Tourist traps are businesses that exploit travelers by charging high prices or offering low-quality services. While not always illegal, tourist traps often take advantage of the unfamiliarity and trust of foreign visitors.
In a way, all tourist scams are forms of tourist traps. However, for editorial and educational purposes, we define tourist traps as relatively static entities – establishments, vendors, or businesses – that habitually engage in unfair behaviors aimed at exploiting tourists.
These practices can range from aggressive but legal price hikes or marketing strategies, like collaborating with tour guides or taxi drivers to lure tourists, to outright scams designed to swindle unsuspecting travelers as much as possible.
1) How Tourist Traps Operate
1.1 Engaging and Funneling
First goal of a tourist trap involves drawing potential victims into the establishment or stall and persuading them to spend money. Various tactics are used, ranging from strategic location choices to aggressive advertising and social media manipulation.
– Purpose: Tourist traps are typically positioned in high-traffic areas frequented by tourists, such as souvenir shops near iconic landmarks. Other examples include restaurants in historic city centers or nightclubs in popular nightlife districts.
These businesses may not always be engaging in outright scams but certainly capitalize on their prime locations and the continuous stream of new potential customers.
– Prime Location: Tourist-oriented restaurants and shops often intercept visitors at key entry points like airports, train or bus stations, or ports.
“Legal” tourist traps, as well as those bordering on illegality, are also prevalent in areas with heavy tourist foot traffic (as mentioned under “Purpose”).
– External Advertising and Touting: Bold signboards promising “authentic local experiences” and in-person touts inviting passers-by to enter are common tactics employed to lure tourists inside.
– Baiting Tactics and Accomplices: Sometimes, a tour guide or taxi driver may insist on taking you to an overpriced restaurant or shop. In other instances, a seemingly friendly local might invite you to an expensive but staged ceremony or religious event (like the notorious fake tea ceremony trap, coming soon). Additionally, an attractive person might flirt with you and lead you to a specific restaurant, bar, nightclub, or strip club where you’ll be left with an exorbitant bill to pay all by yourself.
You can read more about these baiting tactics in our posts on Taxi Scams, Fake Guides (note that even licensed guides can act as bait), and Friendly Faces.
– Social Media Hype: Deceptive or misleading social media advertising is another tactic to lure tourists into tourist traps.
1.2 Common Tourist Trap Techniques
As mentioned earlier, some tourist traps are simply businesses that capitalize on their prime location or employ standard sales tactics to draw in customers. However, in more severe cases, these traps evolve into outright scams specifically targeting tourists and foreigners, often orchestrated by owners and staff. Here are some of the most common techniques used:
– Hidden and Arbitrary Prices: No visible price lists, making it hard to know the cost until after you’ve paid.
– Unexpected Charges: Surprise fees that appear on the final bill.
– Dual Pricing: Higher prices for tourists and foreigners compared to locals.
– Language Barriers: Pretented misunderstandings caused by language differences, leading to overcharging.
– Payment Scams: These include tactics like the “switcheroo” (substituting items or amounts), giving incorrect change, or using counterfeit money. For more details, check our article about Taxi Scams.
– High Payment Conversion Fees: Some establishments use exorbitant currency conversion rates for electronic payments, leading to unexpected and inflated charges (coming soon)
– Electronic Payment Frauds: Such as the Hacked Card/Chip Readers and POS and the other Card Reader Scams.
Listed below, there are four main categories of tourist traps and a general overview of how they operate.
Please note that the following paragraphs are not exhaustive as we plan to expand this topic further by discussing each type and techniques in detail.
2) Tourist Trap Categories
2.1 Dining and Drinking Tourist Traps
Certain restaurants, bars, and similar establishments exploit their prime locations to deceive unsuspecting tourists with overpriced “local” dishes that are either more expensive or of lower quality than expected. Some common tactics include:
1. Overpricing for Mid or Low-Quality Food: Charging excessively for food that is of the same or even lower quality, taking advantage of their location near tourist hotspots.
2. Dual Pricing/Two Menu Systems: Offering menus in English and other common languages with inflated prices specifically targeting tourists.
3. Lack of Visible Menus or Price Lists: Not providing a menu or price list, leading to a final bill with arbitrary and inflated charges.
2.2 Shops and Market Stalls
Shops, particularly in countries where displaying prices is not mandatory, often take advantage by quoting exorbitant prices.
Another common tactic is to lure travelers into “cultural tours”, falsely promoted as authentic local experiences, and trap them in lengthy presentations of overpriced goods,
Additionally, shops often overvalue low-quality merchandise, sometimes attempting to scam passing tourists, as seen in the gemstone scam (coming soon).
2.3 Bill Traps in Night Bars, Nightclubs, and Strip Clubs
These scams typically involve using a bait to lure victims into a specific establishment with the promise of a good time. Alternatively, an accomplice might approach you after you’ve already entered on your own.
The goal is to entice you into spending recklessly, only to be hit with an astronomical bill that you’re left to pay on your own. Check here for more information about the Bill Trap Scam
2.4 Other Tourist Traps
Although covered separately, the following scams also fall under the tourist trap category:
- Fake Ceremonies and Events (coming soon);
- Currency Exchange Office and Kiosk Scams;
- Vehicle and Equipment Rental Scams (coming soon)
3) How to Avoid Tourist Traps
3.1 General Tips
– Beware of Tourist Hotspots
The closer you are to popular tourist attractions—such as cultural landmarks, religious sites, or transit hubs like airports and train stations—the higher the prices are likely to be relative to the quality. In these areas, bars and restaurants may offer average or even poor service and quality compared to local standards, but at inflated prices.
– Check Prices in Different Shops
This principle applies to all types of shops, including those targeting tourists, like souvenir vendors. Prices can vary significantly, even within a short distance. In some countries, markets may operate at different times for locals and tourists, resulting in different pricing (sometimes even products).
– Know the Local Cost of Living
Before traveling, research the cost of living at your destination. This information will help you identify when prices are unreasonably high and recognize potential double standards.
– Follow Locals Example
Observe where locals eat, shop, and hang out. Ask for recommendations and verify them through multiple sources. But keep in mind the next tip.
– Be Wary of Baiting Tactics
If someone is overly insistent on taking you to a particular establishment, be cautious. For more details, check out our posts about Taxi Scams, Fake Guides, Friendly Faces and the Bill Trap Scam.
– Always Confirm Prices
If unavailable, ask for a menu or total price before ordering, consuming or handling any item. Remember, if there is a dispute, it’s your word against theirs and they always may use the “miscommunication” excuse.
3.2 For Restaurants, Bars/Nightclubs and Similar
Keep Track of Your Spending
Especially when prices are not clearly listed, avoid getting drawn into consuming meals or drinks without monitoring your expenses. It’s always less embarrassing to inquire about costs upfront than to deal with hefty surprises.
3.3 Dealing with Local Law Enforcement
Unless you are dealing with a clearly illegal, evincible, and prosecutable scam—such as dual menus (might not always be illegal), counterfeit money, fraudulent payment practices, or card reader scams—in some country it may be challenging or useless to involve local police.
The persistence of such establishments often reflects a permissive attitude from local authorities. In some regions, the common response may be, “You consumed, these are the prices, so pay for it.”
For more information on how local law enforcements might handle such issues, check out the Extras and Thoughts section of our post about the Bill Trap Scam.
4) Extras And Thoughts
4.1 Personal POV and Clarifications
To distinguish between price inflation due to quality and location and outright scams, I’ll use a simple example.
— A tourist trap scam occurs when a business exploits its location or reputation to charge excessively high prices for low-quality goods, presenting them as local specialties. This can involve inflating prices by five, ten times, or even more, simply because they can. Such establishments often use various tactics to ensure that customers only realize they’ve been overcharged when they receive the bill.
While these practices may sometimes be on the borderline of legality, they are often considered legal in many countries. However, they can significantly impact both your experience and your finances. —
That said, each situation should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Excluding outright illegal scams and other unethical practices, here are some additional points to keep in mind:
1. Wrong Change or Counterfeit Money
As discussed in this article (Taxi Scams), mistakes can happen. Stay vigilant and address these issues promptly to avoid any misunderstandings.
2. Souvenir Shops and Street Stalls
Bargaining is possible in some countries and situations but not in others. In places where bargaining is common, vendors often start with a high price, regardless of the merchandise.
3. Businesses in Airports, Stations, or Ports
These establishments often have higher prices due to normal mark-ups associated with their locations.
4. Restaurants, Diners, and Bars
Not having a physical or online menu and relying on verbal suggestions isn’t necessarily a red flag. For example, certain types of local establishments, such as Trattorie or Osterie in Italy, may not have a written menu for the day. In such cases, especially as a foreigner, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask about prices beforehand. It can even be an opportunity to learn more about the local culture.
4.2 Editorial Choices
We’ve focused on defining “tourist traps” as specific places where you knowingly enter. This approach serves two main purposes:
1. Organization and Accessibility: It helps us organize topics within our archives and ensures that readers can easily find relevant information.
2. Practical Guidance: Pointing out that, by being cautious, you can and should avoid falling into these traps or, in extreme cases, find a way out before being scammed.
This article will serve as a general reference. For more detailed information, please visit the links provided and those that will be updated as we add additional related articles.
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