The Psychological Benefits of Travel and Tourism - Essay Example

Is the World Tourism Organization Over-Exaggerating the benefits of Travel and Tourism Madrid, 16 November 2004 - The World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the SNV - Netherlands Development Organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance the already existing relationship between the organizations and increase overall efficiency and effectiveness, with specific reference to sustainable tourism initiatives addressing the needs of the poor in developing countries. (WTO Website) Barcelona, The Night of the Concluding ceremony of Olympics, 1992 - The residents, tourists and sportsmen, together sang the slogan "Amigos para siempre" (Friends Forever). (Morris Dengen, (2004)). Introduction World Tourism Organisation - The Apex body for promotion of Tourism World Tourism Organisation is an international body that promotes travel and tourism amongst the various countries of the world. The website of WTO/United Nations recommendations on tourism statistics, defines tourism as that which comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. The consequences of such travel and movement of people, is bound to have an effect in socio-economical context of the host countries and communities and the results of this may be beneficial as in some countries such as the example of Barcelona 1992 Olympics, and may not be so beneficial as seen in the case of Montreal Olympics 1976. The WTO has clearly delineated tourism and its possible benefits under the many classifications, such as : a factor of sustainable development, a cultural heritage promoter and enhancer, a beneficial activity for the host country and community, and ultimately as a vehicle for individual and collective fulfilment. With this agenda, the WTO has been promoting tourism across countries and zones. Tourism offers, an indirect way to balance the flow of money from the economically rich nations, whose people have plenty of money but are stressed due to lack of time and leisure, to the people of economically backward nations, but with relatively less stress factors and with backgrounds of more cultural heritage, historical monuments/preservations or rural wilderness. It conducts periodic research and guidelines as to what are the things that tourists should take note of, while embarking on tours and travelling across borders. Poverty alleviation program through tourism, has been vigorously advocated by the WTO. With WTO promoting the cause of tourism so largely, the world population at large, tend to believe more and more in the positive benefits of travel and tourism. On closer analysis, however, the question does arise, in one's mind, as to whether, the benefits of travel and tourism are really as great as portrayed by WTO, or is there some exaggeration. For this purpose, this research shall cite some case studies and citations to explore the cases in which the impact of tourism had indeed been beneficial and , how in some cases tourism has had some sort of negative impact on the people. Social Impact of Tourism Research findings of Hall et al, (1997), show us that the phenomenon of countryside tourism is found worldwide, and greatly encouraged to give a boost to the regional economies found in the area. The tourism movement itself, holds the potential to be diversified into as many ways as the following : Wilderness tourism, National parks, Recreation resorts, Second homes, Retirement market and Cultural-heritage tourism. As more and more people retire, they would like to move away from the hectic and timeless lifestyles that the developed economies offered, to more peace filled beach resorts or rural resorts or houses. Sometimes studies reveal that the very existence of farm lands and the pre-industrial development life-style is good enough to induce people to have a rural visitation. A case of Chemainus a town in British Colombia is cited as an example.( Murphy, 1981). How the nondescript little town reinvented itself after the logging peaks were over, by showcasing its murals about the by-gone era. A good example of this is Chemainus, British Columbia. It is an old forestry town that has seen its logging dwindle and its mill downsized and automated. It became known as the "town that could" become reborn through tourism, by creating murals that depicted its logging history; and it is certainly a bustling tourism community during the summer as busload after busload of tourists come to see the murals. Now, one argues that tourism has brought about a positive change in the town. Though to make it an economically successful proposition, it still had to rebuild itself in various ways, ( which shall be discussed in the economic impact section of this research) socially it transformed itself from an almost run-out town to one that generated curiosity and interest, due to the effort on one man at the head ie., Karl Schlutz. To sustain this interest and curiosity of the tourist, the host or the host community has to have a specific plan. Tourism is a delicate business which brings in people across the borders with totally new cultures and concepts. The host community should be hospitable enough to make the guest or in this context the tourist feel welcome and warm, at the same time preserve their own cultural and routine pattern of life, without giving the feeling an alien, to the tourist. It is inevitable that the tourists leave their stamp on the host to some extent and that the host's attitude, expectations and knowledge changes with each passing batch of tourist. Too much of foreign or outside influence on the society shall, one argues, shall diminish the uniqueness of the host place as competition increases. The tourist flock to see and feel something different and that something must hold enough mystery to keep them coming repeatedly, even while reassuring that it just like their own home. For the society or the community to be successful, the initial step may said to be enterprise and planning. This facilitates the communities to achieve a common goal even while marking the common goals. The case study of Barcelona, found following, in this research well illustrates the case. Barcelona Olympics 1992 - The Story of Tourism Success. According to Monica Dengen (2004), Barcelona transformed almost dramatically, from a "run-down Industrial metropolis, into one of Europe's most desired tourist venues."(p. 131). It is argued that the success story of Barcelona, has been a systematic process, of the collective conscious of the people of Barcelona, the reshaping of its images, cultures and objects. (Rojeck and Urray 1997). After having gone through a period of repression under its leader Franco, it was one of the fundamental tasks of the new democratic government, to convert the densely populated city which lacked even basic amenities, to provide its residents with decent living structures. The building or rather re-building of this new Barcelona was executed under the leadership of architect Oriol Bohigas. The series of transformations led to spatial and technological modernisation and reconstruction of Barcelona under it "Urban Spaces Project" and slowly paved the way for it becoming an interesting spot in the world map. The next stage came with the gearing up of the city for the 1992 Olympics. The study by Degen(2004), shows how the then Mayor of Barcelona, admitted in public of the Olympics to achieve an ulterior goal, of improvisation of the quality of life in Barcelona, making the utmost use of the opportunity that the Olympics offered them to improve economically, and making the city a very important landmark in the world map. (Barke and Towner, (19996) Dengen, (2004)). This made certain changes inevitable, if Barcelona had to become an international city. Firstly, its up-gradation of communications and technology, change in the architectural and construction structures of the city and a development of urban aesthetics paved the way for the city to enter the global arena. Thereafter the city embarked on a series of attractive events for tourist, like opening of the city's buildings for public view in 2002, conduction of car exhibitions, conducting the World Swimming Championships in 2003, etc. Re-construction of the housing for the working community, and extension of its sun-filled beaches all were steps that enhanced the popularity of the city in the world tourist map. The neighbouring cities of Barcelona like el-Ravel and la-Ribera, the studies find, were also spruced up and reoriented. The former, which was once known for their drug trafficking and brothels were totally cleared for the construction of a Modern Art Museum designed by Richard Meier. The beautification of the cities, with simultaneous steps to remove the grime and dust and modernisation, were campaigned by the Barcelona City Council with slogan's like "B forever". But, this was not without its impact. The constant exposure to the varied sections of global culture, slowly but surely brought about a change in the city. The city became more and more tourism oriented and large sprawling malls and night life lovers flocked the city. (Adapted from Dengen, 2004). So much so that the native Spanish dwellers started shunning the city and cross-cultural conflicts and protests against too much of night activity grew in strength. Interestingly, crime rate increased and that spurned a series of checks and counter checks to be imposed on the city. Even so Barcelona has become the model for the cities aspiring to make a successful business of tourism. In this context Barcelona has offered some very positive points to ponder, that with careful planning and strategy tourism can bring in revenue and increase land economics. The Negative Changes Brought by Tourism While we saw Barcelona, highly successful tourism strategy, the memories of Atlanta Olympics and the Montreal Olympics failed to make any headway. Dengen's (2004) studies show that Montreal is still repaying it debts for the loans acquired to conduct its Olympics in 1976. And Atlanta, which hosted the 1996 Olympics, was drowned in banners which earned it the revenue from corporate advertisements to meet the expenses for the event. This brings to the fore the cost of tourism, marketing and sustaining the pulse of tourism. For this purpose, the research shall take into account the extensive research of Murphy P. and Ann Murphy, in their work titled "Regional Tourism and its Economic Development Links for Small Communities". Although tourism is an export industry in the economic sense, bringing in welcome outside/new revenue; this is one industry where customers insist on accompanying their money. The result, if one is successful, is a destination being swamped with visitors who will change, both consciously and unconsciously, the style and feel of the host community (Murphy, 1985). Further more it becomes very clear from, the afore said author's research that, while tourism may bring economic success to some communities and not necessarily all. Hence it has to be carefully planned for and approached, since the person bringing the revenue carries it with him, unlike in other business, and human beings have to be dealt with, with finesse, to bring in profitable revenue. In case of reserved parks, the cost of maintenance, seem to far outweigh benefits of preserving the parks for the sake of brining in tourism. It is of vital importance that the host community or the country, plan their strategy for tourism soundly based on the four management principles, like planning, goals setting, and putting the destinations or the host place first and the individuals businesses second failing which the economic success of tourism will never take off. Egan and Neild's (2003) critical analysis on the economic impact on tourism show that it's positive effect on tourism may not be as big as previously thought. Even in the model case of Barcelona, the initial economic success paved the way for terrorism and increase in criminal activity, which shall cause more damage in the long run. A case study of the overcrowding of the Alpine peaks as a skiing resort, conducted by Needham et al. (2004) stands as a classic example. The more popular the resort the more tourists it attracts. And more is the pressure put on the fragile remnants of Nature's handicraft. As Murphy .P (1981) analysis puts it, Even tourists' breath and body heat can wreck havoc with ancient paintings. Unfortunately, too many tourists leave their mark in more obvious and destructive ways, such as with litter, pollution and vandalism. Hence, there is a need to balance tourism's effect on the environment, both physical and human, and to channel development to more "hardened" sites like footpaths or downtown areas which have parking and other amenities; or to cap the number of tourists to match local carrying capacity. The callous attitude and the indifference of the tourist sometimes caused irreparable damage to the environment and it just cannot be measured in terms of money or economic limits. Entire bio-spheres have been destroyed which leaves the ecological factors in total destruction and irredeemable loss to the future generations. Also, the unpredictable elements of nature and the seasonality affect tourism adversely and has negative connotations. The disasters like earthquake, floods, hurricane and more recently the Tsunami that hit and left the entire Indian Ocean regions devastated are a good example. Tourism was badly affected in these areas and the economies of the Affected nations were totally destroyed. Terrorism is another issue that plagues tourism and can put the nations under severe attack. With bombings and lethal weapons they play havoc on the physical topography of the places and the mental states of the people in the country. Large amounts of money increasingly spent on the maintenance of security of such heritage sites and places eat into whatever economic gain that can be perceived to have benefited the country. All this has a direct relationship to the personal experience of the tourist .This is because, one argues, that every tourist is there in the host community or country only for a short period of time. With in which the tourist shall only a glimpse to the host community's practices and culture. And as such, he just leaves a part of him with the host country even while carrying the experience with in him. In this fleeting time span he can leave his indelible foot prints on the environments of the country, which can be bad for Nature, and in turn, may carry some bitter experiences back with him, which shall influence the outbound tourist traffic from his country, in turn affecting the receiving country's economics. Conclusion : The benefits of Travel and Tourism may have been slightly exaggerated by the World Tourism Organization. Though there have been a few stories of success here and there, Egan and Nield's critical review, supports the view that the benefits may not be as great in terms of economic, or ecological impact as made out by the World Tourism Organization. While, it is not possible to say that, tourism has been only a source of negative impact, more research has to be done before advocating aggressively the so called benefits of travel and tourism; economical, sociological or ecological. The researches done so far are far from incomplete and leave a lot to be desired in terms of precise figures and statistics. As cautioned by Murphy's (1981), one of the principle guidelines in this process should be sustainable development, whereby something is left for future generations while providing a living for the present population. But the process is a complex one, which also requires an understanding of service quality and financial management. This is further substantiated by the uncertainty Natural elements, which play such a vital role in the mechanism of tourism. The latest outbreak of SARS in east Asian countries, Plague in India, the Mad cow disease in Europe proved to be disastrous while being uncontrollable and unpredictable. According to WTO's website sources, there was a steep fall in the East Asian travel figure when the SARS epidemic struck. The American states are yet to recover completely from the great depression and the 09/11 shock. In this backdrop, one argues that the psychological benefits of travel and tourism, the very basic reason for its being ie., to relieve stress of mind and add quality of life through leisure is nullified. To the contrary one can argues, that it may even lead to slight increase in stress levels, on the thought of being prepared for an eventuality. Secondly the sociological benefit may be there to some extent, with the blurring of cross-cultural inhibitions and suspicions. To some extent, tourism helps promote understanding and exchange of ideas and exposes people to hitherto unexplored dimensions of human relationships. But here, too the unpredictability of reactions of cultural interchanges and lack of time-tested interface in the context ideological conflicts, the benefit of this aspect also get marginalised. And, finally, tourism, one can argue, only plays havoc on ecological factors. As emphasised by the Alpine case study, innumerable ecosystems are being destroyed in the name of promoting tourism. Once the place becomes popular, and starts drawing revenue, it is not possible for any business person to stop it, ecological factors notwithstanding. And, claim of responsible eco-tourism, is still only in its infancy. Given the large number of people crowding at any tourist resort at any given place today, there can hardly be the sort of responsibility that is required or expected. This serves to destroy the very fundamental root of ecology vis., to preserve nature in Her pristine glory. This particular aspect has been of especial interest to the researcher. The absence of any formal studied on the benefits of travel and tourism, has always led to individuals drawing their own conclusions as regarding the health, wealth and qualitative impact of tourism on people. With high visibility, and being an apex body, the WTO has the capacity to influence one and all, alike. Hence, it is in the interest of the general public and researchers to try and analyse the preciseness of World Tourism Organization's reports and attempt to give a more correct picture for the benefit of the public who aspire to go on travel and tours abroad. Annotated Reference List Books and Journals Degen, M. (2004). Barcelona's Games: The Olupics, Urban Design and Global Tourism" in Tourism Mobilities: Places to Play, Places in Play. Edited by M. Sheller and J. Urry. (pp.131-142). London and New York: Routledge. Egan, D. Nield, K. (2003). The economic impact of tourism-a critical review. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 10, 170-178 Hall, C.M. Developing Destinations in Tourism: Rethinking the Social Science of Mobility. (pp.159-188). Harlow: Pearson Educational/Prentice-Hall. Murphy, P. (1981). Community Attitudes to Tourism. International Journal of Tourism and Management, September, 1981 Needham, M. Rollins, R. Woods, C. (2004). Site-sepcific Enouctners, Norms, and Crowding of Summer Visitors at Alpine Ski Areas. International Journal of Tourism and research, 6, 421-437 Internet Sources World Tourism Organisation http://www.world-tourism.org/ Read More