tropico 4 best tourist attractions

Tropico 4 Guide

How to make Tourism Viable Tropico 4 – up to 200k profit a year.

This guide will show you how to actually make tourism work in Tropico 4. There is a ton of complaints about the viability of tourism as the sole industry on an island, with people only earning around 30k per year. I explain how it is not only viable, but can be incredibly strong with proper planning, giving you more money than you know what to do with within 15 years.

Why Tourism?

Tourism has some huge, hidden advantages over industry in Tropico 4.

• Profits are made over the course of the year, not just when freighters come, making large debt rare]
• Profits start coming in sooner. Industry must wait for raw materials
• Completely Sustainable
• Output not dependent on number of hours worked
• All buildings directly make money
• No need for educated workers, industry requires high school educations
• No reliance on teamsters
• Little to no pollution
• All tourism buildings can be concentrated in one place, where as industry requires farms/mines and factories
• Fun! Tourism can be much more interesting to play

How does tourism work?

Unlike Industry, the mechanics behind tourism are not well explain in Tropico 4. As these are never explicity laid out by developers, there is some guess work here, but this model seems to predict behaviour well.

• Tourists are split into 4 catergories: Slob, Eco, Spring Break, and Wealthy. In addition, each of these tourists can bring children. Each of these tourist groups like different attractions, which are specified in the construction menu.
• Tourists arriving at your island have a “Spending Limit”, which determines how much they spend at hotels and attractions. They can spend up to their spending limit at each attraction they go to.
• Each attraction can only extract a certain amount of money from a tourist, This is specified in the info panel of the building. A tourist spends either their spending limit, or the maximum spending limit of the attraction, whichever is lower.
• Tourists can only enter an attraction if they’re spending limit is above the entry fee.
• Tourists, like tropicans, search for open slots at attractions. When they find one, they travel towards it, enter the attraction, and leave.
• Tourists spend some time wandering around the area of attractions.
• Tourists leave the island after some period of time. Their overall impressions contribution to your tourism rating.

So what does this all mean?

• Given the limited time the tourist has on the island, we should cluster attractions together to ensure tourists visit as many as possible
• Tourists will still only visit 3-4 attractions, we must maximize the return from each attraction
• Maintaining lower tier attractions actually decreases the overall income you receive, because your tourists waste time they could be spending in more lucrative attractions. Early on you can build the lower tier buildings, but you should delete them later.
• To maximize income, you must attract tourists that go to the attractions that bring in the most money.

The Best Attractions

So – with this in mind – what are the best attractions? Simply put, they’re the attractions that suck the most money out of tourists.

Attracting Wealthy and Spring Break tourists, this building can extract up to 80 dollars per tourists, has no construction time, and is staffed by uneducated workers.

Attracts Spring Break tourists. While normally this only extracts 50 dollars, in this mode all profits are increased by 50%, giving this an effective extraction of 75 dollars. The effect on local fish is negligable. Requires uneducated workers only.

Attracts Wealthy and Spring Break tourists. Extracts 60 dollars, which is quite high. Build two and set them to different dress codes to cater to everyone.

Attracts Children. Normally extracts 45 dollars, now it extracts 90 dollars, making it the most profitable building in the game. Won’t be full very often, but still worth building.

Attracts Spring Break Tourists, and most importantly draws more of them to your island. Spring break tourists are the best kind, so this building is well worth getting.

Other Good Attractions

Attracts Eco, Slob, and Children. Extracts 50 dollars.

Attracts Eco and Wealthy tourists (if the mode is set correctly). Extracts 50 dollars. EDIT: Also improves surronding beauty.

Attracts tourists based on the mode – extracts 50 dollars.

Attracts wealthy and slob tourists. While it only extracts 50 dollars, this can be improved by showing Tropican art.

A Breakdown by Tourist Type

For each tourist type, one should target 3-4 attractions chosen to maximize profits. Tourists can visit an attraction multiple times, and a slight cost to overall impressions. Because of this, and contrary to popular belief, Spring Break tourists are by far the most profitable. This is for a few reasons. First, the attractions they go to can extract the most money. Second, they are the easiest to attract with two edicts (Mardi Gras and Spring Break Package) and one building (Cosmic Pin)

Suggested attractions for each type are below. Feel free to add buildings that give at least 50 dollars, but be careful not to move your spring break tourists away from their high value attractions. Remember – building lower tier attractions LOSES money because it wastes the time of your tourists.

• Luxury Liner: 80 Dollars
• Marina – Charter Fishing: 75 Dollars
• Caberet – No Dress Code: 60 Dollars
• Caberet – Dress Code: 60 Dollars
• Botanical Garden: 50 Dollars
• Marina – Tours: 50 Dollars
• Zoo – 50 Dollars
• Cosmic Pin – All You Can Drink: 50 Dollars
• Aqua Park – 90 Dollars

Other Important Buildings

• Build a garage on either side of your tourist settlement so your works can efficiently get in
• Build a market near the garage so your workers don’t need to go all the way back to town for food
• Build a police station in your tourist area for better crime satisfaction
• Build a garbage dump near the tourist area to improve environmental happiness in the area
• Add gardens , fountains , and trees in those unfilled spaces to improve the beauty
• Add a pub to access Mardi Gras and Spring Break to get those all important Spring Break tourists, but make sure you don’t let anyone work there!
• An airport with addons can increase the number and quality of tourists on your island. Feel free to get it, but keep it on coach service to keep those Spring Breakers coming.
• A TV station set to ‘Learning with Larry’ at the center of your tourist area will skyrocket all your ratings.

Hotels aren’t very important here – the standard ones do just fine. As you get your nuclear power plant, feel free to upgrade to luxury and skyscrapers. No need to change the fees – they’ll be fine set automatically.

EDIT: It turns out Motels don’t create any pollution, while hotels do. So, I’d recommend building Motels as they will increase overall impressions.

Character Builds

This comes down to personal preference. My favourite here is: Professor : faster learning = better services. Travel Agent is also viable. Hotel Corporate Buyout : Free Hotel, Better Tourism, and Better US Relations

Sociable : Better Tourist Rating Well Traveled : Better Tourist Rating Scholarly : Faster Skills

Dad's Gaming Addiction

"a family that games together, stays together.", tropico 4: tourism strategies.

Welcome back, El Presidente! I’ve received a few requests asking to go over the tourism side of Tropico 4. Ready your passport and pack your suitcases, we’re about to take a little vacation.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, tourism is another way to bring in some money to fund your twisted, grand schemes. It’s fairly easy to get going and is for the most part self-sufficient, but there are a few things you should know.

Do not attempt to start tourism before establishing an economy and providing for the basic needs of your Tropicans. As I mentioned in a previous article (links below), in the beginning of the game your approval rating will drop steadily until you build clinics, housing, churches, restaurants, and other basic buildings your Tropicans need to be happy. Obviously, you can’t do that until you have some money. As I advised before, build a farm or ranch to get your economy and exports going. As you build more buildings to satisfy the needs of your Tropicans, build an extra money-making building to ensure your profits continue rolling in.

That menacing volcano in the background may be a sign that you should build a fire department sooner rather than later.

Only after your approval rating is stabilized and your profits are steady should you consider setting up tourism. It takes some time and money to set up, ergo the need to wait a little. You should also wait until you have a few unemployed workers. Having too many job openings due to a lack of workforce will make your Tropicans leave your money-making buildings and service buildings to split themselves among your new tourism buildings, causing your profits and approval rating to suffer. Build an immigration office if necessary and set the drop down to “open door policy” to increase the amount of immigration you receive per boat. Don’t forget to manage this drop down regularly so that you don’t have a large, unemployed, unhappy mob knocking at your palace doors.

Start out small…your checkbook will thank you.

Start with one or two tourists docks at a nice, open beach area away from your dock, palace, and surrounding buildings. A garage would also be a wise decision to give your tourists the ability to move around the island and to give your workers a means to get back to their homes and civilization. Begin with one or two cheap motels and try to place them in the green areas that come up when you are placing a hotel or attraction. The colored areas are a result of the environment overlay automatically opening after clicking the appropriate building. Green areas are beautiful areas, red is ugly. Placing a hotel or attraction in a green area will raise the service quality above its default, likewise placing a hotel or attraction in red will lower the service quality below its default.

Give it time…this will soon turn into a tourist trap.

While you are waiting, go back to your “main city” and expand your economy with education buildings, industry, and other advanced buildings when you feel the time is right. When your hotels and docks are built, place an attraction or two in green areas if possible. I prefer the Beach Site and Scenic Outlook. The Beach Site appeals to most tourists and your Scenic Outlook requires no workers. Don’t forget to set the fee of the Beach Site, I normally up the fee to about seven or eight.

Don’t forget about your Tropicans! They are the ones who vote during elections

A note about tourist fees, there are attractions and entertainment buildings that serve both your Tropicans and tourists. In these special cases, tourists pay three times whatever the fee is currently set at, but no more than the maximum listed. Take the restaurant for example, which is an entertainment building. If you set the fee at five, Tropicans will pay five to satisfy their need when they visit the building. Tourists will pay fifteen. Regular attractions specific to tourists only charge the fee listed. In regards to hotels, you can let the computer auto-adjust the fee or you can set a manual fee yourself by clicking a hotel and making use of its drop down menu. I prefer setting a manual fee. Cheap motels = thirty, hotels & bungalows = thirty-five, luxury and skyscraper hotels = forty and above. Feel free to experiment to see what is right for you.

Only one skyscraper hotel can be built, but it attracts wealthy tourists and can be very profitable.

When you start seeing your hotels become cramped, it’s time to build more so as long as you have the workers available. Continue building one to three hotels at a time. When you see those fill up and stay that way, build more. Add a few more attractions as necessary. A police station to address crime in the area along with two or three more tourist docks wouldn’t hurt.

Ahhhh…Paradise!

Eventually you’ll want a power plant to get the ability to build more advanced tourism buildings. Try not to go overboard with the attractions, having too many attractions and not enough tourists will mean wages and maintenance expenses will overshadow your income. Keeping your attractions full (and profitable) is generally what you want to do, building one or two more as more tourists arrive. If you see that an attraction isn’t making money, try raising the fee. Each tourist has a spending limit and will visit any building with a fee at or below their spending limit.

Your almanac can tell you how you’re doing in regards to tourism. The overview and economy tab are essential to keeping tabs on your budget.

After that, it’s up to you. Keep your exports going and use your tourism to supplement your income. Good luck, El Presidente!

You can view play sessions here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv8dWt9xSZU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW-rSys5smo

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Paradise Island achievement in Tropico 4

Earn $1 000 000 from tourism profits in a single game

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