Wikipedia tourists and possible end to the Hollywood blockbusters
With the “Tenet” film’s tough run in cinemas, we may observe the end of the high budget blockbusters era. After the first weeks from release, box office predictions for Christopher Nolan’s film are lower than expected. Even if it ends up grossing high on the current estimate ($300 million globally), it will still make a loss. A problem that soon will face many expensive productions currently held from release. The COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions hit especially cinemas, and the studios need to rethink the way movies are made. Among options is scaling down the budgets or cooperating with the streaming platforms – at least for the time of the pandemic. The dilemma in the industry will last at least until the effective vaccine is introduced.
Economists from German and Italian universities proved that even a slight expansion of Wikipedia articles on small cities may result in a significant rise in visitors and revenue from tourism. The research was made on Spanish towns with French, Dutch, Italian, and German versions of the Internet encyclopedia. It showed that two written paragraphs and one photo could boost bookings by 9% during the high season. Especially for those cities that don’t have much of an internet footprint, simple edits in articles had the potential of raising the tourist traffic by one third. According to the researchers, such minor additions could mean about 130 000 USD extra revenue yearly from tourism for the destination. Though the commercial editing ban on Wikipedia means that the wannabe visitor’s havens may not have a direct path to tourism success yet.
Difficult times for restaurants in the US are not over, and the elections may only compound the problem. Nearly one-sixth (or 100 000) restaurants in the country are closed down. If the situation does not improve, 43% of the owners expect to close their businesses within six months. Now the anxiety over political issues may make people even less interested in going out for food. Past data shows that restaurant sales growth slows down before elections.
