I am looking at a condotel investment in a tourist resort, which for all intents and purposes would be treated as a STR and I do not plan to personally use the unit.

Do you know how many US tourists go to the Dominican Republic each year?

I don't really need or want to own a Corvette ZR1, I hate golf, and a wine cellar probably gets dusty after awhile and not that interesting.  

I am not sure where these suburbs are in relation to downtown and/or tourist attractions.

It might be beneficial if you can find a realtor that sells STR and see what they can tell you about the tourists that come to the area.

Even those data are not as extensive as what US offers for example but that does not throw the fact that Curaçao is a good or bad investment Island.The market has seen a overall growth of 4,9% for the last decade and the island is a tourist Island that has not develop in his full tourist potential yet.

For heavy tourists markets where there are several STR management companies who have websites, most direct booking individual websites will not even be able to compete with that.But if you work on your social media presence, social media ads, and routing return guest through your direct booking website, you are building a base of clientele which makes you less dependent on the whims and algorithm changes that the big OTAs have.  

I've been doing some research and apparently the locals even avoid the beach side during tourist season and I've fallen in love with the little town called Duck, NC or even Corolla where you need a 4x4 to get there

Look for areas with high tourist demand and strong rental yields, and consider attending real estate seminars to gain insights into the latest trends and strategies.  

We still have demand, but things slowed down a little in the past few months because of Covid, and because this is not the peak summer season.After Covid, landlords also started to consider different types of short-term renters like traveling nurses instead of just focusing on tourists or city visitors.I like your plan, especially that Tacoma is allowing two ADUs in one house with no-home owner-occupancy requirements.Feel free to reach out if you got questions or comments.