Tourism is of major economic and social significance. More than 720 million tourists spend $480 billion annually in places outside their own country (WTO, 2004). This is one of the largest items in the world’s foreign trade. The significance of tourism has been recognized in both developing and developed countries. This can be seen in the establishment of sophisticated and well resourced government departments of tourism , widespread encouragement and sponsorship of tourism developments, and the proliferation of small business and multinational corporations contributing to and deriving benefits from the tourism industry. In 2005, the tourism sector accounted for 3 % to 10% of the GDP of developing countries. The contribution of tourism to economic growth and development is reflected in the form of exports since it represents 40 percent of all xports of services, making it one of the largest categories of international trade (UNWTO, 2006). There is widespread optimism that tourism might be a powerful and beneficial agent of both economic and social change, some even advocating that it might be a force for world peace. Indeed, tourism has stimulated employment, investment and entrepreneurial activity, modified land use and economic structure, and made a positive contribution to the balance of payments in many countries throughout the world. At the same time, the growth of tourism has prompted perceptive observes to raise many questions concerning the social and environmental desirability of encouraging further expansion. Do the expenditures of tourists benefit the residents of destination areas? Is tourism encouraging prostitution, crime and gambling? Does tourism rejuvenate or erode the traditional arts and crafts of host culture...
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...o contain a mixture of both positive and negative strands and affect both hosts and guests (Opperman, Chon 1997; Cooper et al. 1998). As a result, in spite of the fact that some researchers regard socio-cultural change as one of the evils of tourism development, any form of economic development will, by definition, carry with it implications for social structure and cultural aspects of the host population (Cooper et al. 1998)
Though originally most of the research tended to look at rural areas in the English speaking world (e.g., Long et al., 1990; Murphy, 1985) and then subsequently with
reference to the impact of tourism on the communities and indigenous people (e.g., Ryan & Aicken, 2005), more recent research has looked at tourism impacts in the non-English-speaking world among the cultural representatives of those countries
(e.g., Eraqi, 2007).
As tourism is one of the world’s largest lines of businesses, it seems immensely reasonable that it could have a huge impact on people and various places. This is certainly true for Thailand, and it can be viewed in both positive and negative ways. We might be able to divide the way we look at the benefits and problems of tourism into economic, social and environmental impacts.
Tourism impacts can be generally classified into seven categories with each having both positive and negative impacts. These impacts include; economic, environmental, social and cultural, crowding and congestion, taxes, and community attitude. It is essential for a balance on array of impacts that may either positively or negatively affect the resident communities. Different groups are concerned about different tourism impacts that affect them in one way or another. Tourism’s benefits can be increased by use of specific plans and actions. These can also lead to decrease in the gravity of negative impacts. Communities will not experience every impact but instead this will depend on particular natural resources, development, or spatial patterns (Glen 1999).
home, the amount used can run up to 440 liters a day. This is almost
According to the ‘World Tourism Organization’ (UNWTO), the tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, as it is estimated that by the year 2020, 7.8 billion people (roughly a quarter of the world’s population) will embark on a foreign trip (Bennett & Gebhardt 15). The Caribbean is said to be the most economically dependent on this industry, as the ‘Caribbean Tourism Organisation’ states that the industry forms the “economic backbone of most countries in the Region”(“Caribbean Tourism Industry” 1), implications for what tourism’s affect on the region have arisen and have prompted further research into matter. Since the 1970’s research regarding tourism in the Caribbean has attempted to determine the social, cultural, environmental, and economic impacts of tourism. Much of the research has found that there are in fact many negative adverse affects, and Jackson’s article asserts that, “Governments often commit money and other resources to support the growth and development of tourism and often turn a blind eye to its negative impacts” (574). The reason why tourism looks attractive (and thus turn a blind eye) to these Caribbean countries is because of “its potential to foster GDP growth, to create employment, to increase foreign exchange earnings, and attract capital investment” (Daye, Chambers, and Roberts 2). This paper will overview such impacts by first discussing a case study conducted in Jamaican resort town, Ocho Rios, with Sheere Brooks discussing the observed social, cultural and economical consequences of Jamaica’s reliance on the tourism industry and will finally look at tourism in relation to capitalism, with Robert Fletcher suggesting in his article that the tourism industry (and more specifically...
Today’s global competition, demands a country to keep the true identity., culture becomes the basic aspects that must be maintained, because of the existence of culture effects how closely humans in general act, and be friendly. Cultural or often we refer to as the culture has its own uniqueness, while others interest by the culture then this could make the place tourism.
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.
Tourism is often associated with traveling to places away from home. Tourism has a big impact on the economic growth of some countries, which define the shape of their cities by producing different sectors like historic districts, convention centers, museums, malls, hotels, restaurants, and the list can be endless. Furthermore, tourism elements have been developed by cities for a variety of reasons including: situating themselves in the world by drawing a positive image and attracting visitors and for their money.
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
In case of the social factor, tourism forms bad conditions for the simple locals. They don’t get their right for using the land and attending some places, they suffer and live in really poor for them circumstances.
Tourism is the one of economic and social activities that increasingly vital. Number of travellers domestic and international is increasing. In fact, several countries in present world develop tourism sectors as primary sector which generate national income. According to Salah Wahab and Cooper (2003). Tourism is also sector which involves role that mutually link between government, private sector and also public.
Anthropologists believe tourism can be a very successful anthropological strategy to integrate a group of guests into a new culture (Selwyn, 1990). Ethnic and historical tourism are the branches that relate mostly to anthropology. They focus more on the integration of culture and learning more about the society and history. They are much more strict in regards to boundaries and rules as opposed to recreational and cultural tourism. Cultural and recreational tourism differ the most from anthropology, dismissing important rules and offending the host country’s residents.
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.
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.
According to many scholars of tourism (McNeely, 1998 and Mbaiwa, 2003), tourism is known as the largest growing industry globally, especially in the area of job creation, improve quality of life to host community and so on (Mochechela, 2010).Tourism is one of the largest industries where host resident can get the economic benefits as it has different sectors where both skilled and unskilled people can be employed. In the research on tourism impacts, the economic side of tourism is often noticed due to its positive impacts, while the negative aspects are from environmental and socio-cultural impacts. According Cooper et al (2008), a positive economic impact can directly bring benefits to communities therefore, it is also the major driver of tourism development. However, even though the economic benefits are popular with the tourism impact, the negative side still need to be taken with caution.
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,