The Socio-Cultural impacts of late night tourists on residents of Ayia Napa - Essay Example

After the 1974 war in Cyprus, Ayia Napa has developed from being a small fishing town to one of Europe’s finest destinations. Through out the years it has experienced a mixture of changes in tourism demographics, by attracting visitors interested in the local culture twenty years ago to visitors who are mostly interested in clubbing now. This new inflow of mass tourism has affected the socio-cultural lifestyle of the village. Late night tourists are the visitors who come to Ayia Napa for clubbing and entertainment mainly.

The number of the young tourists has rose in the last decades. Page and Connel (2009) argue that Sociocultural impacts are directly related with the host community of the destination and occur when tourists cause changes to the individual behaviour, social relationships, culture, lifestyle and value systems of the locals. Mathieson and Wall (1982) as well as Wolf (1977) agree and also state that the socio-cultural impacts are the different effects that tourists have on the host communities. Cooper et al (2008) note that the socio-cultural impacts can be both, positive and negative.

Wall and Mathieson (2008) claim that most of the impacts are negative in contrast to the economic impacts that tourism can have on a host destination. Affeld (1975, cited in Wall and Mathieson, 2008) argues that the cultural and social impacts of tourism fall into three categories; the tourist, the host and tourist-host interrelationships. Fox (1977, cited in Wall and Mathieson, 2008, pp. 220) states that “The social and cultural impacts of tourism are the way in which tourism is contributing to changes in value systems, individual behaviour, family structure and relationships, collective lifestyles, safety levels, moral conduct, creative expressions, traditional ceremonies and community organisations”.

Goeldner and Ritchie (2006) notes that local peoples attitudes and mode of life is determined by the way visitors