Social analysis of urban experience and sustainable tourism - Essay Example

? Social Analysis of Urban Experience and Sustainable Tourism Introduction Urbanization in itself is a complex and has experienced a lot of social, environmental, commercial and geographical changes in the process of its evolution. Rapidly increasing population and globalised trade policies enforced the states to strengthen their industrial power. Consequently it led to the concentration of country population towards the industrial hubs shaping in big cities with dense population resulting in over exploitation; a major cause, threatening global biodiversity. (Wilcove, Rothstein, Dubow and Losos 1998). The urbanization had often faced anti - urban expressions from contemporary social-theorists. Besides the luxurious life, urbanization erased the originality of the indigenous and traditional system leading to social malfunctioning. It is estimated that a quarter of the endangered vertebrates in the United States of America and half of the endangered mammals is attributed to overexploitation (Primack 2002). 2. Urbanization and Society The process of urbanization deserves credit for its role in initiating Meritocracy ( Kamolnick 2005). Michael Young defined the term as; the rise of the meritocracy favors intelligence, aptitude and merit above all (Young 1958).The increase in the industries, created a large number of job opportunities lowering unemployment. Along with that the concept of capitalism has played a key role in urbanization and development of sophisticated technology in the world. However, these good sides of the urbanization carry equally dangerous ill-effects in the society and environment which is harmful to social system and nature. There is an extreme necessity of the sustainable development, mostly giving emphasis on sustainable tourism. As Pattullo and Orely (2009) asserts, the number of tourist trips in the year 2007 was some 900 million. And by 2020, it is expected to reach 1.6 billion making tourism $8 trillion industry employing 1 of 10 world workers. Simultaneously, such a huge increase in the number of tourists has resulted in some adverse ill-effects in the urban life experience, such as: 1. Cities are filled with mismanaged crowd resulting in over population. 2. Uncontrolled noise and air pollution due to huge number of vehicles in the cities challenging public health in cities. 3. Increase in unmanageable garbage resulting in a dirty city environment. 4. Increase in prostitution and drug dealing, so to fulfill the demand of the tourists. 5. Cultural and ethical values in city life have been endangered due to its frequent exposure to foreign population. 6. Increase in security problems in cites, due to unaccountability of tourists giving easy entry to the terrorists and other criminals. As a result of the above mentioned factors, the urban life has changed into a suffocated one. However, to maintain the economic conditions, people are forced to stay back; otherwise they would have been seeking for peaceful options to live their life. Let us take, India as an example: In 1986, the first known case of HIV was diagnosed. Later that year, sex workers began showing signs of this deadly disease. It is learned that these foreigners were the ones responsible for the first infections (aidsindia 2011). At the end of 2009, India had 2.39 million people living with HIV (Times 2010). 3. Urbanization and sustainable development We have already discussed the environmental issues which are serious concern for many countries as urbanization is rooted all over the world. The only need is to construct the urban areas into habitable and sustainable cities. For this, we need to identify the urban problems and its solutions to reform it and also find out the ways to prepare the cities for sustainable tourism. To achieve such aims, there are some key-points to follow: To teach the people about garbage management. To provide more attention to conservation of natural resources. Preferring Eco friendly industries and machines that function without disturbing ecosystem. 4. Role of institutions and public responsibility The institution is the other factor that plays an important role in shaping up the social system which has a deep relation with urbanization. They are the policy-makers and people certainly practice their conduct. Therefore, the determination of the institution to bring certain reform would obviously help to combat the problems created by the urbanization. Let’s take an example of UK government funding money for UK sustainable tourism development on priority basis according to the potentiality of the region (Markson 2001). Policies by British Tourism Association have achieved a great success. As far as US and Canada is concerned, they are encouraging urban agriculture, roof-top agriculture and gardening. As, community based urban agriculture has four general characteristics physical, economic, social and ecological which encourages implications of the practice of urban agriculture and its relevance to the construction of sustainable cities (Ghimere 2008). 5. Urbanization and world cities theory There are some important factors to maintain sustainable city from the inflow of high velocity of tourists such as the need of strict regulations constructing eco-friendly tourist cities. Fascination of a tourist place inherits wholly in its domestic distinctiveness. Preservation of historic monuments and providing importance to the regional culture and political values would certainly help maintain the uniqueness of the domestic culture (Ashworth 1989). Performance of tourists is other factor to be concerned seriously as their demands confine the functioning of the institutions along with that cosmopolitanism is becoming a global trend; cities are turning into copies of each other, it is necessary to preserve the domestic qualities to provide a flourishing environment for tourists (Harvey 1989). Conclusion Serious dangers such as ‘Global Warming’ are caused by unplanned urbanization. Therefore, to sustain the nature for our coming generations, we need to opt for nature sustainably. Now, it is an overall responsibility of world governments and humanities to step ahead in process of preserving the nature and turning the tourism industry into more vulnerable and beneficial for tourists, local population as well as the environment. Work Cited AIDS in India, Overview of HIV, Web Sources, http://www.avert.org/aidsindia.htm. Ashworth, G.J 2000, The tourist-Historic city, Elsevier, Book. Ghimire, Surya P 2008, Urban Agriculture in the Urban Landscape: An Analysis of Successful Urban Agriculture in the U.S., OhioLINK ETD Centre, Web Sources. Hindustan Times 2010, Overview of HIV, Web Sources. Harvey, David 1989, The Urban Experience, Johns Hopkins university press, Book. Kamolnick, Paul 2005, The Just Meritocracy: IQ class mobility, and American social policy, Greenwood Publishing Group, Web Source. Markson, Nick 2001, Tourism and European Regional Funding, Online Journal article. Pattullo, Polly and Minelli, Orely 2009, The Ethical Travel Guide: Your passport to exciting Primack, R.B 2002, Essentials of Conservation Biology, Sinauer Associates Inc, Book. alternative holidays, Earthscan ltd, Book. Wilcove, D.S., Rothstein, D., Dubow, J. Phillips, A. and Losos E 1998, Quantifying Threats to Imperilled Species in the United States, BioScience, Websource. Young, Michael 1958, essay, Web Sources. Read More