Discuss tourism revenue vs. cultural integrity among nations whos economies rely on tourism - Essay Example

This creates a task managing the conflicting demands of sustaining this source of revenue through cultural preservation with the forces of globalization and economic advancement among affected group of people. According to Gill (149), the efforts of governments to preserve cultural authenticity are aimed at creating or maintaining a cohesive but controlled marketable cultural image of the society. They aim at maximizing the cultural authenticity of the people while ensuring that the people also benefit from preserving their culture.

Governments take advantage of the presence of wildlife in the area inhabited by such cultures to control commercial and industrial activities in the area. Such activities open an area to varied local and international immigrants for purposes of exploiting its economic potentialities. When this happens, the culture of the locals gets diluted due to influence. Using Maasai-land in Kenya as an example, the government does not allow the building of big hotels or setting up of industries in the area especially places near the game parks.

Restricted commercialization limits the freedom of such cultures to access and utilize phones, internet and other modern technologies that could influence their mindset. Governments also advise and direct societies with authentic cultures on the type of economic activities to undertake. These are those that will limit the possibilities of their culture being eroded. The people are encouraged to adopt a tourism-oriented economy like producing artifacts instead of engaging in trading, mining or extensive farming.

Heritage tourism is the basis of such kind of an economy. The Vietnam government aimed at recreating their authentic 17th century culture within the unstable context of 21st century in Hoi An town so as to improve its tourism attraction potential. As a result of this, officials in Hoi An have restricted the type of business allowed