Tourism and Sustainability - Coursework Example

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Tourism and Sustainability All tourism is cultural (c.f. Urry 1990; 2001) yet all tourism destroys culture. Tourism is sight seeing, going to places of interests or visiting areas with attractive sites and cultures. All tourism is cultural because of the attractive sites and activities involved in it. A tourist is a person who visits a place for leisure. The reason why people visit tourist attraction sites and places is because of the cultures of those regions and the attractive sites, which in most cases hold unique historical backgrounds. Examples of such tourist attraction places include; African countries, Malaysia, Bali, Fiji, and several other areas (MacCannell & Lippard, 1999). Tourism and culture have a sustainable partnership (Tuinabua, 2009). This means that tourism enables culture preservation and culture encourages tourism. An example is in Fiji where a specific hill and its cultural values have been preserved because of tourism. Tavuni hill is a cultural heritage site that symbolizes the important link between the people of Tonga and the people of Fiji. It was developed as a tourist attraction because of its cultural attributes. Some other archeological and historical sites are said to have vanished due to agricultural practices and developments on housing along the Sigatoka Valley where this hill is, but tourism has enabled the preservation of this one cultural heritage (Tuinabua, 2009). Even though tourism is found to be a contributing factor to preservation of culture, it destroys culture in different ways. When tourists visit tourist attraction sites and communities, they are shown demonstrations of historical events and cultural practices. This is known as staging. Staging is degrading the original cultures and diminishes the original values attached to the cultural practices. An example is letting tourists witness real sensitive cultural practices, for example circumcision of a young boy in an African community. Richards (2006) notes that in a conference in Africa, one project developer announced staging a ritual circumcision of a young boy in a visit to a tribal community in Africa. This kind of staging degrades the value of circumcision in that community and may make people fear practicing that ritual. Some staging methods such as the one mentioned above assume that tourists look for authentic experience and are not supportive of the actual values of the cultures, but only considers the commercial viability of the practice which may not even please the tourists. Staging of cultural practices for tourists also leads to loss of certain important cultural practices that are real to the community or society and changes the cultural practice to the one staged. The staged cultural practice is not an original practice, but a demonstration of how the practice was performed in the olden days. Different communities in a country have different cultural practices, but when tourists visit a specific place with one famous cultural practice, it turns out to be the common cultural practice for all. The tourists are given a demonstration of how the cultural practice looks like and the period when it was performed. This makes some communities forget their original cultural practices. An example is the dances performed in Bali. In the early days of tourism in Bali Island, dances were often staged for tourists. These dances turned out to be the genuine heritage of Balinese while their original forbidden and sacred dances have since been forgotten (Richards, 2006). Some Malaysian cultures have also been nationalized because of tourism (Hitchcock et al, 1993) Another way in which tourism destroys culture is through commercialization of the cultural practices. The desire for the tourism sector to be more meaningful with modern day tourism has led to the development of value for money cultural practices and businesses (Richards, 2006). Most tourist attraction sites and communities have well build and developed business premises with goods and materials from different communities and countries not belonging to the country of visit. An example is in Bali where the country is said to have lost its value to tourism. According to Richards (2006) tourism is regarded as something that loses the identity of a community or a country. In most cases, tourism is considered important because it promotes the economy of a country. A country like Malaysia for example receives its economic boost from tourism (Hitchcock et al, 1993). A story about a business man in Bali notes that he sells sculptures symbolizing different cultures of different countries to tourists. He owns a shop of sculptures from various countries including Egypt which do not symbolize the culture of Bali. This kind of change in tourism has made Bali lose its cultural values (Richards, 2006). “Are environmental management tools and techniques - such as the use of carrying capacities and Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) etc. - about keeping mass tourists out of ‘pristine’ tourist environments in order to keep their cultural and economic value in; or are they essential to sustainable tourism development?” Environmental management tools and techniques are important for sustainable tourism development. Impacts of tourists into tourist attraction sites made managers of such sites develop ways of reducing the impacts on the sites. One resolution was to keep the cultural and economic values of such areas. Before 1960s, for example in the United States, management of tourist attraction sites for recreational purposes was based on the technique of carrying capacities. The number of people visiting a park determined the impacts of tourists to that park. Carrying capacity was therefore the management technique used to control the number of tourists visiting a tourist attraction sites (McCool, 1996). Sustainable tourism development constitutes development of tourism economically, ecologically, culturally and socially (Wahab &Cooper, 2001). Development culturally means preserving the cultures that attract tourists and preserving their values too and ecological sustainability means protecting and preserving the environment. Based on this fact, environmental management techniques therefore are important in sustainable tourism development. By use of environmental management techniques, negative impacts on the tourist attraction sites are reduced and this develops the area economically since well managed areas will attract more tourists, it develops the area socially since the people of the area will still have their values and not feel that they have been eroded by the western culture, and it will develop culturally because of the preserved cultural values. Good maintenance of economic and cultural values sustains tourism (Wahab &Cooper, 2001). As indicated earlier, tourism and culture have a sustainable relationship; therefore improving one develops the other. Carrying capacity was used to limit the number of visitors that could visit a specified tourist attraction site for fear of destruction of the value of the site but was discovered not to meet the objectives. The number of tourists alone was found not to be the only cause of negative effects on tourism, but tourists’ behaviors too led to destruction of some cultural values. This discovery led to the development of a new system, Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC). Limits of Acceptable Change management technique considers; the impacts of tourists’ behaviors on tourism and is an appropriate method of environmental management of tourism attraction sites (McCool, 1996). There are different types of tourists and this is the reason why this environmental management technique (LAC) is important. There are sight seeing cultural tourists just concerned with visiting the cultural highlights (Richards, 2006), casual cultural tourists whose interest in the visiting site was not culture and only experiences it for the sake of being there, serendipitous cultural tourists who find the cultures interesting when they arrive and get deep experience of the cultures, purposeful cultural tourists concerned with learning about a specific culture and experiencing the activities of the cultures and incidental cultural tourists who only get involved superficially (Richards, 2006). With knowledge about the causes of impacts on tourism, managers are able to meet the needs of tourists and the local people considering the future needs of the people. This is what sustainable tourism development is. It is that which is geared to meeting the needs of the present without paralyzing the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs (Wahab &Cooper, 2001). “Alliana Poon from the World Tourism Organization argues that ‘new tourism’, especially in its more ‘‘sustainable’’ forms, delivers the prospect of finding market solutions to tourism problems. Using examples explain how you think this might or might not be”. Tourism problems result to reduced market hence reduced income for countries involved in tourism. When a tourist visits an area, the tourist benefits from achieving his/her aim for visiting that area and the locals or the tourism sector benefits from the money that the tourist brings. It might be true that new tourism delivers a prospect for finding solutions to tourism problems, but making tourism sustainable as had been noted is making it sustainable economically, socially, ecologically and culturally for the current needs and future needs. If the tourism market demands knowledge about the values of different cultures, then the tourism sector will work towards that, when tourism market demands for staging of cultural practices, then the tourism sector will offer that, but this is not the case in sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism is a long term idea of making the tourism sector offer high quality services for a long time. It is for future development. It can therefore be referred to as a marketing strategy aimed at making everybody benefit. Tourists visit different places just to have a feeling of the past. To know what the people of the past looked like and to enjoy that feeling (Richards, 2006). Considering this statement too, it is not true that sustainable tourism is a prospect of finding market solutions to tourism problems. Market problems occur any time and the tourism sector has to find methods of dealing with such problems. Furthermore, there are different market problems. In tourism, one of the attractive elements is the culture or the archeological features of a place. If these features and practices lose their values, will there be tourism anymore? Will people visit such areas to see the features just for the sake? What attracts people to a region is the value or the history behind a feature, when the feature is no longer available, who will visit the place? Sustainable tourism development is for preservation of the historical features and important cultural values so that tourism does not lose its value too. If cultural values are eroded for example, no more cultural practices will be conducted by the local people since they will have lost importance in involving in such practices. If such values are preserved, the importance of such values to the local community will be preserved too and the community will continue practicing that cultural practice. It is not the market alone that has been considered in such a development case, but the community, the culture and the economy of that place. The aim of tourism is to attract tourists and in order to attract tourists, there has to be an attractive site. An attractive site does not come without unique historical background and cultural values and a tourism product is to “amplify the exotic, minimize the misery, mystify the mundane, rationalize the disquietude and romanticize the strange” (Richards, 2006). Take an example of tourism in Bali. Tourists visit such an area to see different attraction sites and experience different cultures, but there is one cultural practice (a ritual performed in a temple) that is only conducted once a year and the Balinese keep it for themselves. It is not a practice that is staged for tourists to see. One story in Richard’s book (2006) indicates that during a visit to that region, a group of tourists happened to be the lucky ones to have visited the place at the time when the ritual was to be conducted. These people only managed to experience the first part of the ritual before they could break for lunch but wanted to watch more. They were however not allowed to watch it again (Richards, 2006). Based on the aim of a tourism product indicated above, the ritual could not have achieved its aim without preservation of its value. Sustainable tourism therefore is not a strategy that delivers the prospect of finding market solutions to tourism problems. It humanizes tourism and does not let tourism be driven by market forces or be motivated by profit alone (Mowforth &Munt, 2003). “ In a tourism context, the Third World is little more than an exotic playground for First World middle class groups, and ‘‘sustainable’ tourism’ is more about their needs than the needs of the people and places they visit. To what extent, and why, do you agree or disagree with this statement?” This statement is not right and the reason why is explained below. Tourism is part of international business activity that contributes to globalization in the world, and in tourism movements, globalization is mostly in (First world countries) developed countries. Third world countries (developed countries), especially in areas outside major business centers and capitals, still do not have the multinational presence one encounters in a First World country (Wahab & Cooper, 2001). What a tourist encounters in third world country is mostly locally owned and locally managed which is considered important and ideal for the area and not the same as what a tourist encounters in a first world country. The lack of equal globalization between third world countries and first world countries is due to different factors that retard development in those areas for example poor infrastructure among others (Wahab & Cooper, 2001). Those factors also lead to poor tourism development in those areas. This difference in globalization levels cannot make third world countries be an exotic playground for first world countries. Furthermore, sustainable tourism as had been noted earlier aims to fulfill the current needs as well as the future needs and is not driven by market forces. It considers cultural value preservation as important and aims at sustainability in ecological environment, economic environment and social environment. Sustainable tourism therefore can fulfill the needs of the third world countries and the places tourists visit if implemented considering the status of the country. Ecological sustainability means protecting and preserving the natural environment, economic sustainability means protecting the economy of that area or country and helping improve it, social sustainability is building good social relationships and making tourism acceptable in the society and cultural sustainability means preservation and protection of the cultural values and features. Sustainable tourism does not therefore discriminate against third world countries because each country has different cultural values and different economies. The only problem in sustainable tourism development in such countries is the factors that affect growth. Examples are African countries for example Ghana and some Asian countries. In Ghana, progress in tourism has been affected by policy imposed and artificial barriers to tourists’ entry. This has led to local development which has not supported sustainable tourism development (Wahab & Cooper, 2001). Poor growth and tourism development has led to low visits to such areas making them seem as not benefiting from sustainable tourism development decisions. “‘Sustainable’ tourism is a First World concept and, therefore, the responsibility of the First World, not the Third World. Discuss. Sustainable tourism can be considered a first world concept when viewed under this concept; that sustainable tourism aims to achieve sustainable development in the tourism sector in areas where the people meant to benefit may not even benefit from it. In this case, the people who are meant to benefit and may not benefit are the third world countries. These countries are meant to benefit from sustainable decisions, but when it comes to implementation it is not easy due to the difference in class. Globalization is more in first world countries than in third world countries and so these countries have different aims. Just like Wahab and Cooper (2001) note that implementation of a sustainable decision is not easy for different organizations when it comes to consideration of goals. These countries differ in goals and therefore cannot achieve the same goals using the same decision. In this case, sustainable tourism is a first world concept. Considering what sustainable tourism is, this concept cannot be regarded as a first world concept and cannot be left as their responsibility. It may seem a first world concept because the first world countries have developed more than the third worlds, but based on what it values, everybody should take responsibility. Preservation of the environment, the cultures and improving the economy all benefit everybody including the third world countries. Third world countries should find out ways of developing sustainable tourism so that cultural values are preserved and archeological sites are protected. Whatever levels the third world countries are, they can achieve sustainable tourism development in relation to the aims set for the country without using developed countries’ aims. References Hitchcock, Michael., King, Victor T., Parnwell, Mike and Parnwell, Michael J. G., (1993), Tourism inSouth-East Asia. London: Routledge. MacCannell, Dean and Lippard, Lucy R., (1999), The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class.California: University of California Press. McCool, Stephen F., (August 13-14, 1996), Limits of Acceptable Change: A Framework for Managing National Protected Areas: Experiences from the United States. Paper presented at Workshop on Impact Management in Marine Parks, sponsored by Maritime Institute of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. Retrieved on 31st March 2009 from: http://juneau.org/tourism2/documents90-99/Limits_of_Accpt_Change96.pdf Mowforth, M., and Munt. I., (2003), Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World, 2ndedition, London, Routledge. Richards, Greg., (2006), Cultural tourism: Global and Local Perspectives. Pennsylvania: Haworth Press. Tuinabua, Levani V., (2009), Tourism and Culture: A Sustainable Partnership. Retrieved on 31st March 2009 from: Wahab, Salah and Cooper, Christopher P., (2001), Tourism in the Age of Globalization. London: Routledge. Read More