Tourism

[Promethian]

I want to challenge myself and do a game where I use tourism as my primary income source. I have already tested the mechanics in an established colony and had a fun bit of time running two rockets back and forth, one from Mars, the other from Earth in sync. Its easy to keep tourists in the dome I set up for them using the filters. Also a standard rocket will maintain a tourist population equal to two loads.

The question is which sponsor. I have it down to two options.

Brazil: Bonus money from each colonist that lands on Mars. Not sure how much this is but I am pretty sure tourists count. No penalty for using passages also helps keep both sides happy as the tourists will travel for services and the locals will likely need to do some jobs in the tourist dome.

SpaceY: Dragon Rockets may carry less cargo but they can carry the full passenger load. Cheaper fuel cost so faster turn around on Mars and faster travel time back and forth means that much more potential profit. Half cost advanced resources means I'm more likely to be able to sustain my colony without local manufacturing. So the locals can focus on food, science and services.

I'm leaning towards SpaceY but I'd like second opinions before going all in. Also, yes, I am aware of the terraforming tech that increases tourist income. Its part of what inspired me to try this.

 

[SillySMS]

If you're talking about "tourism > rare metals exports", that's... honestly not all that hard to do. I have a bad habit of hoarding RMs for electronics factories that I won't build for tens of sols, and compensate for it with an endless stream of tourists.

One recommendation: to start the tourist flow fast, start to thumbs-up them as soon as your second rocket. It'll mean a slightly slower growth of actual colonists if you're rocket-limited, but hopefully by starting the tourism train early, you start to get big numbers of tourist applicants by the time regular applicants start to dry up (unless you're playing as China or Blue Sun Corporation, in which case you probably are more limited by just building domes).

Early on, I don't do anything special: they just occupy residences that I haven't managed to fill with permanent colonists yet. It's roughly the mid-game, once I have things like a dedicated farm dome going, that I start to build dedicated tourist domes which are nothing but apartment blocks and bare-bones services (which also double as retirement homes for the elderly).

Also, sponsor recommendations: probably not China/Blue Sun Corporation. They don't have any issues stuffing their passenger rockets with regular passengers.

 

[hombreloco]

SpaceY sounds sensible.

 

[rittstar]

if i remember correctly, it is possible that tourist could join the colony as full crew member if they feel happy about the "visit"

if so, it is something to think about to either improve that factor or lowering that, Politican could be an good choice as commander profile to get more funding gains, which then should be a good one with Brazil, if not the best

or if want to keep tourists on mars playing with ecologist to improve comfort in general

not sure about the SpaceY thing, but happy tourists generates more tourists, so in general if there are happy and generate more and more tourist, it should make lots of money though, never thought about this way of gameplay, dont know how fast they are generated at all, usually i start to take tourist if no one else is available to not have an epmty rocket