Moving to a non-touristy city: Advantages and disadvantages

The vast majority of people who relocate from one country to another will end up in a city that is also a tourism hotspot, and likely has a lively expat community already there. But if you think about it you’ll realize that most of the world gets very little tourism and has few expats, so it’s a different situation in many ways.

I spent more than a year recently living in a very touristy small town in Turkey, and after a bit of traveling around Europe I’m now settled in Nis, Serbia, which is a university town of 250,000, but almost no tourists and no expats that I can find. This has caused me to think of other places where I’ve lived for a while that had very little tourism, and it reminded me that there are definitely some positive things about it to go along with some of the negatives.

Advantages

1 – Most things are cheaper

I’ve been studying prices of different things around the world for many years, partly out of a personal obsession and curiosity, and one thing that is almost universally true is that touristy cities are more expensive than non-touristy cities. There may be some mild exceptions in Scandinavia or Switzerland, but generally when you have a steady flow of tourists it means that restaurants and hotels will charge more.

One reason is that tourism tends to be people from richer countries spending time in poorer countries, which allows poorer countries to jack up their prices in the most desirable areas. So if you go to a large city in, say, Vietnam, that doesn’t get many tourists, it will certainly be cheaper in general than Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. And a city like Manchester will be cheaper than London as well.

2 – You’ll become a minor celebrity around town

One pleasant surprise of my current home here in Nis, Serbia is that quite a few people have made a really big deal about meeting a foreigner who is living there. Quite obviously, residents of Bali or Prague see so many tourists as well as expats that each one is as boring as the one before. But in a non-touristy city you can be one of their few chances to speak to someone completely from outside the area.

Unsurprisingly, people seem to love hearing your impressions of their city, which is a good ice breaker as long as you stay mostly positive. But people also seem to love to chat about my home in California or wherever you came from yourself.

3 – Some people are much more helpful

Because of the above point, I’ve noticed that it’s relatively easy to find people who are willing to take you under their wing and help you out with things that might otherwise be a struggle for foreigners. In a city with a big expat community and lots of tourists you might have to reach out to get help from a fellow expat, which usually works out. Seeming to be slightly helpless does warm some people up, and that’s a plus.

Disadvantages

1 – Very few foreigners to chat with

Unless you are moving in with your own social scene (like with a partner or friend or colleagues), then new expats can easily get a bit lonely. And even if you do have your own social circle, it’s likely to be pretty small. In cases like this it’s nice to be able to head down to the local expat bar or a similar bar in the heart of the tourist district to chat with some travelers. Fortunately for me, quite a few Serbian people speak fluent English, but otherwise I am unaware of where to find other foreigners unless I’m willing to stake out the lobby of one of the few hostels or hotels here.

2 – Some things are much more complicated

Relating to #3 above, if you don’t speak the local language and you don’t have solid bilingual resources there will be certain things that turn out to be very complicated or impossible until you find help. Businesses such as local cable providers and even local movie theaters don’t have their websites also in English, so they can be difficult to find and even more difficult to get information from without help.

3 – Harder to find some favorite things

No matter where you come from and no matter where you move to, there will be things from home that you’ll eventually miss. It might be McDonald’s or Mexican food or Marmite, but it will be something. In cities with a lot of expats and tourists there’s a good chance at least those things are available in some way, but in cities with few expats and tourists there is a very good chance that you’ll be totally out of luck on some things. It’s a minor problem in most cases, but still something to consider.

Comments