Advantages and Disadvantages of Tourism - Term Paper Example

Advantages and Disadvantages of Tourism Tourism is a widely spread and highly demanding activity which has now taken the form of one of the largest industries of the world. In general terms, tourism refers to the travelling that is done by people for the purpose of pleasure or other purposes. Like what religion people from a particular country or place follows, what they eat, what they wear, how they communicate, what kind of buildings they make any many other minute details which can help us to know about that XYZ place. Being a rapidly developing sector, the contribution of tourism to modern economies is continuously increasing (Oelkers, 2007). The associated inflow of foreign investment that is itself contributory towards the infrastructure of tourism also helps in the growth of economies that promote tourism. New educational experiences and introduction of new management styles in tourism have contributed significantly to the social and economic development of countries that promote tourism. The word tourism in literal sense is very wide. It has now become part of scientific studies and many international universities are honoring students with degrees in branch of tourism. Terms like ecotourism, etymology, cultural tourism, geo tourism, religious tourism, medical tourism and many other terms are now becoming popular within the population, which by their name tells us their significance and purpose. Now tourism is not only limited to travelling. Its applications have become wide in many other aspects of life. Also it is generally believed that tourism only means going from one county to another. Travelling from one city to another within the same country also comes under the heading of tourism, in the end it all comes to purpose. Every kind and type of tourism has its own purpose. If one is achieving a respective target, goal or purpose in travelling, you can call it tourism. Arguments on tourism and proving that it is good or bad honestly speaking is a very clichéd topic. People have been arguing, dates have been held, and discussions have been made to prove that either it is good or bad. The thing is you cannot label a particular industry or activity entirely good or bad on the whole. Obviously everyone and everything had its own good side and bad sides. Chances are that advantages of something or an industry outnumbered its disadvantages or vice versa but we cannot claim that the industry as a whole is “good” or “bad”. It’s basically neutral. That’s how we make use of it that attaches itself to a label of “god” or “bad”. Tourism in the same way has been subjected to many such arguments, debates and discussions. But most of us fail to understand that it’s entirely on us how we make use of it or use it in a good way or a bad way. In this essay we’ll discuss the pros and cons of tourism going and putting a light to its minute details which many people fail to see or understand. ADVANTAGES Positive effect on economy The primary and most important advantage of ecotourism is that it boosts economic progress. It acts as catalyst to increase the productivity of any country from economic point of view (Castellani et al, 2009). Greater number of tourist means great revenue followed by more exposure to your country’s life parks, valleys, rivers and other natural beauty. Most highly developed Western countries such as Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France, and Germany have exploited tourism as a means of accumulating wealth to bring improvement in their economies. Tourism’s contribution in incomes of countries roughly amounts to 10% of the world’s income. Nearly a tenth of the world’s workforce is involved in the tourism industry. Keeping in view these facts it is safe to assert that the total economic impact of tourism on world’s economy is astounding. For this reason, it is often referred to as the ‘industry without chimney’ since if provides capital without the application of machines or factories that require fuel to run. Positive attitudes Hospitality is one of the main determinants that play a vital role in the success of tourism industry of a country. But since hospitality has its roots in cultural origins, considerable variations in hospitality are observed throughout the world (Reisinger, 2013). Hospitality directly affects the behavior of tourists. For example if any German visits China for the first time and Chinese show hospitability and act nicely to him/her (which they generally do) it definitely bring positive attitude and friendly environment. In this way more and more people from Germany would love to visit China. Interaction of different cultures It’s one of the key advantages of tourism. It brings different culture or people from different cultures closers (Holden, 2005). Like what kind of dresses people from different countries wear, what they eat, how they cook, what spices they use, how they live, what language they use and many other things that are directly related to culture, tourism brings it all closer. Removes negative perceptions Tourism generally eliminated negative perceptions, believes or ideas which people of one country might have developed for the people of other countries. For example people from western countries showed their hesitance in visiting Asian countries particularly Pakistan or countries in subcontinent. But many of the visitors and tourist confessed that their views or ideas regarding the Asian countries have changed completely after their first visit. Development of appreciation Tourism increase appreciation. It escalates appreciation and pride (Goeldner et al, 2000). For example Japanese are very proud of their food especially their sushi. It’s now loved and eaten very fondly all across the globe. Means people from all across the world appreciate its taste and in this way they appreciate Japanese food by eating it thus making Japanese culture in food popular and famous. Psychological Satisfaction Tourism is contributory towards mental relaxation and it provides relief from a stressful lifestyle by allow a person to harmonize with nature to the maximum possible extent (Inkson & Minnaert, 2012). Exposure to environment that is free from the cumbersome routines and patterns of life allows an opportunity to relieve the mind of tensions. Moreover change in environment and surrounding can stimulates brain cells followed by reduction anxiety and depression. So it naturally calms the brain cells and body and soothes one’s inner personality. Educational purposes Tourism is widely used for educational purposes. Many branches or tourism has been introduced which hole a thorough research work in their respective fields. • Geotourism: It studies earth and its formation. Different types of rocks, their formation, their composition, effect of Geotourism and applications of Geotourism each and everything is discussed in this branch of tourism (Erfurt-Cooper, 2012). • Religious Tourism: It deals with religion and ideas and faith which people follow and practice in different countries. It includes the details and studies of respective country’s religious buildings and writings too (Raj & Morpeth, 2007). • Agritourism: What kinds of crops are grown in countries? How they taste? What’s their procedure? Agritourism deals in difference in farming methods from one country to another. All of the answers can be found during the studies of Agritourism. • Ecotourism: Ecotourism is another popular branch of tourism. It deals with wild life and plant life. How national parks should be treated and reserved and how we can make use of its research work, all we can find from ecotourism. • War tourism: It mainly deals with the history of different countries. War tourists travel from laces to places in order to study and observe the sites or remains of buildings, which have been used or destroyed in different wars. • Heritage tourism: It studies and deals with heritage of different countries and later how these heritages are different from other countries. It’s a highly new branch in tourism which is getting popular with high rate (Timothy & Boyd, 2003). All the above mentioned areas or different fields show that how vast the subject tourism can go. Tourism is generally a very wide area and its applications are increasing day by day. DISADVANTAGES Unfortunately there are many disadvantaged of tourism industry too. Followings are some disadvantages of tourism: Crime rate The increase rate in crime can be due to abnormal tourism. It is generally observed tourist are most likely fell a victim of robbery or looting and number of deaths has been recorded of tourists all across the world during the past few decades. Tourist get assaulted and abused by the robbers very easily. In severe cases tourism can also support international drug dealing or trade of narcotics. People use the name of tourism and involve themselves in such heavy crimes which in the end bring nothing but shame and embarrassment for countries. Health hazards It’s one of the main problems which come with tourism. With greater mobility the transfer of contagious diseases and viruses become easy and such disease can spread very easily from one country to another or in severe cases it may travel from ne continent to another (Henderson, 2007). Ebola virus is a very clear example of such issue. Harmful for natural life Some crazy tourists are sucker of collecting skeletons, shells, herbs, wild plants, animal’s skins and many other things and to fulfill their desire they can cross to their limits to such extent that won’t regret killing a special or too robe a rare species of plant or wild herb. Such people are the primary threat for wild life. Above all many countries and tourist administration don’t give much attention to such issues thus encouraging such people to carry their evil activities quite enthusiastically. Loss of privacy This feeling comes natural whenever you’re travelling. Unless and until the host community is extremely loving or friendly but you always sense a loss of some privacy if you visit some different country, town or village. It may be due to the jam packed restaurants or café or highly crowded places. This feeling is natural and usual. Expensive Things If any place or particular location is considered as popular tourist spot the prices of anything within the range of that destination becomes extremely high. Either it’s an expense of some hotel, shopping, rates of cafes; these all things become insanely high thus bringing inconvenience to tourist as they can do nothings but just to buy those commodities in unfairly high prices. Discouraging own culture This can happen in the area which is frequently visited by a large number of tourists and visitors. Due to excessive mobility of people the host community may lose its own culture or pride on things which or totally local. This can happen in many ways. Host community may start dressing up as the outsiders. They may start speaking in foreign language. Their eating habits may turn into as of foreign community. Though this process takes time but it surely can bring damage to their community culture and heritage. Overly crowded places and longer queues Abnormal number of visitors may bring congestion in traffic and overpopulate the famous places. This happen quite often. Many highly attracted tourist destinations attract people in this way capacity to host number of people get limited which results in crowded places, longer queues and health problems too. Disneyland waterparks are the primary examples of the sites which are facing such problems. Government performance Government performances can get affected to a greater extent. If governments start showing their more interest in revenue generating a profit earning other areas related to tourism can get discourage and many problem can rise. So tourism may have bad effect on government performance in many sectors. Employment Tourism may affect local job market. Number of foreigner people show their interest in getting nobs outside the country where they can get more pay followed by new surrounding and more experience. It may result in bad effect for local job market. This happened in many western countries where people from under developed countries affected their local job market to seek better salary and living. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clearly evident that tourism can have both positive and negative impacts on the conditions of a country. The interaction between the locals of a community and their foreign visitors is likely to pose new challenges, which need immediate attention to allow this activity to flourish. In countries where tourism sector is well developed, the arrival of foreign tourists is regarded as a blessing since they bring considerable revenue that serves to develop the local areas to a great extent. However, there definitely is a limit to this phenomenon and if an area gets over-burdened due to heightened tourist influx, the area may suffer from unexpected problems. A variety of factors play their role regarding the success or failure of tourism organization’s activity in a region. These may include; Involvement of local people in tourism industry Relationship of a tourism organization with the locals of a community Cooperation of tourism organizations with the locals business community Attitude of an organization towards the customs and culture of the local community A tourism organization’s role in protecting the local environment The economic interest of the local population in the tourism organization The above mentioned factors are some of the main factors that should be kept in mind by organizations that are involved in business pertaining to tourism in a region. References Castellani, V., Sala, S., & Università degli studi,. (2009). Sustainable tourism as a factor of local development: Organized by GRISS Research Unit on Sustainable Development, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, November 2008. Trento: Tangram edizioni scientifiche. Erfurt-Cooper, P. (2012). Volcanic Tourist Destinations. Dordrecht: Springer. Goeldner, C. R., Mcintosh, R. W., & Ritchie, J. R. B. (2000). Tourism: Principles, practices, philosophies. New York: J. Wiley. Henderson, J. C. (2007). Tourism crises: Causes, consequences and management. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. Holden, A. (2005). Tourism studies and the social sciences. London: Routledge. Inkson, C., & Minnaert, L. (2012). Tourism management: An introduction. Los Angeles: SAGE. Oelkers, D. B. (2007). Travel and tourism marketing. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Raj, R., & Morpeth, N. D. (2007). Religious tourism and pilgrimage festivals management: An international perspective. Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CABI Pub. Reisinger, Y. (2013). Transformational tourism: Tourist perspectives. Oxfordshire, UK: CAB International. Timothy, D. J., & Boyd, S. W. (2003). Heritage tourism. New York: Prentice Hall. Read More