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Atourist trap is an establishment (or group of establishments) created or re-purposed with the aim of attractingtourists and their money. Tourist traps typically provide overpriced services, entertainment, food, souvenirs, and other products for tourists to purchase.[1] Tourist trap derives from theinformation asymmetry between tourists and the market.
In some areas, simple facilities may be a sufficient draw to entice tourists to stop.Wall Drug, inSouth Dakota, began its tourist trade by offering free ice water.[2]
Breezewood, Pennsylvania, represents a physical tourist trap at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Interstate 76, where the two major highways are not directly connected, forcing transiting drivers off the interstate and "into several suddenly urban blocks with traffic lights and a dense bazaar of gas stations, fast food restaurants and motels."[3]
South of the Border is an attraction onInterstate 95 (I-95),US Highway 301 (US 301) andUS 501 inDillon, South Carolina, just south ofRowland, North Carolina. It is so named because it is just south of the border betweenNorth Carolina andSouth Carolina, and was the halfway point toFlorida fromNew York in the early days of motor travel. The area is themed intongue-in-cheek, faux-Mexican style. The rest area contains restaurants, gas stations, a video arcade, a motel, a truck stop as well as a smallamusement park, a mini golf course, shopping andfireworks stores. Itsmascot is Pedro, acaricature of a Mexicanbandido. South of the Border is known for its roadside billboard advertisements, which begin many miles away, and incorporates a mileage countdown to the attraction itself. The venue also is home of a prominent motocross training facility.
Alice's Restaurant, a restaurant inSky Londa, California, named after its founder Alice Taylor, accidentally became a tourist trap after singerArlo Guthrie releasedhis signature song of the same name, which was based ona totally unrelated Massachusetts restaurant established byAlice Brock. After Taylor sold the restaurant, her successors themed the restaurant after the song, adding a "Group W bench" for example, when they realized the confusion was good for business.[4]
A few establishments take pride in the term and embody it into their names, such as "Da Yoopers Tourist Trap",[5] run by the comedy troupeDa Yoopers inMichigan’sUpper Peninsula, and "The Tourist Trap"[6] atDeep Creek Lake, Maryland.
