In the more economically developed countries (MEDCs), synonymous mainly with the industrialised countries of the northern hemisphere there, has been an explosion in the growth of leisure and tourism industry, which is now believed to be the worlds second largest industry in terms of money generated. In order to differentiate between leisure and tourism it should be recognised that leisure often involves activities enjoyed during an individual’s free time, whereas tourism commonly refers to organised touring undertaken on a commercial basis. Development in the two areas could be attributed to changing patterns in working lives within the last four decades. Generally, people now have more disposable wealth, work shorter hours, receive longer, paid annual leave, retire earlier and have greater personal mobility. In addition, according to Marshall & Wood (1995), the growth of the tourist industry per se can be associated, in part, with the concentration of capital; the emergence of diversified leisure based companies, sometimes within wider corporate conglomerates and often associated with particular airlines. Furthermore, the development of tourism can generate employment both directly, in jobs created in the hotels, restaurants etc, and indirectly, through expenditure on goods and services in the local area. Nevertheless, although the tourist industry is competitive, which essentially keeps down the cost of foreign travel, the success of tourism in any one area can be ‘influenced by weather, changing consumer tastes, demographics, economic cycles, government policy, not to mention international terrorism and other forms of conflict.’(1) Although such factors may have a detrimental affect on the economy of a popular tourist destination (or even tourism in general, in light of September 11th 2001), the consequence of tourism in general is often three fold: environmental, social and cultural, which in turn has prompted a search for new ‘friendly’ approaches that are less destructive. It is a well-noted fact that tourists from the developed world, or rich western nations, are in favour of visiting unspoilt natural environments and places steeped in tradition. However, Lea (1988) regards such attractions as being a sign of underdevelopment and rarely tolerated by the host nations just because they meet with foreign approval of visitors. Instead, it is the priority of the respective governments to raise living standards to acceptable levels, which means modernisation and the implementation of various infrastructures. Nevertheless, if administered effectively mass tourism could provide a form of sustainable development by meeting the needs of the present without compromising those of the future.
The 20th century has seen the creation and rapid expansion of the tourism industry, fuelled by our ability to travel faster and more conveniently to remote places on the planet. Tourism describes a huge variety of different activities, all falling under the banner of people traveling for pleasure. I think of tourists as falling into two main categories, those people who travel to find somewhere to relax, and those who travel to experience new cultures. The first category has less direct effect on the spread of tourism, as these people prefer to travel to places in developed countries, where they can relax in comfort. The second category likes to travel to experience new cultures and environments without necessarily having a relaxing trip. It is these people who are constantly pushing the tourist industry into new areas. Once the tourist industry realizes a region is becoming popular with adventurous tourists, big resort hotels appear, and the wild is tamed for the benefit of the tourist who likes to feel adventurous without having to endure the hardship of dingy, cockroach-ridden hotels. The location is now ruined for the adventurous tourist. These westernized resorts can be found all over the world, giving a highly sanitized version of the local culture. This leaves the adventurers to go in search of a new location to visit, an even more remote and exotic place is visited, and so the cycle continues until we will have a resort hotel next to every lake, mountain, forest and beach on the planet.
There is arising of concern for the need of conservation and the well-being of our environment is now firmly in the vision of the public. A corresponding upsurge in tourism all over the world leading to the phenomenon is happening and referred as ‘mass tourism’ (Krippendorf, 1987). In conjunction with this unparalleled growth of mass tourism as a user of the mother of nature, concern has been shown over the relationship of the natural environment with tourist activities (Hunter & Green, 1995). Therefore, ecotourism is emerging as one of the rapid growing tourism industry in this era.
(2016),” the tourism system has some important inputs from an environmental perspective which includes natural, cultural and human resources.” The system has three subsystems which are tourism retailing, destination and transport, all of which are interrelated. Within the destination subsystem, the importance of natural and cultural attractions is emphasized as the basis for attracting tourists. The outputs of the system can be both positive and negative in that tourism can both conserve and destroy nature while bringing positive and negative economic cultural changes. Another output of the tourism system that is desired by governments is tourists’ satisfaction must be guaranteed. (pp.9-10) The pollution of the sea by sewage, overcrowding of beaches, removal of coral reefs and deforestation are the ways in which the environment is being affected by tourism. Hence, the need for environmental awareness in Jamaica as the impact is a major concern to the country. Although it is damaging the environment, it brings economic benefits.
The report presents an overview of the national and international tourism policies that have been drafted and implemented throughout the years. I will compare and contrast the Maltese Tourism Policy (2006 & 2012) with the British Tourism Policy (2011). Goeldner and Ritchie (2009) identify a tourism policy as a set of regulations, rules, guidelines, directives, and development/promotion objectives and strategies that provide a framework within which the collective and individual decisions affecting long-term tourism development and the daily activities within a destination are taken”. The main purpose of any tourism policy is to generate income and create employment. In fact, tourism is one of the crucial generators of income all around the world. In this case, the two countries; Malta and England are largely dependent on this industry so it is of particular importance that they adapt an effective policy.
time and is therefore perishable. All hotels with a fixed number of rooms and transport operators with a fixed number of seats (railway, air carrier, bus companies, etc.) face the challenge of matching supply to the available demand. Excess capacity that is not sold on a particular day is lost and can never be recovered.
Fletcher’s article helps to provide more of an insight on why these Caribbean countries rely on the tourism industry, giving a greater perspective of the workings of capitalism as in order to survive it must continually grow. While it is important to note that looking at one small area in the Caribbean and its impact on the tourism industry, cannot lead me to draw any general conclusions– as not every Caribbean country will react to the tourism industry in the same way - the study discussed on Jamaica’s Ocho Rios still can provide perspective as to how this heavy reliance on the tourism industry can affect the social, cultural, environmental, and economic standing within such countries. Further research must be conducted on all different effects and within tourist sites in order to come to a general conclusion. Many researchers have offered frameworks on how to prevent such negative impacts from occurring, and this can be helpful for the future of this fast-growing industry. As a person who has travelled to the Caribbean quite frequently (as I have family members who reside in Barbados), because I stay with family members and thus can see the island from a local perspective, I have witnessed first hand the small ways in which the tourism industry affects a big Caribbean tourist destination such as Barbados; not just with those deemed as outsiders with the tourism industry, but those working within it.
Spain’s tourism industry has experienced exceptional growth since the first visitors arrived at San Sebastian in the early 1900’s (Barke et al. 1996). In the 1960’s, following their European counterparts, Spain launched a major promotional campaign attracting international visitors. This initiated the tourism boom; a period of intense structural and economic growth during which tourist arrivals grew by 16.5 million between 1973 and 1987 (Solsten and Menditz, 1988) and created an industry that today accounts for ‘11% of Spain’s GDP’ (OECD Publishing, 2008:198). This analysis will discuss the contrasting effects that tourism has had on regional Spain and consider how tourism as a diverse product can continue to be an important source of income.
Tourism is a typical activity of fashion that the public participate widely and it has grown in importance over recorded human history. Innumerable articles refer tourism as “the world’s largest industry”; policy-makers, analysts, and scholars often speak of the size of the tourism compared to that of other industries (Smith 2004: 26). These series of misleading statement, together with the mass media’s reports (out of context), make the idea that tourism is a single large industry branded into many people’s minds. However, in this essay I will demonstrate that it is a simplistic and misleading idea, which should be replaced by the plural term, “tourism industries”. Moreover, tourism is not the world’s largest industry, but largest service sector.
Firstly, tourism has posed several destructive effects on environmental structure of the host regions where operating activities of tourism take place. Undoubtedly, the constructions of facilities and infrastructures as well as heavy visitation resulted by tourism could partly destroy the environmental sites. According to Archer, Cooper and Ruhanne (2005), the uncontrolled tourism development has adulterated and debased the aesthetic value and uniqueness of the local environment by unsightly hotels and other unplanned constructions of facilities. Being agree with this negative impact, Seviour (2013) shows an example of the long line of high-rise hotels along the Jesolo beach in Italy that offend most of visitors by its mismatch with the natural surroundings. This situation is getting worse in developing countries where the integration between tourism infrastructures and its indigenous environmental structure not have been put into proper consideration. Tourism mismanagement, intentionally or unintentionally, has corrupted the harmony between humans and the environment. Fletcher (1993), however, suggests that tourism has generated greater motivation for host countries to protect and maintain their fragile environments such as forests, beaches and wildlife parks. The creation of the Amboseli National Park, for instance, was considered as the remarkable conservation effort brought by tourism in Kenya. After his research 10 years, unfortunately, this example becomes a weak argument for the positive impacts of tourism when Knox and Marston (2003) point out the Amboseli Nation...
According to Horner and Swarbrook (2007) tourism involves travelling or being involved in leisure activities. Hospitality involves friendly treatment of guests or tourists and is a very important sector in the tourism industry (Horner and Swarbrook, 2007). Understanding consumer behavior is very crucial towards making decisions about marketing of tourism products and activities.
Nowadays in the rea of globalization, according to the World Tourism Organization, “seven hundred million people travelled abroad in 2003”, and the number is estimated to increase to 1.6 billion by 2020. (International Labour Organization, 2005). Tourism is spreading in unusual places. A lot of people want to be in the midst of adventure. It is a vital source of revenues for the GDP of many countries. I partially agree that tourism hugely benefits the local community. This essay will discuss some of the economic, social and environment effect of tourism on the host community.
With global changes, various impacts of tourism are observed in a clear way now. Butler (1999, p.8) asserts that “if there is a single factor that has the potential to change the nature of tourism more than any other, it is the introduction of the concept of sustainable development” because it promises fundamental changes in the components of tourism. The concept of ‘sustainable development’ has been long recognized together with 1987 WCED Brutland Report, Our Common Future, which was commissioned by the United Nations (UN). It indicates that a sole economic success is not sufficient for the longevity of resources; that it is only plausible with intergenerational equity as well as intragenerational equity (Finnetty, 2001; Tosun, 2001; Macbeth, 2005). Here, sustainable development was explained as: "development that meets the needs of the present without
At the present time, one of the inseparable parts of the economic growth is considered as tourism industry. Commonly, tourism is the movement of people to other places for business or leisure purposes as well as covers their activities. Holloway and Humphreys defines that the places where tourists come and spend their money are called as “tourist destinations” in other words “receiving areas”. Many countries have been improving tourism to overcome economic difficulties since it is growing fast. The industry activities have been demonstrated a general positive trend in the economy and it has already become the inherent part of economic development. In host countries, tourism has led to such positive consequences as the improved infrastructure,
The development of tourism has brought a lot of both positive and negative aspects in a country. The tourism industry is generally seen as promising, and also a passport to development for a country. It is deemed as a critical source of income for many countries, especially in less developed areas. Income is generated through the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses, and employment opportunities for the service industries associated with tourism. However, like other forms of development, tourism also has its share of problems, such as loss of cultural heritage, social disorganisation, economic dependence and the degradation of the environment. The definition of sustainable development coined in the paper ‘Our Common Future’, released by the Brundtland Commission was defined as “… Economic development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” [Brundtland, 1987]
The development of tourism, in particular mass tourism, has had immense impacts on host destinations, some positive and others that are detrimental to three factors - economic, social/cultural and environmental. For tourism to continue to flourish in the future, a host destination must create sustainable business practices. Sustainability refers to “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations” (Graci, 2015). Therefore, a destination must implement sustainable practices, in all three factors, in order to prolong the life cycle of a tourism destination. This essay illustrates the negatives and positives of each of the three factors, using the Caribbean as an example of how unsustainable practices can result in tourists negatively impacting a destination; whilst New Zealand is used to illustrate the positive