Editing Roadside attraction (section)

{{Short description|Roadside attraction area for visitors}}
{{for|the unrelated American production and distribution company|Roadside Attractions}}
[[File:Drumheller & the Tyrell Museum (7897901734).jpg|thumb|[[World's Largest Dinosaur]], a roadside attraction in [[Drumheller]], [[Alberta]]]]
[[File:Colborne_Big_Apple.jpg|thumb|[[Big Apple (Colborne, Ontario)|Big Apple]] in [[Cramahe, Ontario]]]]

A '''roadside attraction''' is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract [[tourist]]s. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than being a destination. They are frequently advertised with [[billboard (advertising)|billboards]]. The modern tourist-oriented highway attraction originated as a [[United States|U.S.]] and [[ Canada| Canadian]] phenomenon in the 1940s to 1960s,<ref name="QuinnAmerica2018">{{cite book|author1=Rick Quinn|author2=RoadTrip America|title=RoadTrip America Arizona & New Mexico: 25 Scenic Side Trips|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tB5KDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT177|date=3 April 2018|publisher=Imbrifex Books|isbn=978-1-945501-11-1|pages=177–}}</ref> and subsequently caught on in [[Australia]].<ref name="Chon2013">{{cite book|author=Kaye Sung Chon|title=Geography and Tourism Marketing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kdrv9Pdw4EQC&pg=PT147|date=4 July 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-37739-6|pages=147–}}</ref> Elsewhere, except Antarctica, similar items are placed on [[roundabouts]] and [[traffic islands]] in crowded cities.<ref name="tg 2024-12-14">{{cite news |last1=Hinchliffe |first1=Joe |title=Roadside colossi: the global allure of a really Big Thing and the Queensland expert plotting their rise |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/13/roadside-colossi-the-global-allure-of-a-really-big-thing-and-the-queensland-expert-plotting-their-rise |access-date=4 January 2025 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 December 2024}}</ref>