Benefits of Tourism - Essay Example

Tourism Tourism can be defined as travel for leisure, recreation or business, for a specific duration. Tourism can be multi-national or traveling to a different location in the same country. Tourists are defined as people who travel and stay in places far from their homes, for leisure, recreation and other business activities. Over the years, tourism has grown into a global recreation activity. International tourism has effects on a countries economic and financial balance, including both outgoing and incoming effects. These effects are both positive and negative. Tourism can also be domestic. In many countries, most of the tourists are international, and the tourism business has become the major source of income. Countries that have made tourism a major source of income gain a very important effect from the business. This affects the economic functions of both the host and source countries. Tourism is of great significance in growth and development of many countries. It is a vital source of income. Tourism has direct effects on the education, economic, cultural and social sectors of nations and their relations at an international level. Through tourism, income is generated through payment of goods and services used by tourists. This business also creates employment in the service field of the tourism sector. These employment opportunities are created in the fields of transport, entertainment services like theaters, music, parks, hotels and casinos and other services like shopping centers and accommodation. Tourists also buy a lot of items in form of accessories and jewelry, clothes, shoes and other cultural items like custom made beads and paintings. Most of the regular tourists travel during the tropic seasons in the winter and summer. With the development of technology, there was an increase and development of mass tourism. This is where tourists travel in large numbers to different places of leisure, within a short period of time. Technology improved the transport service which enabled mass tourism allowing greater numbers of people to enjoy the advantage of recreation time. In the United States, the first resorts at the seaside in the European style were located at the Atlantic City, Long Island, New Jersey and New York. Since tourists have a wide range of taste and budgets, different nations visited have created a wide range of services, hotels and resorts to accommodate them. Tourists have different tastes so it is important for host nations to create a wide variety of products to cater for all the different interests of tourists. Some tourists prefer simple beaches while others like specialized services for family vacations and others just want quiet hotels and resorts. As technology developed, air transport was made easier with the introduction of low cost airlines. This made tourism more affordable hence increasing the number of tourists across the globe. Other factors like retirement age also encourage tourism, whereby after retirement, a number of people spent the rest of their leisure time as tourists. Tourism involves a lot of activities and interchange of different behaviors and social activities; therefore, it is important to observe sustainable tourism. This means being able to provide and cater for the needs of the tourists without risking or ignoring the future tourist a chance to meet their needs. Sustainable tourism is the ability to manage all the available assets and resources in a manner that will benefit the social, economic and cultural needs and at the same time protect the environment, cultural integrity and the biological diversity among other aspects of life. Sustainable tourism gives respect to the ecological and social aspects of life, and also allows the citizens to participate in the planning and budgeting for tourism. Tourism activities which are planned for the purpose of helping the poor people in the developing nations can be defined as pro-poor tourism. This kind of tourism activities have been on the rise and most of the attention is received from the people who are involved with development matters. These efforts are carried out in many ways, one being the efforts to attract larger numbers of tourists by the ministries of tourism. Another effort put in place is the introduction of small businesses or projects in the local levels. Tourism can also be carried out in small scale areas that are mostly protected and vulnerable. This kind of tourism is referred to as ecological tourism, also known as ecotourism. Ecotourism is very educative and adventurous to the tourists. It also helps to create finances for conservation purposes, and boosts the economic development of the host nation. Ecotourism promotes political enhancement for the local communities and encourages respect for human rights and various diverse cultures. Tourists are often focused on taking the memories, being responsible over the environment and maintaining discipline. Tourism that is carried out for educational purposes is known as educational tourism. This was introduced because of the rising need for teaching and learning various skills and knowledge beyond the normal classroom environment. Educational tourism mainly involves tourists visiting other countries to learn about their cultural and social lives. Tourists also get involved in other activities like applying knowledge learnt in the classes on a different environment. Some tourists travel to take advantage of the pride of another country’s medical procedures. This can be defined as medical tourism. These kinds of tourists travel to explore the different procedures and regulation of the medical fields. People should travel and explore more because tourism can be very educative. Through travel, people get to share knowledge across the world, and learn so much about other countries and sites. The different types of tourism provide a wide range of tour options and places to visit. Adventurous people can try more exciting and adventurous places on earth including the scary historical places. Students can visit educational places in line with their field of study. As mentioned above, medical students should utilize the opportunities for medical tourism and learn the diverse procedures and regulatory regimes of various competing counties. Tourism may be carried out in very dangerous or threaten places on earth. Such places include the coral reefs, high peek mountains and other environmentally threatened places. This is referred to as doom tourism. The places visited during doom tourism are usually challenged by factors like overpopulation, global warming and climate change. Dark tourism is related to doom tourism because it involves traveling to dark places like scenes of acts of genocide, battlefields and is also educative. Tourists travel for a number of reasons and interests. Sports are one of the major interests of tourism. Sports like football and Olympics; especially the world cup attracts millions of tourists across the world. Benefits of tourism Economic benefits; tourism has many benefits in the economic sector of the host countries. Tourists tend to spend a lot of money buying stuff mostly cultural products from different cultures. This money collected from such sales boost the economic growth and development. Tourism creates job opportunities in the host countries. Services like transport, accommodation and entertainment are the most beneficial for job opportunities. Indirect job opportunities include the food and production industries. Tourism also brings infrastructure development in areas like airports, roads, and other retail facilities. Through creation of jobs and improvement of infrastructure, the economic function of the host countries is improved and the government is able to make other developments in areas like health and politics. Environmental benefits; tourism provides knowledge skills and services that help to conserve the environment. Financial support gained from tourists is driven towards conserving the ecosystems and the natural habitat. Host countries focus on maintaining a healthy and natural environment both in the wild and domestic areas, to make it appealing as a tourist attraction. Making the environment more desirable by tourists, helps to add more value to the local tourism business as well. As tourists travel far and wide learning and exploring, they also spread and share so much knowledge that is useful in conserving and maintaining a healthy natural environment. In that case, the government generates more income and knowledge from the tourism business. Social benefits; tourism brings about a sense of pride and identity to the communities in the host countries. Different communities have different cultural and social characters. During entertainment sessions for the tourists, communities showcase their cultural and social ways of life, which gives both entertainment and different knowledge to the tourists. These kinds of events and activities give a special identity to the communities, and at the same time encourage the communities preserve their traditions. Tourism encourages improvement of facilities for residents as well. Through developed infrastructure, residents also benefit as they use the same roads and other facilities like hotels. Tourism encourages introduction of new products and services, while expanding the existing businesses. Most of the businesses expanded as a result of tourism would not have expanded depending on the existing population alone. In that case, tourism expands small businesses to bigger companies, generating more income and promoting a sustainable economic environment. This helps the government in many ways because most people do not relay on government aid as they are able to venture into tourism business and actually make more income for the development of the nation at large. Government involvement in tourism The local governments can support tourism in several ways. Government support is of vital importance since tourism itself is of so much benefit to the government. The government can get involved through funding and providing the most important infrastructural services for tourism that are behind the economic development. Facilitating tourism activities through engaging in regulatory practices that encourage sustainable communities is another way the government can help support tourism business. The government can support tourism by raising and giving knowledge to the communities about the benefits that are gained from tourism business. This will encourage many people to create more products that are attractive to tourists. The private sector is very important in every host country to the tourism business. The local and central government can work together with the private sector to develop a model and decide on the roles and responsibilities in relation to tourism infrastructure and other needs. The regional and local government can work together closely to agree and arrange destination marketing and management. Government support can be delivered through taking up responsibility over a whole sector to improve its efficiency in tourism planning, managing and development. Since different tourist have different tastes and interests, the government can identify available opportunities that can be used to improve the quality of visitor experiences. Local authorities can add value to the tourism business in several ways. They can adopt activities that promote high public good outcome and avoid taking part in activities competing with the private sector. Local authorities can also develop business friendly practices that promote development in the tourism business. Another way that local authorities can add value to tourism is through involvement in reasonable and equitable rating practices and making sure that the funding actions taking place result to productive benefits to the business community at large. Tourism business is very profitable in the worldwide business community. In the current trends, tourism has been on the rise due to continued improvement in technology and infrastructure. It is the duty of every county, source or host, to make sure that tourism is maintained and carried out in a profitable and educative style. Developing countries have also embraced the tourism business and are undertaking various environmental skills and strategies to add more value to tourism. It is important to note that the world is changing due to many factors like climate change and global warming, therefore conserving the environment and preserving tourist attraction sites is a practice that should not be ignored by any government. In conclusion, tourism is a very important part of the business community. It is one of the major sources of income in many countries. Host countries can enhance tourism business by doing more research on improving their products and services. People around the world should travel more and experience the diversity of cultures and make the best use of their leisure time. It is also very important to remember that nature should be conserved for the future generations. Work Cited Natural News newspaper; Medical tourism adopted by businesses. 2002. Travel Daily News; Daily travel & tourism news portal for the international travel trade market since 1999. Sahahi: Covering the Horn of Africa, by Harbi Abdullahi Omar. April 2014 Read More