Oceania

[rdanhenry]

Yeah. You do realize that water planet will likely have massive storms, right? [1] That no more means you can't have a tourist trade than the hurricane regions of Earth, but you'd better take it into account in your development. Submarine development might still be preferred to stay out of the winds. And once you are there, you would use some of the tourism money to develop local industries. Visitors need to eat, so there's the sea farming (and if there are alien worlds with compatible life, or good enough genetic engineering, you could have a greater variety of edible sea flora than on Earth), fishing, a little land farming/pasture on the islands, hydroponics. Then ships will need fuel and you'll do well to create and power your local transport on planet unless space travel has become insanely cheap. And at least a couple of local industries that allow for suitable souvenirs.

[1] Without land to break them up, hurricanes can keep on growing. Overall storminess depends on a lot of factors, but in general, a planet without continents is going to see bigger storms than a planet in the same circumstances with continents.

[bartmoss]

Yeah. You do realize that water planet will likely have massive storms, right? [1] [1] Without land to break them up, hurricanes can keep on growing. Overall storminess depends on a lot of factors, but in general, a planet without continents is going to see bigger storms than a planet in the same circumstances with continents.

Yeah I know. I decided against major continents solely based on story needs.

That no more means you can't have a tourist trade than the hurricane regions of Earth, but you'd better take it into account in your development. Submarine development might still be preferred to stay out of the winds.

There will be a few underwater cities and so on, but they were built solely as entertainment facilities/hotels.

And once you are there, you would use some of the tourism money to develop local industries. Visitors need to eat, so there's the sea farming (and if there are alien worlds with compatible life, or good enough genetic engineering, you could have a greater variety of edible sea flora than on Earth), fishing, a little land farming/pasture on the islands, hydroponics. Then ships will need fuel and you'll do well to create and power your local transport on planet unless space travel has become insanely cheap. And at least a couple of local industries that allow for suitable souvenirs.

Space travel has become insanely cheap; this is kind of a requirement for having any sort of large scale interstellar society. That aside, yes, minor industry is fine: Fishing will definitely exist, but it's all on a tiny scale compared to what a full-fledged colony would require. I do assume in my setting that hydroponics and - to borrow a Piper term - carniculture, i.e. meat vats - exist, but would you really want your high class tourists to eat "synthetic" food? Even if that stuff is just as good - or even better than "natural" food, it's all about the marketing. So it gets imported. And you are right that any sane colonial government would attempt to diversify local industries and become self-sufficient, but this is a company-run planet focussed solely on the one thing this company knows to do: tourism. Why build an unsightly factory when you can just ship in what you need and build another luxurious hotel instead? This approach is not entirely stupid, assuming that it's financially sustainable: Specialize on your core competency and outsource the rest. Otherwise you risk bogging down your company.