Many of the places most affected by STRs are partially (or heavily) dependent on a tourism economy. There continues to be a challenging balance to strike between availability and affordability for locals and visitors. But, I think there’s a question as to whether these towns are capable of the tourism ‘carrying capacity’ they currently support. While social media and intentional campaigns by regional destination marketing organizations (DMOs) have driven increasingly more visitor spending to mountain economies, at what point is it “too much”? Too many people, too much traffic, too many Airbnbs, etc. Tourism numbers can’t keep going up and to the right every year. Is there room for more, or are we already at max capacity?
Although local businesses and ski resorts would prefer to see numbers go up every year, perhaps more balanced mountain economies with a higher percentage of local residents and lower visitors (due to lower densities of STRs and higher costs) will be better in the long run.
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