Travelling is a Part of Life - Assignment Example

Topic:  Discuss the extent to which you feel modern tourism brings either more advantages or disadvantages to popular tourist areas. Tourismhas changed in recent times. Due to the economic benefits associated with tourism many countries have tried to develop tourism. It has emerged as an industry for the world as some of the countries are actually dependant on tourism(Shanks,2009). Tourism is not only a mere source of income for these countries but also an economic stabilizer. Countries totally dependant on tourism will have an economic growth period during the time people will be most interested in tourism willing to spend their money on this particular service and keep the economy stable and vice versa for the time when people will be least interested. Either ways so tourism has become very important for nations, specially those blessed with the natural beauty,a vast culture,heritage and history .Nations amongst these include most of Europe,Malaysia,Maldives,India and America.These countries have changed the way tourism was thought about like.To facilitate the customers of tourism,these nations did not only create hotels and motels but also satisfied tourists with the creation of a whole new dynamic infrastructure just to accommodate tourists near to the site.Online packages of all kinds including flight bookings,accommodation and transitions making it easier for a person to arrange for these things after the arrival.Other than this hotels also offer the service of airport pick and drop.People have made touring a part of their life.Tourism has been developed very well and hugely invested apoun as it was seen as the potential export.Every penny a household saves, one third of it is spent on travelling as it has not only been marketed well but become like a luxury and a way to ease out from the daily life activities. Popular tourist destinations around the world like Switzerland,America,Paris and turkey are all places that provide a unique selling point in terms of tourism.These place are either naturally blessed or part of some historical civilization or even artificially(manmade) designed very well.May it be the famous Eiffel tower of Paris, the statue of liberty in America or the canals and churches of Venice, these places attract tourists.For the tourist area the biggest advantage is the economic factor ofcourse as tourism creates employment for a huge population living in that country(Singh,2010). If tourists do not come to the destination, those persons directly involved in tourism for example, the straw vendors, the taxi drivers, retail storeowners etc., could be unable to pay their bills. If they are unable to make money they could be unable to pay their landlords, their mortgages (the banks), etc. For example, persons indirectly involved in tourism such as landlords, could have trouble obtaining their rent.The most relevant example would be of Bahamas approximately 30% of all persons in The Bahamas are directly employed in tourism(Francis,2006). If you add the persons who are indirectly employed in tourism the percentage of persons employed by the tourism sector increases to about 64%. Tourism provides foreign exchange which allows the government to pay foreign debt,maintain a strong currency and carry out further development plans to meet the long term goals of a country like increasing literacy rate or creating infrastructure facilities.Tourism also plays a very important role in attracting foreign direct investment.Countries like dubai and malaysia are becoming the hub of investment as these countries are rich in attracting tourists. The tourist industry is the fastest growing sector within Dubais economy. The number of tourists visiting Dubai has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, especially with regards to visitors from Western Europe, and the government hopes to attract 10 million tourists a year by 2010. For deciding a tourist destination an important factor people consider these days is the goods and services being offered there. People ofcourse would want to go to dubai to attend the Dubai shopping festival rather than shop in turkey which is not a very renowned place for its merchandise. So places like these not only get people to visit, use the hotel services but also to spend huge amounts of money on products being offered locally which indirectly flourishes the local industry. This increase in demand leads to a rise in economic growth ,stability and job creation. A tourist country doesn’t only offer goods and services like clothes and banking but also gives rise to the concept of cross cultural sharing.The knowledge of one culture is being passed on to the people of a different race,ethinicity and nationality(Vandana and Sharma,2007).This knowledge promotes interest for ones culture and helps in making relations with other countries better,for example the uk-india bonds,there are actually societies of Indians in London and the people of UK follow Indian music and goes vice versa giving rise to the bhangra culture.The visit of Indian people in Pakistan,teaches Indians that the surface situation being exaggerated by the media and the government is a truth by far when people actually see how normal the situation is and the people are cooperative for eachother.This creates good ties between the people of both the countries enabling celebrities and groups holding events to bring together the people and the governments to raise the flag of peace. So another indirect role tourism plays is the enhancement of international relations. Countries open to tourism are perceived as being safe and peaceful(Raghuram,2010). Tourism is not only for foreigners but also for locals living in other cities.Tourism is a healthy activity which creates happy memories for people as a person is tension free during a vacation and has the time of his life with his friends or family.It gives a break from the hectic routine of life that we follow and forget about our tensions and commitments. Tourism allows the people to interact with nature and understand how complex and beautifully this world has been designed. The feeling of skiing and skydiving is a divine pleasantry which can not be compared to any. Although tourism is a mass market segment which seems to be growing at all times and has the potential to take countries from a developing position to a developed one(Sharma,2010). But there are some, certain drawbacks or limitations which tourism brings along with the advantages. Although it seems tourism enhances natural beauty and helps people to better interact with nature but in some cases it’s the opposite. Due to massive construction work near hill stations and mountainous areas, a lot of deforestation has taken place compromising the raw untouched beauty of nature. The issue of deforestation is an alarming one as it is a vicious cycle which hurts the environment. Deforestation has been done on such a large scale to construct hotels, plazas and parkings that the effects are disastrous. Trees along with providing natural beauty and greenery produce oxygen which is essential for our survival. Trees provide fruits and paper which are both necessities. Along with that forests provide a natural environment for the animals to survive, so deforestation also plays a part in extinction of certain species.Along with deforestation the structure of many areas has been changed to accomodate these huge projects diminishing the originality of the area. Problems of over crowdedness are also common deteriorating the peaceful environment e.g Murree, a famous hill station in Pakistan becomes so overcrowded during the peak season that people do not prefer going there anymore. This overcrowding also causes pollution of every kind including noise, air and water hindering the life of the locals there. Traffic congestion, sea littering and unhygienic nutrition are all results of this. Cultural invasion is another serious issue as some tourist areas become so influenced due to the tourism culture that its own cultural identity comes at stake for e.g. Turkey, a Muslim state is highly westernized and people have been very much influenced negatively. Malaysia has lost its own identity as most of the population living there is of tourists so the essence of its own heritage is slowly diminishing. Other than this,critics argue that the huge investment made by states on developing the tourism sector could have been utilized elsewhere like the education and health sector. To conclude i would like to say that tourism is a successful phenomena of earning foreign exchange,increasing employment and economic growth.It doesnot only share the cultural values of one area with the tourists but creates an affiliation with the people living there indirectly promoting peace and humanity. It gives a chance to the developing nations to become steady in the race by utilizing their tourism potential.But it carries the drawbacks of pollution,overcrowding,deforestation and cultural invasion if handled poorly. Bibliography 1)Cheryl,Shanks. The nine paradoxes of modern tourism. published in revista,2007. 2)Singh, Mahesh C. Modern Tourism in 21st Century. New Delhi: Centrum Press, 2010. Print. 3)Justin,Francis.Research article,2006 4)Yadav, Vandana, and Upasana Sharma. Modern Tourism in Global Perspective. New Delhi: Shree Publishers & Distributors, 2007. Print 5)Raghuram, R K. Growth and Development of Modern Tourism. Delhi: Pacific Publication, 2010. Print 6).Sharma, Lalita. Dynamics of Modern Tourism. New Delhi: Centrum Press, 2010. Print Read More