Mass Tourism Impacts on Rome

This essay explores the potential and actual impacts of mass tourism on Rome, Italy, examining its socio-cultural, economic, and environmental effects. It analyzes both the positive and negative consequences of large-scale tourism, including its effects on local communities, the economy, and the environment. The essay provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities presented by mass tourism in Rome.

POTENTIAL AND ACTUAL
IMPACTS OF MASS
TOURISM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Socio-cultural Impacts of Mass Tourism on Rome, Italy:...........................................................1
Economic Impacts of Mass Tourism on Rome, Italy:.................................................................3
Environmental Impacts of Mass Tourism on Rome, Italy:..........................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Mass Tourism refers to form of tourism that involves number of peoples going on the
same destination at same time of the year. Rome, Italy is considered as the most important tourist
destination recently for its incalculable immensity for its art and archaeological treasures. The
city is also famous and important for the its unique traditions and its panoramic views beauty.
The present report aims at assessing and describing the various impacts on the destination due to
mass tourism. The report is based on the beautiful city Rome, Italy which is facing impacts due
to mass tourism.
MAIN BODY
Rome, Italy is at the number 3 position in the list of most visited cities in the European
Union after London and Paris(Garau-Vadell, Gutierrez-Taño, and Diaz-Armas, 2018). The Rome
city receives great number of tourists in a year that is known as mass tourism. The most famous
of Italy includes plenty of museums, aqueducts fountains, palaces, church, historical buildings,
ruins and monuments of the Roman Forum and Catacombs. On an average around 7-10 million
tourists visit Rome in a year. The number of tourists gets doubled in the Holy years which brings
both positive and negative impacts on the destination. Tourism sector is considered as the crucial
development sector that helps in providing employment to thousand of people and also to
address the problems of inequality, poverty and unemployment. But the mass tourism also leads
to bring various impacts on the specific destination. The impacts can be classified as socio-
cultural, economic and environmental impacts. There are various potential and actual impacts of
mass tourism on the tourist destination of Rome, Italy(Santos, Silva and Amorim, 2018).
Potential impacts refers to combination of both the sensitivity and exposure of destination's
natural resources, physical assets and system, which are explained as follows in detail:
Socio-cultural Impacts of Mass Tourism on Rome, Italy:
Rome is famous for its unique traditions and historical monuments(Lee and Syah, 2018).
A set of customs, behaviour, practices and beliefs which exist at a place are considered as the
socio-cultural factors. The socio-cultural impacts refers to bringing changes in the lives of local
people or people living in destination community. The language, art, traditions, beliefs,dress,
music, art, etc. can be affected due to mass tourism on the tourist destination. The city Rome is
undergoing rapid transformation due to mass tourism and it receives around 10 million visitors
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and tourist ever year. The rapid development of Rome includes increasing global fast food
business, mall style shopping and chain hotels that epitomise tourist experience outside of
Rome's cultural sights and historic sightseeing. The following are given some positive and
negative socio-cultural impacts of mass tourism on tourist destination Rome, Italy.
Positive Impacts:
Tourism is cited as the driver of peace and security through the understanding. Tourism
leads to bring development of the tourist destination has people from different parts of the
country and different cultures and traditions(Sengupta, Gonsalves and Rao, 2018). The local
destination gets to know with the variety of cultures and learn about their traditions. Mass
tourism can lead bring benefits of improved quality of life of attraction areas in the tourist
destination.
The tourism is also linked with increasing employment opportunities for the local people
and which leads to bring improved lifestyle of people. Tourism can lead to bring civic pride by
encouraging cultivation and also sharing of local food, customs, festivals and traditions. The
mass tourism is happening in Rome through which exchange and fostering of local culture and
understanding takes place with visitor's culture. The destination Rome's tour operators aims at
providing experiential travel trend to visitors and tourist by providing better and more authentic
and immerse experiences. The mass tourism in Rome, Italy helps community to experience
different practices of culture and enriches experience, it also helps in broadening horizons(Soto
and Clavé, 2018).
Negative Impact:
The mass tourism brings benefits of preserving cultures and traditions and it can also
bring negative impacts of watering them down through cookie-cutter approaches and
commercialization. The mass tourism can lead to bring diverse values and cultures to the
community and destination places and can influence behaviours of individuals and also family
life. The interactions between local community and tourists can impact stifling individuality with
various restrictions. The increased tourists and host people interactions can lead to the increased
illicit use of drugs and alcohol.
The mass tourism can also affect the host tourist destination in form of increased
problems and issues relating to accidents and crimes. Various illegal activities get increased in
the relaxed environment or atmosphere of tourist destination areas due to great number of
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visitors visiting Rome(Gu and et.al., 2018). The negative impacts of mass tourism also include
increased use of alcohol in festivals, presence of smugglers and also buyers of smuggled items.
The increased number of tourists in Rome brings changes in lifestyle such as alteration of local
travel patterns for avoiding tourist over-crowding and also avoid of down-town shopping brings
damages to destination place in both culture and social way. The developing tourism brings
impact of hotels and restaurants pushing changes to residential areas in form of physical
structural changes. Developing tourist facilities in some of the prime locations of the city Rome
may cause local community people to feel excluded from such resources. The local unique and
ethical cultures are altered in order to fit them into needs of tourism and tourists.
Economic Impacts of Mass Tourism on Rome, Italy:
The mass tourism visiting tourist destination on a large scale can lead to bring both
positive and negative impacts on the economic factors of the tourist destination place. The mass
tourism brings effective benefits in form of increased employment, increased lifestyle, etc. But it
also leads to bring many negative impacts as well. Both positive and negative economic impacts
of mass tourism on Rome tourists’ destinations are explained as follows.
Positive Impact:
The great number of visitors and tourists also brings the opportunities of employment for
local people. World Travel & Tourism Council 2017 economic impact reports indicated that the
tourism industry has generated one out of ten jobs around the world(Skinner, 2018). Rome
experiencing mass tourism gets and gets benefits of generating large income through it, increased
employment opportunities and also increased lifestyle of people. The mass tourism also provides
additional opportunities for the destination city Rome to have more investments, development
and also for infrastructural developments. The tourism also brings improvements in public utility
services for e.g. sewer, water, lighting, side-walking, public restrooms, parking areas,
landscaping and litter control. The mass tourism also increases the spending power of host
destination and encourages improvements in various areas, such as transport infrastructures. This
brings benefits and results of upgraded roads, public transportations, airports and railways. The
mass tourism also helps in generating more tax revenues.
Negative Impact:
Rome is experiencing large number of tourist visits which is bringing both positive and
negative impacts. Mass tourism brings results of increased employment opportunities for local
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community people, but these employment opportunities are seasonal and which can lead to
under-employment or unemployment in off-seasons. The mass tourism may have greater
demands for products, services,housing, land which may lead to increase the prices overall and
also increases the cost of living and all these affects local community people of host destination.
The tourism businesses may also claim the destination land which may have other purposes or
higher values. The non-local owners or business corporations may also exports the profits out of
the destination place. The tourism destination country have to increase taxes in order to generate
funds for maintaining transport systems and roads which are bring more heavily used by mass
tourists(Cetin and et.al., 2019).
Environmental Impacts of Mass Tourism on Rome, Italy:
These factors affect the carrying capacity of the destination area, air quality, vegetation,
water table, wildlife, natural phenomena or bodies of water(Positive & Negative Effects of
Tourism, 2018). Tour buses, heavy air traffics, cruise ships and great number of people comes to
visit Rome, Italy. The unique traditions, cultures, historic monuments of Rome attract great
number of tourist and new residents as well. Following are given some positive and negative
impacts of mass tourism on Destination place Rome.
Positive Impact:
The tourism industries aims at developing the lands in to recreational activities for
visitors and tourists. The income from tourists can be used for preserving historic monuments
and buildings. The area's appearance is also improved through repairs, clean up and also through
additional public arts, like, water fountains, murals and monuments, and it benefits the both
residents and tourists. The mass tourism brings benefits of protection of various natural
environmental resources and their preservations. The education regarding the reasons for
maintaining sustainable environment takes place and also gets spotlight. The sustainable
environment makes every citizen and business organisation responsible for maintaining and
preserving environment and natural resources. For e.g. “take only pictures, leave only
footprints”, is the idea or plan that makes visitors and tourists more aware and make them
understand its lasting benefits. It leads to bring benefits of people respecting nature and
minimizes the effects and impacts on any habitats.
Negative Impact:
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The mass tourism bring great benefits for the tourist destination place but it can also lead
to degrade the environment. Too many visitors or tourists can also affect the qulaity of life of
community people(The Effects of Tourism in Italy, 2017). The great number of people visiting
Rome can generate pollution and waste. The pollution of noise, water, air, visual or solid waste
can make the environment degraded. Visual pollution may happen or occur due to increased
billboard proliferations. The natural resources attraction can be overused or improperly used by
the mass tourists visiting the Rome, Italy. The tourism industries focus on providing effective
services to tourists which can lead to alter the appearances of landscape of destination areas. For
e.g. when a destination place gets large number of tourists, the demands for land gets increases,
especially for prime areas or locations like special views, beach fronts or mountains. The
increased number of tourists in Rome can also affect the flora and fauna when some desirable
animals or plants are collected for sale or when the land is getting trampled. Tourism industries
can also remove animals, plants, coral, fossils, historical or cultural artefacts from the destination
areas. The mass tourism or overuse of visitors visiting Rome can affect the environment by
degrading the historic sites, landscapes or monuments. Tourists can also overwhelm the available
supply of water where there may be scarce of water. The large number of tourists can also lead to
inadvertently introduce species that are non-indigenous and can increase in the animal and plants
trade. The mass tourisms in Rome and domestic pets may also disrupt the wildlife by disturbing
their cycles of breeding and also due to alteration of natural behaviours.
CONCLUSION
Travel and tourism industries are among the largest industries. The Rome is famous for
its traditions, cultures, historic monuments and sites which leads to attract large number of
tourists in a year. The increased number of visitors and tourists brings many benefits and
advantages for local people and community. Whereas, it may also lead to bring many
disadvantages as well. Mass tourism can affect the socio-culture impacts on the destination place
or area. There are economic and environmental factors that may affect the destination place due
to great number of visitors visiting the destination place.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Cetin, G. and et.al., 2019. Impact of superior destination experience on recommendation.
In Trends in Tourist Behavior (pp. 147-160). Springer, Cham.s
Garau-Vadell, J.B., Gutierrez-Taño, D. and Diaz-Armas, R., 2018. Economic crisis and
residents’ perception of the impacts of tourism in mass tourism destinations. Journal of
destination marketing & management. 7. pp.68-75.
Gu, X. and et.al., 2018. Local tourism cycle and external business cycle. Annals of TourisButler,
R., 2018. Sustainable Tourism in Sensitive Environments: A Wolf in Sheep’s
Clothing?. Sustainability. 10(6). p.1789.
Lee, J.W. and Syah, A.M., 2018. Economic and environmental impacts of mass tourism on
regional tourism destinations in Indonesia. Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and
Business. 5(3). pp.31-41.
m Research. 73. pp.159-170.
Santos, C., Silva, D. and Amorim, E., 2018. The Impact of Tourism Security on the Image Of
The Destination-The Case of Portugal. 7th, p.207.
Sengupta, N., Gonsalves, P. and Rao, N., 2018. Block-9 Tourism Impact.
Skinner, H., 2018. The impact of cultural values and economic constraints on tourism
businesses’ ethical practices. International Journal of Tourism Cities.
Soto, M.T.R. and Clavé, S.A., 2018. The role of second homes in a Mediterranean coastal mass
tourism destination: An evolutionary perspective. In The Routledge Handbook of Second
Home Tourism and Mobilities (pp. 45-56). Routledge.
Online
Positive & Negative Effects of Tourism. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://traveltips.usatoday.com/positive-negative-effects-tourism-63336.html>
The Effects of Tourism in Italy. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://classroom.synonym.com/the-effects-of-tourism-in-italy-12081886.html>
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