Tourism is the second economy
Taxes are the first economy in BuildCity: steady, proportional to population, and capped by how much land you can service. Tourism is the second. It pays per visitor rather than per resident, it scales with how attractive and reachable your city is rather than how large it is, and it is the system that lets a mid-sized city with a strong identity out-earn a sprawling one. It is also the system most tied to the social side of the game, because visitors are the thing sister cities share and the thing weekly cooperative goals count.
This article covers how tourism unlocks, what attractiveness means, how visitors get in, how the casino tier differs from cultural landmarks, and the October 2026 rebalance that added a per-visitor operating cost.
Unlocking tourism
Tourism is not available from the first minute. The Tourism Bureau, a unique 2x2 building costing 30,000 with upkeep of 300 per hour, opens the visitor economy and manages the tourism buildings that follow. It becomes available at the Small City rank, the 500-population milestone that also opens the social track, so new players meet both systems together once their first district is stable. The bureau levels up as your tourism income accumulates, and higher levels unlock larger attractions.
Casinos have their own gate on top of that. The Casino Association, a unique 3x3 headquarters at 50,000, is required before the higher casino tiers can be built, and its progression is tied to casino revenue specifically.
Attractiveness: what draws visitors
Every tourism building contributes a fixed attractiveness value, and the city's total attractiveness drives how many visitors want to come. Attractiveness is shown in the top bar next to happiness, and the current values for the main attractions are listed below with their costs.
| Attraction | Footprint | Attractiveness | Construction | Upkeep per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spire | 4x4 | +20 | 15,000 | 80 |
| Indian Temple | 7x5 | +25 | 20,000 | 100 |
| Golden Dome Cathedral | 3x3 | +30 | 25,000 | 150 |
| Dolphin Show | 4x4 | +35 | 35,000 | 200 |
| Casino | 3x3 | +50 | 40,000 | 250 |
| Racing Circuit | 10x5 | +60 | 60,000 | 400 |
| Hotel Casino | 2x4 | +70 | 60,000 | 350 |
| Luxury Casino | 3x4 | +100 | 100,000 | 500 |
Two things stand out. Cultural landmarks are cheap attractiveness with low upkeep, which makes them the right first purchases: a Spire and a Golden Dome together add +50 for 40,000. Casinos are expensive attractiveness with high upkeep and a social cost, and they are where the per-visitor economics discussed below really matter.
Visitors have to get in
Attractiveness creates demand; access converts it. Tourists arrive from outside the map through the real vehicle entrances on its edge and travel the road network to your attractions. If the roads from the entrance to the attraction are missing or disconnected, visitors do not materialize. A fix in version 1.4.57 made this explicit by measuring tourist access capacity against the actual vehicle entrances rather than an assumed one, which corrected cities that had built attractions in corners the entrance road could not reach.
The practical consequence is that a tourism district should sit on or near the main corridor that touches the map edge, with a clear road from the entrance. Parking facilities and good commercial access around attractions help the surrounding businesses; the attraction itself needs the road. Train stations and the trade port also bring in traffic, and the sister city system adds buses and trains from your partner city carrying labeled visitors.
How visitor income is earned
Each attraction converts visitors into income at a per-visitor rate while it is open and staffed. The city's commercial buildings also receive a tourism buff on their tax while visitors are present, so a strong tourism sector lifts the first economy as well as adding the second. Visitor arrivals are recorded in daily snapshots per city, which is what the sister city weekly goal reads and what the tourism bureau's progression is based on.
The casino tier was where the numbers got out of hand. Before October, a mature luxury casino at full occupancy could pay back its 100,000 construction cost in under three hours of direct income, which made every other investment in the game look slow. We did not want to cut visitor numbers, because the feeling of a busy district is the point of tourism. Instead we split the income into a lower unit price and a per-visitor operating cost.
| Casino tier | Revenue per visitor | Operating cost per visitor | Direct net at full occupancy, per hour | Direct payback of construction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casino | 3.0 | 1.5 | 1,000 | 40 hours |
| Hotel Casino | 3.75 | 1.875 | 1,925 | 31.2 hours |
| Luxury Casino | 5.0 | 2.5 | 4,000 | 25 hours |
The design intent was a casino that still clearly rewards filling it: a luxury casino at half occupancy nets 1,500 per hour, and at a quarter it nets 250, so the investment in attractiveness and access to fill the building is what makes it profitable. Cultural landmarks were not given the same cut, and the association's progression was adjusted so that reaching higher casino tiers did not become four times slower because of the unit price change.
Tourism and sister cities
An active sister city partnership adds 15 percent to visitor demand for both cities, rising to 18 and 20 percent at higher bond levels, and the weekly cooperative goal is a combined visitor target that both partners work toward. The bonus only applies while both mayors have been active within the last seven days, so a dormant partnership is not a free buff. If you are investing in tourism, a partner who is also investing in tourism is the single cheapest multiplier available. The sister cities article explains how matching and bond levels work.
A tourism build order that works
- Reach 1,000 population with a stable first district and build the Tourism Bureau on the main corridor near the map edge.
- Add two or three cultural landmarks first. They are cheap attractiveness with low upkeep and no residential penalty.
- Make sure the entrance road to the district is a continuous, upgraded corridor. Check it after any road edit.
- Before the first casino, place a large police station whose radius covers both the casino and the housing it will affect, and keep casinos out of your highest land value blocks.
- Only move up the casino tiers once the previous one stays near full occupancy. An empty luxury casino is the most expensive building in the game to own.
- Pair with a sister city that is also building tourism, and check the weekly goal on Mondays.
The buildings reference has the complete list of tourism buildings with footprints and upkeep, and the city rank guide explains how the ranks that gate the bureau are reached.