Socio-Cultural Impacts on Tourism in Bahamas - Research Paper Example

Socio-Cultural Impacts on Tourism The Bahamas The Bahamas remains one of the world’s popular tourist destinations of all time. Although the name is variously used to describe the entire geographical expanse that neighbors Cuba and Haiti, the Bahamas generally refers to the country as presently constituted and governed. The Bahamas consists of a range of several islands, islets, and cays (Saunders 23). The scenic geographical features are a great advantage to Bahamas tourism potential. With a population of slightly over 350,000 inhabitants, Bahamas is one of the least populated countries in the world. The government of Bahamas first recognized the country’s tourism potential in the mid nineteenth century and proceeded to create special legislations that favored the rapid expansion of the sector. Historical, geographical, legal, and social economic factors combine to make Bahamas one of the most convenient tourism destinations around the world. Tourists from Europe, America and the rest of the world flock to Bahamas due to the appealing climate on the islands (Gayle 45). Many of them visit the country during the adverse winter season. Many others flock to the island to savor the delights of the wonderful beaches and water, which stretch the length of the island and cays. Improvements in transport and communication contributed significantly to the rise of Bahamas as a favorable and convenient destination for visitors. Bahamas’ nearness to Florida is often considered as an important factor that contributes positively to the rising number of tourists from the United States. Other related factors that have continued to shape the growth of the island include the sociable nature of the Bahamas population and the rich mix of cultures drawn from past and current influences and contacts. All these factors work together to make the island one of the leading touristic places in the Caribbean. Socio-Cultural Impacts A precise appraisal of the socio-cultural impact of tourism on Bahamas could be understood from the perspective of the cultural interaction that takes place between the tourists and the local population. The population of Bahamas comprises mostly of people of African descent. These people comprise of descendants of former slaves who were settled on the island after the end of slavery. The main population has a distinct culture that combines influences from Caribbean, American, English, and Hispanic cultures (Gayle 171). The sum total of the influences has created a world that resonates with variety and differences across the cultural plane. The impact of tourism in Bahamas could fit into two broad categories of positive and negative. On the positive side tourism contributes to the sustenance of the country’s population to a significant degree. Tourism remains Bahamas’ economic mainstay. It accounts for nearly 60 percent of Bahamas’ gross national product. About half of the country’s population depends on tourism and tourism-related activities for their livelihoods. This would imply that the sector provides the main anchorage that supports standards of living of the current. On this score, the tourism sector plays a major role in poverty eradication in the country. Improvement in the standards of living helps the society both socially and economically. The interrelation between the various aspects of the society including the social, cultural and economic aspects of life work together in harmony to affect the general shape of the society. On another positive note, the tourism sector provides opportunities for positive cultural interaction. The tourists open up the Bahamian population to positive cultural influences, which widen their scope of the world (Gayle 56). Such influences could be appropriated for the improvement of the society by offering some answers to social problems that have affected the society for a long term. This aspect could be understood within the overall framework of cultural tourism. By interacting with foreign cultural influences, the Bahamian population proceeds to examine their own culture in comparison with the life of others. This makes it possible for the population to open up to possibilities of improvements within the discourse of socialization. According to sociologists, it is possible for cultures to improve and adjust themselves after contacts with other cultures. Tourism has an effect of enhancing the pride and national image of populations, groups, and cultures. Tourism provides the convenient platform of opening up a closed culture to the international community. In some sense, tourism has made it possible for the people of Bahamas to articulate their culture on the world stage (Gayle 30). This process has helped foster national consciousness and national confidence. In general, terms tourism has placed the Bahamian cultural life on the world stage. It has made it possible for the Bahamian to compete favorably with other world cultures. The result has been in terms of some feeling of national prestige and the enhancement of the national image of the country. This reality obtains through the aspect of cultural tourism, which operates in different categories along the social place. The Bahamian population disseminates its material and non-material aspects of culture within the discourse of tourism. For instance, local Bahamian artists have sold off a significant amount of their country’s traditional artifacts to tourists from diverse walks of the world (Saunders 149). Some cultural theorists argue that tourism shields the host cultures from threats of extinction by providing opportunities for the continued articulation of the culture. It is within this understanding that many theorists and analysts argue consistently in favor for continued cultural contacts within the discourse of tourism. Keeping a culture alive requires an active articulation of its material and non-material aspects. Such an articulation takes place most significantly within the discourse of tourism. This proposition obtains its weight from the fact that the discourses of globalization and liberalization open up cultural boundaries in ways that threaten the survival of weak cultures. In the particular case of Bahamas, the articulation of cultures provides opportunities of reasserting its self-identity with former colonial masters. The bulk of tourists who flock the islands of Bahamas retain significant historical connections with the island. Spain, United States of America, and Britain retain some colonial legacies on the island. On this matter, Bahamas population gets the opportunity of writing back to the empire within the cultural dimension. Such associations provide opportunities for the remaking of a country from the synergies drawn from relationships with former colonial powers. On the negative side, tourism on the islands of Bahamas poses an ever-present threat of cultural attrition. The survival of Bahamas culture is significantly reliant on the traffic between internal and external influences. When foreign cultural influences overwhelm internal cultural expressions, there results some serious threat of cultural attrition. Past social theorists have warned about the possibility of the country falling prey to cosmopolitan cultural influences because of the cultural contacts with the culturally voluble west. A separate concern relates to the safety and value of the non-material aspects of the Bahamas culture. Cultural theorists contend that the artifacts might lose value if they are sold regularly to the visiting tourists. Quite often, the sale of artifacts poses the danger of cultural abduction in the sense that some external groups chose to lay claim or distort features of the artifacts to serve other private purposes. Such happenings are common from historical times. The loss of such artifacts might signal the beginning of the loss of culture in the sense that people will lose the meaning of such artifacts in places where they may not be familiar. Still on the negative side, the danger of negative social influences from visiting tourists remains real in Bahamas (Richards 83). Dependable evidence shows that many young people on the island are increasingly picking up foreign influences from the tourists because such influences appear both fancy and trendy. The possibility of cultural loss remains real as the Bahamas socio cultural structures may lack sufficient safeguards to guard against such eventualities. In most cases, there is the possibility of the local culture to collapse under the weight of the external influences that emerge from diverse places from across the world. On this score, it might be argued that the expression of cultural identity of the Bahamas is significantly dependent on the manner in which the Bahamas society develops safeguards against the powerful cultural influences that articulate within the broad element of tourism. Tourism involves the interaction of people from diverse occupations on an international stage. Such interactions stretch beyond the casual encounters to more complex discourses of life. Discourses of intermarriages and miscegenation often happen during such encounters. Other relationships between the tourists and the local communities also pose significant challenges to the discourse of identity as they often threaten the cultural harmony of any society. As such the influences weaken the central cultural command, which exposes the internal system of further invasion of foreign cultural elements. Such invasions would be made possible by the fact that the people on the islands are highly sociable and out-going (Booth). The inhabitants are also described as welcoming and impressionable. The threat of negative natural influences could affect them due to the permissive nature of their character. In some quarters, tourism in the island of Bahamas has often been associated with the introduction of unnatural sexual practices. The prevalence of same-sex relationships and prostitution at popular tourist places is associated with western influences. Discourses of social control show that every culture holds some rules, norms, traditions, and beliefs by which it operates. When put together, these rules form the super-structure that determines the stability of a given culture. Same-sex relationships are naturally foreign to the Bahamas culture. The gradual introduction of these rules in the society will have the effect of weakening the society from within. On this note, the continued subjection of the native populations on the negative influences will have the effect of damaging the authentic quality of the culture. Social and cultural interactions occur along set hierarchies, which are defined by multiple demographic factors. When two or more cultures meet on a common platform, the actual net results of their interactions often manifest in the long-term. The normal trend is that the stronger culture or culture will impart its values on the weaker culture or cultures. Works Cited Booth, Joanna. The Bahamas: The Ins and Outs. Travel Weekly. 24 May, 2012. Web. 29 Oct, 2012. Gayle, Dennis, J. Island Tourism and Sustainable Development: Caribbean, Pacific, and Mediterranean Experiences. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. Richards, Greg. Cultural Tourism: Global and Local Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2006 Saunders, Gail. The Changing Face of Nassau: the impact of tourism on Bahamian society in the 1920s and 1930s. New West Indian Guide, 71 (1&2), 21-42. Read More