Welcome to Money for the rest of us. This is a personal finance show on money, how it works, how to invest it, and how to live without worrying about it.

I'm your host David Stein. Today is episode 456.

It's titled, Is Tourism Harmful or Helpful

The Economic and Cultural Impact of Global Travel?

I've been putting together a trip with Lipprille, my daughter, and son-in-law.

We're going to Yukatant, Mexico. This is a gift for my daughter and son-in-law for graduating from university.

We're heading to Yucatan.

My son-in-law is a photographer and he wanted to visit the town of Campeche, a historical, I think it's a UNESCO World Heritage

site, town, beautiful town, we've been there several times, and that's one of the places he wanted to go

and my daughter wanted to go explore the rainforest, particularly down near the

ruins of Kalakmool. One of the places we're going to stay is By the Lead. This is a beautiful town in the

Yucatan. Amazing history. And I used to live there back in the mid-80s, and I've been back five or six times.

Typically I've stayed at the Hotel Meson de Marques which is right there in the center

square across from the cathedral. But the last two times I've

stayed in by the lead I've rented through Airbnb. I looked at rates for the

Hotel Meson de Marques.

They wanted $258 a night for a room.

Now, the nice hotel, the dinner is great in the courtyard there, but it seemed a little pricey.

So I booked an Airbnb, two bedrooms, two bath, in a quiet area of town that I know, $150 per night

including fees and taxes. Since 2013 I've stayed

over 90 times using Airbnb in over 15 countries. I've also stayed at hotels, probably more hotels than Airbnb's.

We go back and forth depending on how economical it is and convenient, how large our party is when

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