Tourism Should Be Considered a Sustainable Activity - Essay Example

Tourism is the main economic booster in any host country on this earth if the practice is on a sustainable basis. It mainly concerns the act of human travel to other countries of interest for leisure, academic or business purposes. This write-up shall extensively tackle reasons why sustainable tourism is necessary to the country and how this invisible trade can be of great benefit to host country. It shall also shade some light on how both the nation and its citizen in question shall benefit from it. This can only happen when conducted in a manner that shall ensure harmony co-exist within the bio-diversity at the same time conserve the culture of the country. Tourism is among the highly lucrative and sustainable economic venture that is worth envisaging into by a nation as marked by the socio-economic importance attached to it. Tourism is the giant foreign exchange earner to the host country. When tourist visits the various attraction sites, they pay for facilities in the parks and game reserves. They also pay for food, accommodation and other recreational facilities provided by hotels and lodges in the host country. All these payments are availed in foreign currencies (De la Barre 2013, p.843). Tourism also provides an avenue for exporting various local products and services in the country of destination. Such products include carvings, pottery, and other items made by the natives of the country. She uses the money so received to improve the living standards of her people, as this is the main parameter for gauging economic growth in the country. Tourism provides employment opportunities to the local people. Thousands of people have secured jobs in tourist hotels as managers, cooks, waiters, and cleaners. Other people secure jobs as drivers and tour-guides while tourism agencies recruit most of the people as security personnel. The issue of unemployment being a critical phenomenon to any country shall greatly reduce. Since most of the tourist travel by air, airports in the country of destination shall provide jobs to the majority of the otherwise jobless citizens. Creation of employment opportunities to citizens of the host country is as good as raising their living standards while at the same time, raising the GDP host nation considerably. It is the role of the government to create wealth and distribute the same wealth to the citizens. Tourism is an alternative economic activity to any Nation. It also leads to the utilization of the natural scenic beauty that was endowed by nature to her, in order to avoid such facilities remaining unexploited yet the citizens are languishing in abject poverty. Many industries will mushroom courtesy of the tourism sector in the country. Among the notable industries that are the backbone of economic growth in any nation are transport and service industries. In the transport industry, the government must erect roads, railways, and airports in order to streamline tourist travel to various places of destination. In addition, need for modern means of transport like jumbo jets, airliners and cruise ships will be necessary to get rid of hiccups in the transport sector (Kline et al 2012, p.245). A hospitality service industry is another very important industry that will grow speedily. In this regard, both transport and hospitality service industry dovetail each other in catalyzing tourism in the host country (O'Brien & Ponting 2013, P.168). Banking industry being the most vital service-providing sector that supports this invisible trade will also mushroom across the country. Communication industry is among industries whose growth stems from the luxuriant expansion of the tourism sector, it does not only link tourists to their destination, but it also ensures coordination in the sector. Tourism has seen a marked improvement in the communications sector since time in memorial and this has led the current trends as use of emails, cell phones, and facsimile machines in conveying and receiving information around the globe. Growth of one industry leads to a series of growth in other related industries and eventually, the host country shall accrue the benefits behind the changes. Tourism is the best way of preserving the biodiversity and heritage of the host country. Biodiversity refers to plants and animals in their natural settings. Wildlife is one of the main recipes of the tourism industry that plays a pivotal role in attracting the visitors to the host country. A country that is rich with diverse species of the wildlife shall find her as the destination of many visitors all throughout the year round. The main magnet of visitors are the big five animals like the Lion, Elephant, Rhinos, Buffaloes and the Hippos are the main centre of interest to visitors to the country of destination .This shall force the country to cherish these animals in her land as one of the strategies of maintaining consistency in the flow of visitors to the country. Doom tourism is one of the latest emerging issues in tourism with the objective of travelling to areas key facing environmental degradation with an intention of taking corrective measures to curb the menace (Kline et al 2012, p.245). There are major vegetation regions of the world that currently form main attraction sites round the globe. Some includes the Amazon forest of Southern America, the Congo forest of Africa among others (De la Barre 2013, p.841). Improvement of basic infrastructure is the other key sector that shall be elevated as tourism industry picks on. Among the main physical infrastructure are the roads that must be laid to transverse the nation in order to connect the attraction sites in the host country, hence making such areas accessible during all the seasons of the year. Power supply in the country shall also be availed by the country in a bid to ensure any activity or event-requiring power goes on without any problem. The issue of clean water supply shall not lag behind, as water is life. The government is entasked to protect all the water towers in the country to ensure the issue of water supply in the country is no more. Tourism is a tool for marketing a country overseas. Tourists tend to travel to countries with rich tourism destination, as popularized by availability of rich flora and fauna among other factors attached to hospitality of the citizens of the country. Peace tranquility within the country is also the most fundamental bait for attracting tourists in the host country. In this regard, a nation that is internationally famous with her tourism menu will be an international destination for many visitors (De la Barre 2013, p.840). The cultural environment in most countries has stood un-weathered amid the current rate of cultural erosion brought about by the sweeping modernity. Tourism has been the only remedy for the majority of countries with the intention of salvaging their rich culture while at the same time; use it as a source of living by tapping foreign exchange from tourists who throng to these host countries. Tourism actually is very important tool for conserving the rich culture of a given country for them. Culture tells more about the background of a given community in terms of socio-political and economic organizational set-up, and the government of the country in question can borrow a leaf, in order to make sound economic decisions for her subjects. Tourism is an important tool for eradicate poverty in the developing countries. One of the latest developments in international tourism is Pro-tourism. It is mainly concerned with travelling to developing nations with the intention of helping people living in marginal areas. The aim behind the travel is to assist the natives in such countries by empowering them economically and socially, a move that will see the poverty index reduce tremendously. Many working projects launched in such areas thought in small scales, have immensely benefitted the people from such areas. Pro-tourism is the best method of ensuring equitable economic growth in the developing nations that are facing an up-hill task in providing the basic utilities to her citizen (Kline et al 2012, p.247). Tourism is the chief source of a ready market for the locally produced goods. Agricultural sector is the immediate beneficiary from the tourism sector. Most of the hotels heavily rely on the locally produced agricultural foods as raw material for feeding the visitors. Fish caught by the fish farmers also find their way to these hotels in order to supplement the food requirements in these hotels (O'Brien & Ponting 2013, P.168). Sustainable tourism is vital in opening up the hinterlands of the host country by exposing it to the outside world. Since most of the tourist destinations like the national parks and game reserves are confined in the remote areas, the government of thee host country will have an obligation of laying down elaborate feeder roads to connect such areas in order to ensure they are easily accessible. The results will be ease in the residents of these regions in accessing external market for their produce, which would otherwise be impossible in the absence of such feeder roads. The final benefits of the industry shall be an economic uplift in the hinterland, hence increase the people's living standards and maximum utilization of the natural resources to create wealth to the people in general. Tourism has a profound social impact in the host country, a phenomenon that promotes cohesiveness in the country. The industry brings people from different ethnicities together making them to go-exist and tolerate each other. This has led to the development of social ties that cannot congeal at any other time the likes of inter-marriages across different races and cultural background (Monavari, Khorasani & Mirsaeed 2013, P.469). One does not require rocket science in order to understand the underlying benefits that manifest itself because of the peace and harmony in a sovereign state. All other economic events in the country greatly depend upon the nature of the harmonious relationship existing among the inhabitants of the host state and the foreigners who form the bulk of the tourists that have a tendency of flooding countries based on the prevailing social stratum. Sustainable tourism allows integration of development and tourism itself. Developed tourism is a watchdog for monitoring serious environmental issues bedeviling preservation of the natural environment as degradation of the natural vegetation, wild animals, as well as culture of the region from depletion. Sustainable and equitable tourism will keep abreast of any changes that that might bring alterations whatsoever, making corrective measures to curb or alleviate the cause of such changes. The issue of development comes about because of mobilization of this resource in order to generate a source of livelihood to the community (O'Brien & Ponting 2013, P.165). A social perspective of sustainable tourism, majors its concern on the human interaction with foreigners. Culture is the only weapon that a society can use in order to it guard normalcy in their undertakings in order to avoid digressing from the normalcy expected of them, a very serious violation of the expected way of life in the society. Responsible and solidarity tourism is another unique form of sustainable tourism whose principles rests on the premise of streamlining the issues affecting financial aspects of the tourism sector with the intention of ensuring revenue so generated is channeled to the inhabitants of the region. This sub-type of tourism ensures that competitive packages go to the key player taking an active role motivation for the services they have rendered (O'Brien & Ponting 2013, P.167). Based on the above write up, it is imperative that countries embrace sustainable tourism to reap from the diverse social and economic development in the country. For the climax of sustainable tourism to function well, strategic planning and serious policymaking is inevitable. This materializes in order to avoid the negative challenges arise with the coming of foreigners into the host country (Kline et al 2012, p.248). Sustainable tourism makes great contributions to humankind in the preservation of culture, historic sites, and fosters research in the academic platforms leading to the emergence of new knowledge. References De la Barre, S 2013, 'Wilderness and cultural tour guides, place identity and sustainable tourism in remote areas', Journal Of Sustainable Tourism, 21, 6, pp. 825-844 Kline, C, Cardenas, D, Duffy, L, & Swanson, J 2012, 'Funding sustainable paddle trail development: paddler perspectives, willingness to pay and management implications', Journal Of Sustainable Tourism, 20, 2, pp. 235-256. Monavari, S, Khorasani, N, & Mirsaeed, S 2013, 'Delphi-Based Strategic Planning for Tourism Management -- a Case Study', Polish Journal Of Environmental Studies, 22, 2, pp. 465-473. O'Brien, D, & Ponting, J 2013, 'Sustainable Surf Tourism: A Community Centered Approach in Papua New Guinea', Journal Of Sport Management, 27, 2, pp. 158-172. Read More