Tourism Impacts and Sustainability in the World - Research Paper Example

Tourism Impacts and Sustainability in the World Task: Tourism Impacts and Sustainability in the World Tourism is the travelling by people for leisure, recreational, or business purposes were an individual stays away from his usual environment for periods not exceeding one year. Throughout the world, international tourism has been gaining more and more popularity as a leisure activity. Over the past few years, there has been an increased growth in receipts from tourism, except for the recent depression observed in several parts of the world. The depression has slowed down the growth that was initially observed (Baxter 2004, Pp. 14-15). Kenya is among some of the countries in the world blessed by a variety of wildlife ranging from a variety of animals such as the big five; the elephant, the buffalo, the rhino, the lion and the hippopotamus. Although the wildlife serves as the main tourist attraction, the country has a lot more to offer. These include wildlife and other major attractions such as, the nice and serene Kenyan cost in the shores of the Indian Ocean, the great Mountain View of Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro and Abadere ranges near mount Longonot (Baxter 2004, Pp.14-15). As a result of the tourism activities, tourist attractions in other countries such as Tanzania have kept the country with a continuous stream of both domestic and international tourists. Economically, there has been a continuous and steady growth. This is observed in the rate of growth of the revenue collected by the government (John 2003, Pp. 14-15). These are in terms of the taxes collected from various economic activities such as hotels and travel industries held by the private sector. The continuous stream of tourist attractions has brought both positive and negative side effects of the activity. The positive impacts are observed almost in all parts of the economy of the host country. Some of them include; economic growth, creation of jobs, creation of good currency circulation, inflow/creation of foreign exchange, growth in infrastructure, growth in social amenities, and creation of a good international relationship between the host country and the other countries (Elsevier 1987, Pp. 84). To begin with, we will look at the improvement and growth of economic development and growth in Canada (Chandana 2003, Pp. 408-412). As it has been observed through research, there is increased income in the economy. This is due to the increasing income from the tourism sector. It is evident that as more tourists visit the country more revenue will be realized and, as a result, improved economic development. Secondly, we will look at the creation of jobs, as the number of tourists’ increases, there is pressure on the existing infrastructure. This will create an increased demand which in the process there will be increased investments in the whole industry. The investment will always create a great deal of jobs due to the multiplier effect. More jobs will help to increase the standard of living of the workers (Chandana 2003, Pp. 408-412). The country will also witness an increase in the level of currency circulation in the host country. As the number of tourists increases, more buying and selling takes place as the tourists spent their money on so veneers, utilities as well as on bills. The number of transactions increases the level of currency circulation. This has the effect of improving the level of transactions in the economy, as well as the level of economic activity (Chandana 2003, Pp. 408-412). This is because the higher the level of economic activity the higher the rate of growth of the economy due to the multiplier effect. When the international tourists come in to the host country, they have to appreciate the services in monetary terms. They pay the bills as utilities as well as travel and other needs. They pay using their money which is in terms of foreign currency. This earns this country foreign currency. This helps the host country by increasing the value of its currency as well as the balance of payment of the host country. It helps to stabilize the countries’ price level and currency value. As the tourists come in to the country, they will always need to be comfortable in terms of; the services they receive, good social amenities as well as good roads that will enable them to travel and tour the country. For example, the government of Egypt has to make sure it has good infrastructure in order to have a good name on the face of the tourists. This guarantees that they will come back during their next vacation period. In the process, good roads are build, good hotels as well as recreational and social amenities. The local people thus benefiting the local communities also use this (Richter 2003, Pp. 32). The tourism activities are carried out throughout the year; this also means that the tourists will need some social amenities such as hospitals, constantly flowing piped water etc. This are some basic things that should be available but considering the geographical location of a country like Egypt it takes an initiative to achieve this (Richter 2003, Pp. 32). The government requires a constant flow of revenue from these activities. As a result, it has to make sure that each service is offered to the best of the countries abilities. This will enable the government to develop good relations, which can help the government to make goodwill to the tourists in person. In the process, this facilitates the development of good relations in their country of origin. This will guarantee the probability of these tourists coming back during their next vacation (Richter 2003, Pp. 32). On the other hand, we look at the negative effects of tourism they include: economic effects, cultural effects, environmental effects, social effects and eco system effects. Firstly we consider the negative implications on the economy of a country such as South Africa. From the economic perspective, some of these tourists smuggle the currency of the host country out of the country. This leads to loss of currency, in the end this ends up as the wastage of recourses in terms of currency (Dwyer 2006, PP. 30). The next thing we will consider is the cultural effects. Most of the international tourists that visit this country have completely different cultural values as well as believes. On the other hand the local people perceive these tourists as superior. As a result, they are prone to copying or trying to assimilate most of their behavior even vices. The locals copy these vices without careering to think of neither their implications nor consequences for example, homosexuality which is completely disregarded by the African culture. The other effect is the environmental effect. It comes about when the tourists litter the parks, the accumulated litter is an eyesore and it pollutes the environment (Dwyer 2006, Pp. 30). If not disposed by the authorities wild animals may eat this litter which may lead to extinction of certain species. During the construction of tourist hotels and other social amenities, forests must be cleared to pave the way for these constructions, this leads to deforestation. These activities also if they go on unchecked lead to environmental degradation. The worst effect, however, is the problem of drug abuse. Some of these tourists use hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin or hashish. These drugs are highly addictive, and even the first use may mean addiction for cocaine. Some of the local people or even sometimes teenagers may try out the drug thinking that it is a game. In most cases, this has turned out to be so disastrous leaving behind a trail of junkies who cannot do anything for themselves. These people are neglected leaving behind a trail of destroyed lives (Dwyer 2006, Pp. 30). Apart from that there is also the problem of prostitution. In South Africa, the level of poverty in some local families living in these parts of the world is astounding and highly unbelievable. The girl child, therefore, is faced with so many problems to the point that if she finds herself in the wrong company during her teenage years, she might do prostitution. In these parts of the world, this has been a very negative impact on the part of tourism in South Africa (Pretorius 2002, Pp. 47-54). Although there are so many challenges facing tourism in South Africa, the government has always tried to improve and sustain tourism. Some of these challenges have been; poaching; this is an activity where by the perpetrators kill the animals especially elephants in order to take their tusks and sell them. The tusks fetch high international prices, because of these so many elephants and rhinos have been killed. This has lead to the extinction of some of them; for example, the white rhino has been an endangered species in South Africa for some time now (Stephen 2010). The tourism sector is badly affected at times by the high level of insecurity and terrorism activities. At some point, South Africa was in the verge of losing its tourism customers due to the poor security that lead to the kidnapping of tourists Jihad newspaper. However, the problem has since improved. The government tried to solve this challenge by first mounting or elevating safety measures in the country. To improve on the image of the country abroad, some governments engage in a campaign to advertise the country abroad through continuous and consistent promotions. This has helped a great deal in improving the image of these countries among foreign countries. To minimize on the problem of poaching the government has sought the help of international organizations. It leads to the burn on the trade of ivory and its products (Francis 2003, Pp. 10). This has helped in sustaining the tourism industry. The Angolan population has also witnessed an improvement on the state of infrastructure in the region. To achieve this, the government had to set aside a ministry that would directly deal with matters of tourism as well as matters of roads. To facilitate on the operations of these ministries the government has done budgetary allocations for both the ministry of tourism and wildlife as well as on the ministry of roads. This helps to sustain the tourism industry. In the previous years, the government of South Africa had witnessed a very big level of human-wildlife conflict that has lead to the loss of both human and animal life. This had been a major setback to wildlife conservation as the animals that went on the rampage were killed by angry villagers. The government has had to fence the major national packs with electric fencing; this effort has reduced on the cases of human wildlife conflict in a major way. This helps to sustain the tourism industry and its future (Jason 2005, Pp. 20). There has also been the establishment of conservation efforts, through the establishment of the animal orphanages that help conserve on the endangered species. Here, the animals are given special attention in terms of medical needs for the injured and care for those that face extinction. This helps to sustain the tourism industry. To encourage conservation, the government of South Africa has also licensed private individuals who are seen to have potential to have birds’ sanctuaries and animal orphanages. This has helped to conserve those rear species that if not for the sanctuaries they would have been extinct from the face of the earth (Jason 2005, Pp. 20). This helps to sustain the tourism industry. The government of Canada has always maintained the national parks and game reserves under its own management. For the smaller reserves, they are put under the management of the local authorities such as the municipal council and the town council. This effort has always helped to keep the various parks and game reserves monitored throughout the year. This helps to sustain the tourism industry. To improve on the laws governing the wildlife as well as natural resources, the government of Canada has done some legislation. This are aimed in protecting the national parks and game reserves, for example, in Canada you cannot cut down a tree even in your own compound without a permit from your local Authorities (Kozak 2006, Pp. 25). The perpetrator will be taken up for trial in a court of law. On the other hand, those caught carrying out poaching are taken as having committed a very serious offence liable to a long period in prison if found guilty. Conclusion According to the various research carried out many people in the world have taken up tourism as a leisure activity. The prevalence of tourism has seen many governments to invest heavily in the tourism sector. This has greatly increased the revenue of some of the countries in the world. As a result so many countries have found themselves in situations where the tourism sector has a very large contribution to the progress of the economy. On the other hand, there are challenges that try to complicate and at times threaten the whole tourism industry. This may include factors such as poaching, famine, fires by arsonists, extinction of some other animals such as the white rhino in South Africa (SA). The government of SA has gone to the extent of developing units in the game rangers who use tags to monitor the movement of the endangered species. This will help to trace the movement of the animal to keep them away from the hands of the poachers. The tourism sector has seen commercialization of the sector in order to be able to collect even more revenue. The governments are seen to establish better social amenities, for example, better hotels, better roads and better recreational facilities such as parks. This are well kept, and the wild life excellently managed for a sustainable tourism industry both in the future and present. Some of these governments have decided to engage in rigorous marketing campaigns both locally and internationally in order to raise their level of awareness. To a very large extent this helps to improve on the number of tourists and awareness. The government, therefore, is sure that it has built greater and sustainable tourism industry in terms of goodwill achieved. All those efforts are done in order to build a competitive advantage over other countries who offer the same services. The conservation of wildlife is meant to ensure that the tourism attraction still holds and that the animals are always there to sustain the attraction. The museums are kept in good conditions to be able to sustain a longer site of attraction. On the other hand, scenarios that are spectacular such as the Great Wall of China are advertised. The advertisement is meant to ensure the scenario captures the interest of the largest number of individuals as these guarantees more tourists. References Baxter, E 2004, Wiley Online Library, International Journal of Tourism, vol. 3, no. 320, pp. 14-15. 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