Social Impact of Tourism - Essay Example

Social Impact of Tourism Introduction The social impact of tourism may be the by-product of the outcome on host communities of direct and indirect interaction of tourists and of the reciprocated interface derived from tourism industry. There are several reasons that attribute to the host communities to play a weaker role in the sense of interaction with their guests and service providers, by virtue of producing counter-influence. However, these influences are not prevalent in all the cases all the time and they are hard to analyse, rather they can be measured using indirect methodologies. The impact is primarily considered when tourism results in producing revolutions in value systems and behaviour and hence original identity is being threatened. In addition to the misrepresentation of identity, changes may occur in community structure, family relationships, shared customary life styles, services and ethics (Din, 1988). Tourism can cause positive social impact as well by means of supporting for peace, promoting cultural traditions and helping circumvent urban repositioning by creating local jobs. Socio-cultural impact becomes indistinct when various cultures meet at the single point of intersection as it may be perceived by some of the groups as positive whereas it may be perceived as negative by some of the groups as well. This paper aims at finding out the social impacts of tourism. Positive Impact Tourism has positive impact on environmental condition. Tourism has the capability to encourage social development by virtue of employment creation, capital distribution and poverty mitigation (web link 6). - Tourism as a power for peace Travelling is an influential dynamic element that brings individual into get in touch with another individual and a culture into the contact with another culture, as tourism consists of learning element, it may provide knowledge among individuals and cultures and offer cultural exchange among hosts and guests. This eventually results in increasing mutual understanding, mutual respect and in reducing the reciprocated prejudices for each other. - Reinforcement of communities Tourism may adjoin to the strength of communities in several fashions. Example includes the events or carnivals during which the local inhabitants may play the role of primary participants and the spectators may participate as the secondary components and revitalize the events which are further progressed by the interaction of tourist interest. Tourism industry can create jobs that contribute as a vital enticement in order to decline in emigration from country areas. Local individuals as well as local events can contribute in the development of tourism industry and enhance their job and production prospect by means of receiving tourism related professional training as well as business and organizational skills development. - Benefits received by local residents as a result of facilities provided by tourism sector Tourism focuses on the development of services inclusive of communal public services to entertainment services which eventually brings in higher living standards in the local sector of the target destination. The uplifting of standards may include in an improvement in infrastructure, enhancement in health sector and transportation, introducing new recreational facilities, restaurants, and public sectors as well as an arrival of improved commodities and food (Cohen, 1984; Pizam, 1978). - Revaluation of culture and traditions Tourism can enhance the safeguarding and conduction of cultural and historical practices, by means of contributing to the preservation and prolonged management of natural possessions, the conservation of local traditions, as well as a revolution of aboriginal culture, arts and crafts. - Encouragement of civic involvement and pride Tourism has a great impact in raising mass awareness about natural resources and its financial value as well as about cultural significance. Additionally, it may also arouse a feeling of pride in local and national traditions and may encourage the mass to bring their attention in its conservation. In a broader sense, tourism has a great contribution in the preservation and maintainability of biodiversity. The above-mentioned positive impacts are observed when tourism is practiced and developed in a suitable fashion. Hence a community essentially involving the local population may contribute in developing more positive attitude by the virtue of planning and implementation of concepts relating to the enhancement of tourism sector including a profit-making phenomenon from tourism than population passively ruled. Thus one of the essential components of sustainable tourism development includes community development as it can be considered as the process and an ability to make decision attributing to the development of long-term economy, ecology and societal norms within community framework. Negative Impact The most prominent and significant negative social impact of tourism contributes to the changes in local identification and value attributing to several interrelated influences. - Conversion of local cultures into commodities The local culture can be converted into commodities by the improper intervention of tourism as a result of decline in religious rituals, traditional and ethnic rites and festivals as well as modifying those cultural objects according to tourists' expectations, leading to the development of a condition known as 'reconstructed ethnicity" (Hitchcock, 1997).. Once a target location is put up for sale in consideration for a tourism product, consequently the tourism demand incorporating souvenirs, arts, entertainment and other commodities starts to put forth influence, the fundamental changes integrating human values may take place. Hallowed places as well as objects may not well be respected according to their sacred value especially when they are treated as goods in terms of trading. - Intensified attention towards tourists' desire Tourists spot may encounter the risk for being under influence of the standardization of common available facilities such as food, drinks, accommodation as well as landscaping due to a prevalent biased attitude of tourists towards the search for recognizable facilities in an unfamiliar environment. However, tourists may search for the new things and desire for unfamiliar objects, but they are not at all inclined to too much unfamiliar or unusual things. For example, tourists may search for well-known food restaurants or food chains in an unfamiliar setup. - Adjustment to tourist demands In most of the cases, the craftsmanship belonging to a specific tourist destination may be influenced by the taste of the tourist and may be changed drastically according to tourist preferences so that the product can be brought under the product-line in accordance with customer preference, but not in congruence with the creative originality of the craftsmanship (Berno, 1999). However, the product development in congruence with tourist preference may contribute in the development of self-worth as well as may help in conserving the cultural tradition; however, cultural erosion may be resulted from the commodification of cultural products (Mirbabayev & Shagazatova). - Failure in authenticity When local culture is expressed and manifested into the preference of tourists, it may be adapted in such a fashion that it seems to act as "real life" situation consisting of "staged authenticity". As long as tourists become interested about the cultural value of a tourism destination for a short and specific period of time, lacking of any in-depth knowledge or interest about the culture, consequently leading to the staging. Significant approaches for managing social impact Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) are considered to be the tools by using which the environment management put effort to accomplish its objective (Department of Environment, 1989). The fundamental objective governing the functional mechanism of EIS and EIA is that no one has any right to use the valuable environmental resources causing greater loss than gaining profit to societal framework (website link, 5). In order to satisfy the definition of sustainable tourism, there are essentially three criterions to be fulfilled - environmental, social and economical. EIA is one of the significant methodologies that is used to identify, predict, evaluate and mitigate the biophysical, social, and other pertinent outcomes of development proposals prior to the initiation of foremost important decisions have been come into focus or any kinds of commitments are made (IAIA, 1999). It is primarily focused in assessing the sustainability in the development through the evaluation of various impacts resulted from various social activities such as consequences as a result of intervention made by policy, plan, programme or project, evidently have a great significance in environmental effects. It incorporates an anticipatory, participatory, and systematic contribution relying on multidisciplinary effort (Glasson et al, 1994). EIA has its own areas of usefulness along with several drawbacks as described in Table 1. On the other hand, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) explains environmental impact in documentation referred to as Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which essentially consists of four components for assessing the significance of the affected quality of human environment. These are - - An introductory area contains a statement describing the Purpose and Need of the Proposed Action. - A descriptive area explains the Affected Area. - A list defines the Range of Alternatives, also referred to as 'Heart' of the EIS to the proposed action. - An empirical analysis describes the environmental impact of each possible alternative. The NEPA promotes detail-orientated explanation and enhances the quality in decision-making strategies executed by Federal Agencies by providing empirical evidences concerning significant environmental impacts obtainable to both the agency leaders and to the common public (Supreme Court decision, 1989). On the other hand, LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is basically used to quantitatively classify the environmental impact caused by a product all through its life cycle as well as it analyzes the changes in the existing design or manufacturing process of the system (website link, 4). Conclusion The impact of tourism on local communities has both positive as well as negative impacts. It is entirely dependent on how and what extent it is implemented on local communities. As each and every community has its own limitations, it contributes to set the limits of incoming influences not negatively affecting the host community. Quite evidently, if that limitation is overcome it may result into creating negative impacts. However, positive impacts are rated with stronger significance than that of the negative impacts. References 1. Glasson, J., Therivel, R. & Chadwick, A. (1994) 'Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment' (London UCL Press) 2. IAIA - International Association for Impact Assessment in cooperation with Institute of Envi-ronmental Assessment (UK) (1999), Principles of EIA Best Practice; IAIA International Headquarters, ND 58103 USA. 3. Supreme Court decision: Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332, 349 (1989). 4. Din, K.H. (1988). Reports: Social Cultural Impacts of Tourism; Annals of Tourism Research 15(4):563-566 5. Environmental Impact Analysis, page: 22, Environmental Conservation Activities. http://www.ricoh.com/environment/ 6. Environmental Impact Analysis, http://72.14.235.104/searchq=cache:muUbD-YMiDYJ:discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/dlpd/courses/coursecontent/courseMaterial%255Cetzc362%255Cenvironmental_impact_analysis.pdf+environmental+impact+analysis&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=in 7. Socio-cultural Impact of Tourism. http://www.uneptie.org/pc/tourism/sust-tourism/social.htm 8. Mirbabayev B & Shagazatova M: The Economic and Social Impact of Tourism, http://72.14.235.104/searchq=cache:Hqf7Sj0k6AsJ:www.grips.ac.jp/alumni/UzbekistanTourism(2).pdf+social+impact+of+tourism&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=in 9. Berno, T. (1999). When a Guest is a Guest. Cook Islanders View Tourism; Annals of Tourism Research 26(3):656-675 10. Department of Environment (1989). Environmental Assessment. A Guide to the Procedure; HMSO, Welsh Office, London, UK 11. Hitchcock, R.K. (1997). Cultural, Economic and Environmental Impacts of Tourism Among Kalahari Bushmen; In: E. Chambers ed.: Tourism and Culture. An Applied Perspective; State University of New York Press, Albany, N.Y., USA, pp.93-128 12. Cohen, E. (1984). The Sociology of Tourism: Approaches, Issues and Findings; Annual Review of Sociology, 10:373-392 13. Pizam, A. (1978). Tourism's Impacts: The Social Costs to the Destination Community as Perceived by Its Residents; Journal of Travel Research 16(4):8-12 Table 1: A Critical Overview of EIA Methodologies Methodology Areas of Usefulness Drawbacks (a) Ad Hoc - Simple and no training / skills needed. - In-depth and focused analysis on few; When no expertise and resources available, this is the best. - Gives preliminary understanding. - Project's effects on environment given without any weighting and cause-effect relations. - Restricts to broad areas only. - Not all relevant impacts covered. - Selective and biased. - Lacks consistency due to different criteria to evaluate different groups of factors. (b) Checklists - Strong in impact identification. - Effective in evoking public attention. - Simple and easy to understand; comprehensive. - Most useful at the stage of initial environmental examination (IEE). - Scaling and weighting subjective. - Leaves interpretation to decision makers. - Measurement deficient. (c) Matrices - Provides cause-effect relations between project activities and impact on various attributes. - Graphical display of impact gives better understanding. - Strong in impact identification and their interaction is possible. - Information is lost due to quantification. - Scaling and weighting become subjective. (d) Networks - Capable of identifying both direct and indirect effects and their interaction. - Capable of incorporating mitigation and management measures at the planning stage of a project. - Less useful in considering socioeconomic environment. - Display becomes large and unwieldy when large industrial complexes or regional plans are considered. (e) Overlays - Useful in site and route selection. - Effective presentation and display. - Useful in transport projects and road route alternative; land use planning. - Quantification and measurement weak. - Not all impacts covered. Higher order impact cannot be identified. - Social environment not considered. Subjective. - Self-limiting in scope. Adopted from Environmental Impact Analysis (web link 5, pg: 40) Read More