Impact of Hospitality on Moral Conduct - Coursework Example

Hospitality Management xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Impact of Hospitality on Moral Conduct Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Institution xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer Impact of Hospitality on Moral Conduct Customers demands are supreme as long as there is income tend to be the belief of many young people. They have a belief that as long as they get income the legality or the morality of whatever they do to get income does not matter. This is especially so in the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism thus has both negative and positive impacts on moral conduct. The effects of tourism have been mainly felt in the youth group as they are the majority and most interactive group in the community. With more negative impacts being realized in the sector, everyone needs to be informed to be more cautious on what to accept or reject from the international market. Since tourism is more emphasized in the international market, the activities carried out involve exchange of cultural assets, behaviors and norms. However, what one community considers right may be a taboo to another. This essay will discuss the impact of tourism on moral conduct considering crime, health, language, prostitution and religion, the role of youths in this industry, what should be done to involve the young people fully in this industry and the opportunities that young people can exploit thus forsaking what is morally unacceptable. Tourism is an activity of people moving to and staying in an unusual environment for business, leisure or other purposes. Tourism can either be domestic or international. The World Tourism Organization defines young tourism as one travelling in the age bracket of 16-25 years for at least a day. Youths are the group of people in any population that are most talented and energetic. With their fresh ideas and capacity to innovate, they can transform the tourism industry for the better. The innovation of unique products made by the youths such as furniture, crafts and business foster the tourism industry. However youths at times engage themselves in risky behaviors because of the following factors: school policies that do not favor them, unemployment, drug trafficking, availability of guns, poverty, inequality and domestic violence among other. Youth tourism can be a prominent tool for promotion of peace and good will in the midst of communities, regional integration, nations and cultural exchange. It can also be used to reduce social evils, empower youths, revitalize cultural heritage and foster patriotism. It leads to economic growth through the creation of employment for the majority. In addition, this form of tourism can result to environment preservation, improved infrastructure, creation of employment opportunities among others. Tourism is one of the sectors supporting the economy of Australia. It resulted to 3.9% of Australia Gross Domestic Profit in2003 and provides 70% of the employment opportunities for the youths. This means that eliminating the youths from this sector would automatically result to its failure. In my opinion, the young citizens in Australia being citizens or non-citizens are the back bone of the tourism industry in the country. However, this group is slowly decaying due to the change in behavior with most of them opting to go for prostitution and drug trafficking as a source of extra income. It has been noted that tourists have an effect on the host in all aspects of life, which is socially, culturally, and economically. In the past, social and cultural impacts were neglected and researchers only concentrated with economic impact. Nevertheless this has changed with time. This is in recognition that cultural and social aspects also have an impact on the economic status of a country. For instance, though tourism has been a source of income to the country and individuals, the people who engage in prostitution and other immoral behaviors such as drug abuse experience huge losses as they spend part of their earning to purchase medicine for diseases such as TB and HIV/AIDs. This affects the individual’s savings as well as the economy of the country as many children are orphaned and the number of dependant person’s increase. Most of the research done portrays a negative impact of tourism socially and culturally on the host while showing a positive impact economically. Social impact can be described as how tourism is contributing in transforming individual behaviors, value systems, family relationship, security, creativity, traditional ceremonies, morality, and community organization. This simply means how the hosts are impacted directly or indirectly through relating with the tourists Social impact is not static it changes with time due to structural changes in the industry and the period of interaction between the tourist and the host. According to Doxey the host go through a process of euphoria where the host is excited because of the tourist and the money flow, the next process is apathy as they begin to take the tourists lightly, the host are later irritated and lastly see tourists as an indication of evil until they forget what they value and thus destroy the environment (Doxey1975) Archer notes that one of consequences of tourism is moral change. The growth of gambling, crime, and prostitution are evils of tourism. On the other hand tourism promotes international understanding through appreciation of different cultures, act as a source of income to the host country and it also create job opportunities to those working in this industry. Below are the impacts of tourism on moral conduct (Archer 1978) One of the impacts of tourism on moral conduct is crime. Crime is an unusual conduct that violates existing norms e.g. robbery, murder, carjacking, kidnapping, rape etc. there is a concern of crime more so because the highest percentage of crime is perpetuated by youths due to peer pressure, drug addiction, truancy and poor school performance thus becoming unfit in the society (Chesney1986). To counter this happening youths embark on criminal acts to support themselves financially. Youth crimes create fear and harm the community. In particular the problem of youth gangs and youth crime has been discussed at depth. According to study crime is linked to immigrants and immigration as cases of terrorism increase perpetuated by immigrants. This is especially so in Australia where 23% of the population is immigrants. Studies show that there is a relationship between crime rate and tourism. There is a notable connection between crime season and tourist season due to availability of target and the congestion which raises the gain and lowers the chances of being detected. In developing countries, it is noted that black markets are encouraged during tourism seasons (Harper2001).The security of the host country determines the number of tourists that will visit. Insecurity hinders the growth of the tourism industry while the growth of it increases crime. Exchange of sex for money or a favor is referred to as prostitution. A relationship between to Tourism and prostitution is brought about by the development of tourist entertainment facilities such as steam baths, night clubs, hotels and lodges. Tourism has created environments and locations conducive for prostitutes. Tourism simply means that the tourists are away from their normal living, obscurity is assured when they are away, and they have money to spend the way they want this encourages prostitution. As tourists pay the host in exchange of sex, the hosts upgrade their living standards and eventually adopt that kind of life to upgrade and maintain the standards of living. Most of the hosts who are prostitutes are youths. In most of the states in America legalized Grambling so as to obtain tax. Gambling has thus been common in tourist destinations. Though gambling increased the revenues, the psychological and social effects are too advanced. The relationship of religion and tourism has changed. Sacred places such as Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem have been transformed to tourist attraction sites. There is thus conflict between the host, the curious visitors and the religious tourists. The locals are concerned that holy places are being converted into tourist attraction centers thus detracting religious significance. On the other hand the church has used tourists to support them financially. Tourists who visit as missioners impact the locals positively by preaching the gospel. This promotes peace and understanding because most religions advocate for peace. Tourism also impact language both positively and negatively. It functions to replace the indigenous with the foreign language. White studied the connection between social change and the growth of tourism using language and discovered the following. Through the new jobs the locals might be forced to use the immigrants’ language, due to the status of the immigrant the local would aspire to be like the immigrant and thus adopt his language and through direct communication the local might be force to use the tourist language World Health Organization said that tourism has a duty to provide better health facilities to the host country but on the contrary it facilitate in the spread of diseases. Tourism and health are connected in this ways, tourists are motivated to travel to improve the health of the host country e.g. the flying doctors and missionaries who set up health facilities in host countries, the standards of health in host areas put in the quality of tourism and lastly tourism foster contraction of diseases from one place to the other e.g. the spread of swine flu and HIV/AIDS (White 1977). The presence of many people with deviant behaviors in the tourist sites encourages the spread of HIV/AIDS (Irmgard1999). Bearing in mind the effects of tourism on moral conduct there is a lot that need to be done to help the youths embrace their roles in the tourism industry. The role of the youths should be that of taking care of the environment, being morally upright thus forsaking morally unacceptable behaviors such as prostitution, Grambling and other crimes and using their creativity to come up with more tourist attractive sites The following are some of the opportunities that youths can exploit in tourism thus creating self employment for themselves and others. Eco tourism is a viable opportunity as self employment for young people in the rural areas (Ayala 1996). It is a form of tourism that promotes conservation of the environment such as rainforest, salinity and erosion control, habitat restoration, weed control. Another sector is Agri-tourism which is tourism based on agriculture such as growing vine. This should be encouraged because not much is needed to cultivate vine yet the output is so much. Another opportunity for the youth in the tourism industry is sport and recreation. Activities such as horse riding and rock-climbing are a great outdoors adventure and also a source of income both to the government and the youths. The IT industry can also be used to create opportunities for the young people who can advertise the industry online, do online booking of accommodation and air tickets etc. The youths are on the forefront on moral degradation yet they are the most energetic, innovative and creative. The industry should take advantage of their strengths and ability to foster tourism and hospitality. The youths should be equipped with relevant skills such as hotel management, tours and travel, agric-tourism, eco-tourism so as to divert their attention from immoral acts to constructive work. After equipping them with this skills, they youths should also be assisted to venture in tourism related business which will complement what the government is doing. Strategies should be designed to eliminate the negative impacts on moral standards. In conclusion, this essay shows that youths have a role to play in the tourism and hospitality industry. However this can only be done if both parties come together and agree on the way forward. It has also been noted that tourism does not only contribute negatively, it also has positive contributions and it thus require the participation of both the tourist and the host to clear the mess on this industry. Bibliography Archer, B, 1986, The secondary economic effects of tourism in developing countries in planning for tourism in Developing countries, London. Ayala, H, 1996, Resort Ecotourism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administrative Quarterly, 52 (16), 256-269. Cater, E, & Lowman, G, 1994, Ecotourism, A Sustainable Option? Great Britain, John Wiley. Chesney-Lind, M & Lind, IY, 1986, Visitors as victims crimes against tourists in Hawaii Annals of Tourism Research, 13(2), 167-192. Doxey, G, 1975, A causation theory of visitor-resident irritants, methodology and research inferences, The impact of tourism. Sixth annual Conference proceedings of the travel research association, San Diego, Tourism and Travel Research Association Harper, D, 2001, Comparing tourists crime victimization, Annals of Tourism Research, 28 (4), 1053-1056, Haworth Hospitality Press. Armguard, B, 1999, The Journal of Tourism Studies, Volume 10, No 1. Wall, G, & Mathieson, A, 1982, tourism, economic, physical and social impacts, London, Longman. Wall, G, & Mathieson, A, 2006, Tourism, changes, impacts and opportunities, England, Pearson Education Ltd. White, F, 1977, Imported diseases, an assessment of trends, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 117(3), 241-245. Read More