However, San Diego typically receives a large amount of tourism each year which in turns feeds into various industries thus given the current situation the lack of tourism is damaging the industries that feed off of the tourism (Short term rentals included).

This will drive how much you can borrow.Consider More Modest Options FirstWith $200k in investments to deploy, look at starting with 1-2 short-term rental properties first to gain experience before scaling up.Explore markets closer to your mom's current location that may have lower costs but still tourism appeal.This allows you to validate the model and your ability to operate short-term rentals successfully before risking more capital.The short-term rental concept could potentially work, but I would recommend starting with a smaller, very well-researched first step to validate the model before going all-in on a larger endeavor.

Tourism and Vacation Rentals: With famous attractions like Disney World, Universal Studios, and miles of beautiful beaches, Florida attracts millions of tourists annually.

In addition, our beautiful beaches and tourism are flourishing.  

Be prepared.Even if your personal home is only mildly impacted, but your community who relies on tourism has a BIG impact, understand that this will take months or years to recover from and some communities will not recover.

Airbnb had a big push recently showing how they believe this has hurt the NYC market not only for tourism (hotel prices soaring compared to other areas) but LTR rents have went up still as well.

At a high level, if you've been following the headlines around the Hyundai news, GPA Expansion, in addition to the Hospitality/Tourism sector, there is a good chance that there will be more demand in the area with the # of jobs expected.

STR's can certainly work in Salem, but are location dependent (ie being in the city for the university or state traffic vs out in the country for wine tourism).

Tourism is booming in the Dominican Republic and some ares grow even more than the average.

@David Rutledge I don't doubt it, but it's a town of about 20,000 people, and aside from this thing a number of miles away called the Pro Football Hall of Fame, there really isn't anything that spectacular to draw tourism in the area... it must all be corporate and maybe kids returning to visit their elderly parents?