, you should see and do the things that are ready for you. Don't burn up your vacation days sacrificing efficiency in a fruitless quest for authenticity. The tourist traps were made for tourists. They know what they're doing. If you're a tourist, there's no shame in enjoying them.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "In Defense of 'Tourist Traps'."
Rent Free is a weekly newsletter from Christian Britschgi on urbanism and the fight for less regulation, more housing, more property rights, and more freedom in America's cities.
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MY CULTURE IS NOT YOUR ZOO EXHIBIT.
What about trailer park reality shows?
Is Trailer Park Boys a reality show?
For Nova Scotians it is.
YOU are the exhibit!
My favorite place in New Orleans is the area that doesn't blame gw for their inability to rebuild after Katrina.
Shallow materialistic bullshit.
Just what I expected from this rag.
Yes, please. All you chubby, whiny mouth-breathers and instagram whores please all go to the same super-cool places, and stay the fuck away from everywhere else. You have fucked up enough of the world.
ps. Kill the tourist boards.
'Urban agglomeration is basically the idea that people want to be where the action is. Workers move to cities because that's where the jobs are. Firms move to cities because that's where the workers are. As more and more people pile into an area, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Interpersonal networks become thicker, and the division of labor becomes more specialized.'
Just like an ant farm?
>Tourist traps aren't failures of imagination—they’re optimized cultural hubs built for your enjoyment
Counterpoints;
1. If my enjoyment is 'experiencing a foreign culture' then tourist traps are not that. They are a Disnified, commodities, sanitized, censored, version of the culture. For people who are uncomfortable with things too exotic.
2. Too many people. Again, if my enjoyment is getting away from my co-culturalists then there's no point in going where they're all at.
3. And just too many people. Tourism lost it's luster for me when the lines got too long and the prices too high.
I think the real failing of this article is conflating Cafe Du Monde and the Eiffel Tower. One is a tourist trap. The other is a unique cultural landmark that can't be replicated -- it's just heavily touristed.
I also hate crowds, which is probably a pretty common trait in the libertarian comments section. But I find select architectural / natural wonders well worth it, particularly when you can minimize the crowds if you're a grown-up who can make a reservation or get up an hour earlier.
Conversely, following the stream of cruise-shippers to a place like Cafe Du Monde is about the lowest form of travel I can think of. If it's the outer limit of your travel comfort, knock yourself out. The more of you in there, the less of you in the good bakery two blocks away.
minimize the crowds if you're a grown-up who can make a reservation or get up an hour earlier.
Conversely, following the stream of cruise-shippers to a place like Cafe Du Monde is about the lowest form of travel I can think of. If it's the outer limit of your travel comfort, knock yourself out. The more of you in there, the less of you in the good bakery two blocks away.
All this.
Cafe Du Monde Was ok when I was there because we went when you didn’t have to wait, but a few blocks away was a gumbo shop hidden away with a tiny sign outside that served food that was just outta sight.
But overall, New Orleans is someplace to be avoided, unless you like the sight of hobos and the smell of piss.
And the drunks passed out during an early morning Sunday run.
Sounds like Sarc’s kind of place.
That's my thing also - I'm not travelling to NO for *merely ok* . . . whatevers. I can get that at home. Or I can get it at any number of NO places that have no line at all.
Every beignet shop in the French quarter is a tourist trap.
There’s no reason NOT to go to cafe du monde if you want a beignet in the French quarter.
Also either because of liability issues, government actors or loudmouth Karens a lot of places that you could freely explore are now blocked off and surrounded by enforcement cops. I used to jump off waterfalls in state parks. Now you'll get arrested. I wandered around ghost towns like Fayette Michigan and Beatty NV and sometimes grabbed a souvenir from a trash pile. Now you can only gaze from afar. Honestly when they banned topless beaches and smoking in Playa Del Carmen I was finished. It just isn't fun anymore.
If you want to come to Nashville, especially to hear live music, stay the f away from Lower Broadway.
100% but the Ryman is still great.
What an odd article. You can certainly make the free market case for critical mass and producing cheaper frozen coffee, etc. But "follow the crowd" is about as unlibertarian as a mission statement gets. How about "you do you" instead?
I love to travel, and I've been lucky enough to see a lot of cool shit. Some of it was very touristy, and a most of it was decidedly not. My last time in Europe, my family equally enjoyed climbing up the spires of Notre Dame and the Sagrada Familia, as well as stopping in a tiny Spanish town you've never heard of for their thousand-and-somethingth anniversary celebration where they gave my kid a ride on a 500-year-old wooden ferris wheel that had to be cranked by hand.
Some hits are still great. Some, like the Louvre, have become an objectively bad experience. But if seeing the Mona Lisa or Winged Victory is on your bucket list, knock yourself out. I'll be on the other side of town at the playing card museum.
n contrast, a heretofore undiscovered café, restaurant, or bar typically isn't prepared to handle even a modest surge in visitors. Newfound publicity quickly takes them overcapacity
This is a problem only caused by those that can't get off their phone and for who the experience of travel isn't appreciated for itself but as a vehicle for more adulation from anonymous masses on the other side of the camera. Travel doesn't excite, only more 'engagement' satisfies.
A normal person enjoys the venue and just shuts the fuck up about it. Maybe telling *in person* some close friends about their trip.
My wife and I make an iPhone album for each trip in which we put comments and place names immediately after the trip. We share this with close family only. And we review these together near the year’s end to relive them.
10 years ago I spent 2 days in Venice. Apparently the biggest tourist trap in Europe. Filled up two memory cards in my camera. Every design of bridge imaginable. Found the Burger King at the main entrance and the most wonderful little seafood restaurant with squid cooked in the black ink and linguini for 12 Euros.
Good times even for a tourist trap.
It's getting too expensive to travel as gas prices up here in Northern Michigan hover above $3/gal some prices at $3.39/gal or more.
We have a lot of down staters up for this weekend and they do spend their hard earned money locally. This is the time of year when local businesses actually make a profit.
And yes, there are tourist traps up here.
It's getting too expensive to travel as gas prices up here in Northern Michigan hover above $3/gal some prices at $3.39/gal or more.
How in hell did you survive the $5 gas a while back?
Everybody cut back. I kept driving to a minimum. At least I was retired so I didn't have to drive 45 miles back and forth to work.
Between the high gas prices and the lockdowns, half the village was shut down. Some never recovered.
It was amazing to watch Whitmer destroy all of those small businesses up there. More amazing that she got reelected.
Blue Detroit is at fault.
"Follow the crowd" is precisely the number one failure of democracy. and a main reason why libertarians have such little political power. The thick part of the bell curve rules democracies with an iron fist.
Masks aren't mere talismans!
Go to the touristy spots, just go off season.
THIS! Weather better for walking when it’s in the 60’s.
Show me a vacation hot spot and I’ll show you locals who are sick of living there. Oh, and greetings from Vacationland.
Poor sarc.
I get the feeling he’s just sick of living.
He built his own nest. He didn't have to be an abusive husband and father. He didn't have to become a drunk.
God created sarc as a warning to others.
All those visitors are the ones with illegal immigrant hunter bumper stickers.
So, “fuck those people”, right, Sarc?
It'll be nice when the whole world is just one big airport where you can get the samey-samey stuff everywhere you go. Then none of it will matter.
As long as they have CNN on the wide screen everyone will feel right at home.
More than crowds or costs, this is my biggest gripe. When I return to a place I loved 20 years ago and it's basically Austin or Boulder now. Same cutesie-poo signage, same food, same graffiti, just with cobbled streets.
Funny how all the super individualistic Keep (City) Weird types all dress the same, watch the same shitty shows, go to the same fucking overpriced restaurants and make sure everyone they hang around with does as well.
They are being individuals….just like everyone else!
Unmentioned here is the anti tourist movement that is apparently a big thing in Europe. The locals claim that resources are overwhelmed and that Air BnBs are driving up housing costs. They've taken to assaulting tourists with water guns.
I remember as a teenager, when the summer came around there would be lots of campers in the local campground. Many of them from the Detroit area.....lots of girls.
I made a lot of friends with the kids my age.
Those were the good ole days.
The Louvre isn't a "tourist trap." In fact, many sites, although popular with tourists, are not "tourist traps." This article makes the mistake of conflating popular locations with tourist traps. A tourist trap is someplace that seeks to attract a large volume of tourists and then exploit them with high prices, low quality food and entertainment, etc.
Ie, The Louvre.
Yeah, I get Riva's point, but I personally think the Louvre may be the worst A-list tourist spot on Earth. Millions (maybe billions) would agree with me, but that still leaves billions more who don't. So they'll continue to pack em in.
I could spend a month in the Louvre or Versailles, same with the National Gallery and the British Museum in London, or the Vatican, or Florence, or the Sagrada Familia. They're wildly popular because they are treasure houses stuffed with mind-blowing treasures.
The Guggenheim Bilbao on the other hand...
large volume of tourists and then exploit them with high prices, low quality food and entertainment, etc.
But enough about the Reason staff barbecue...
At this point, in any major North American or European city, you should stick to the tourist route mainly to avoid being mugged, kidnapped, raped, and/or killed by the recently imported populations.
They only came there TO mug, kidnap, rape, or kill - but they're still cowards in the shadows. So stick to the paved, well-lit path and keep away from any areas where the imports outnumber the locals.
Or just stay out of cities.
Or take them back by force.
"There's a reason for this, and it comes down to two concepts: economies of scale and agglomeration."
That is only one part of the economics.
Popularity and congestion can also lead to sharp increases in pricing due to things like taxes from increased property value, higher wages in order to find workers in the area, increase costs related to security, etc.
Another important part is: Value is what someone is willing to pay.
When captive and/or without (any real) competition, that price is often way over a competitive market (e.g. movie theater drink prices are multiple X times what the gas stations right outside charges because they can be).
Tourist traps often exploit that. Best example for this is cruise ship ports. 1000's of folk with disposable income offload at once into a port town with a strict timeframe for activities. The town area right around the port is the very definition of a tourist trap. If you just travel a few blocks outside of that area, you will find prices drop dramatically for a lot of goods and services. Due to time and general unwillingness to explore without an organized agenda, the vast majority will never travel more than a couple blocks and don't go into the interior of the towns. So they pay higher prices for a very watered down experience.
This article could be written in three words: Hipsters ruin everything
I lived in Baltimore years ago where there were many corner bars selling $3 burgers, $1 hotdogs and $5 pitchers of Natty Boh. Most also had sometimes working pinball machines and worn out pool tables. Fast forward 20 years to the instagram age and the “original” bar is now considered a tourist trap, while a dozen other look alike bars offering vegan dogs, eggs Benedict and bespoke martinis have opened up.
Cafe du Monde at City Park is much nicer. French Quarter has better stuff to see and eat...but there's still a ton of people surrounding Jackson Square. Head a few blocks north and east and you get the same good food and some cool houses.
And a tourist trap is a place that advertises incessantly along the highway to get you to exit, drive 20 miles out of the way, arrive at a gift shop with a rinky-dink museum or display nearby. Think the Corn Palace or Wall Drug.