Essay On Tourism

2970 Words6 Pages

Tourism is an important and intricate element to society. It affects economical, social, cultural and environmental elements. Tourism can be argued to have a negative impact on the environment and decrease our already depleting resources, but tourism can also be argued to be a major contributor to strengthening economies, spread cultural traditions and improve people’s lives. Tourism "…brings into contact people from different nations, socioeconomic classes, and ethnicities." (p. 2) As such, the authors argue that historical studies of tourism reveal human interaction that is "both pleasurable and profitable as well as exploitative and depleting." The economy can be clearly identified as the most beneficial aspect of tourism. “According to recent statistics, tourism provides about 10% of the world’s income and employs almost one tenth of the world’s workforce” (Mirbabayev, 2007). In Australia alone, Tourism contributed $87.3 billion in 2012, and employed 908,434 (7.9%) people (Kookana & Duc Pham, 2013). Tourism is “one of the most profitable and rapidly developing industries in the world” (Popushoi, 2004). Every year the number of tourists increase dramatically and consequently the revenues from tourism will increase substantially. The increase in revenue from tourists has allowed the Australian government to further develop infrastructure and services to cater the large influx of tourism. An example of how the Victorian government spent a large proportion of tourism revenue would be the development and implementation of the Ferris Wheel in Docklands known as ‘The Melbourne Star’. Not only has new infrastructure been built, but also heritage or run-down tourist complexes have been renovated or restored. Many of Melbourne’s ico... ... middle of paper ... ...arch, vol. 30, pp. 60. Toursim and Socio-Cultural Conservation, United Nations Environment Programme, viewed 4 May 2014, http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Business/SectoralActivities/Tourism/FactsandFiguresaboutTourism/ImpactsofTourism/Socio-CulturalImpacts/TourismandSocio-CulturalConservation/tabid/78782/Default.aspx International Cultural Tourism Charter: Managing Tourism at Places of Heritage Significance, ICOMOS, viewed 3 May 2014, http://www.icomos.org/tourism/charter.html Environmental Impacts, United Nations Environment Programme, viewed on 27 April 2014, http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Business/SectoralActivities/Tourism/FactsandFiguresaboutTourism/ImpactsofTourism/EnvironmentalImpacts/tabid/78775/Default.aspx Belsoy, J. 2012, ‘Environmental Impacts of Tourism in Protected Areas’, Journal of Environmental and Earth Science, vol. 2, pp. 10.

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