Understanding the World of Tourism: Impacts on Economy, Environment, and Society

This essay discusses the impacts of tourism on the economy, environment, and society. It covers the positive and negative effects of tourism, including employment generation, rise in GDP, protection of wildlife, pollution, depletion of natural resources, and disputes among tourists and local public.

Understanding the World
of Tourism

INTRODUCTION
Tourism refers to a set of recreational activities of travelling and touring, performed by
individuals, for the purpose of obtaining relaxation. It is a process to pursue pleasure at a place,
away from home. Tourism is a great source of revenue for the country and an interesting way to
know about the cultures of different regions. It is the curiosity of public to know about different
places and cultures which has promoted tourism to a great extent (Newsome, 2020). Tourism
industry is the largest industry in the world. Travelling is considered as one of the favourite
hobbies of humans now-a-days. This essay throw some light on understanding the world of
tourism along with its significant factors. The positive and negative impacts that tourism has on
economy, environment and socio-cultural activities are also being discussed.
Understanding the World of Tourism
Tourism had a major impact on a country economic, environmental and socio- cultural
positions. Countries with beautiful maintenance and nature are becoming financially stronger. It
also helps in improving country's image all over the world (Jovicic, 2019). Development of
contemporary tourism has eventually led to a decrease in the unemployment rate of the country.
An individual can generate self – employment if the person have good knowledge of the city or
place where they live or in their habitat. Social media is a great source of advertisement used by
the guides, agents, influencers, etc., to make people know about the beautiful places their city or
region has. They also make attractive videos to make public curious to visit that place. People are
becoming adventurous which makes them try new tasks at different places. Tourism is a full
package which covers in its fold various services such as travelling, hospitality, etc. The package
starts from leaving our home to entering it. Hotels or resorts with proper facilities, as per their
package, are being provided by the tourist agents. Due to COVID-19, people had to postpone
their tourism plan (Almeida-Santana and Moreno-Gil, 2018). Now, when the COVID is over,
people are enjoying their tours along with their friends and families. This lead to an increase in
the revenue generated by tourism industry. There are major impacts drawn by the development
of contemporary tourism on a country and the individuals living there, in various ways. Factors
which significantly have an impact on the tourism industry are economic factors, socio-cultural
& environmental factors. These impacts can be both positive as well as negative.

The consequences that the development of tourism has drawn on the economy of a
country are the impacts of tourism. Increasing financial treasures of the country, decline in the
rate of unemployment, increase in exports of goods and services, etc., are some of the productive
effects that tourism may have on an economy of a country (McCool and Bosak, 2019). Tourists
contribute a lot to the financial treasures of a country that gradually increases the GDP of the
country (Wijesinghe, Mura and Bouchon, 2019). While visiting different places, tourists shop a
lot for their friends and families. This leads to a rise in the business of the people living there.
Employment generation is the best economic impact a country has which helped in the reduction
of poverty. People are provided with a post of agents and guides. UK is an attractive place from
tourists point of view. Hence, it provides employment to a lot of people in UK (Bernstein and
Woosnam, 2019). The country rely on the revenue generated from tourist industry a lot. This was
the negative effect of tourism faced by UK during the pandemic COVID-19. The financial
stability of UK was dashed to the grounds because of the pandemic. This took away jobs of
various individuals. Restaurants, cafes, hotels and other food pantries of UK faced a huge loss.
Occupancy rate of the hotels was crashed causing a significant loss to UK's financial stability
(Pestana, Parreira and Moutinho, 2020). Due to lockdown, there was complete silence all over
the country. Being a major contributor to the revenue sources of UK, tourism industry emerged
to be quite disastrous for the economy, during the time of need. This further worsened the
condition of UK during the crisis.
The results of tourism on the surroundings of a country are known as environmental
impacts of tourism. Protection of animals, conservation and preservation of nature which
includes forests, lakes, rivers, seas along with their surroundings are the effective effects of
tourism industry on environment. Further conversion of old or places earlier used by the
companies as tourists' spot is another perk of tourism industry on environment. Wildlife
creatures are protected so that tourists can have a look at them. Tourists like to visit beautiful
places or places with good weather and nature (Alonso and Kok, 2021). The Government make
strict rules regarding the conservation of nature for the public to follow and take strict actions
when not complied with (Bae, Chang and Lee, 2022). This is because tourism is great source of
revenue for the country. These rules help the Government to preserve the beauty of the country.
UK, being a major tourist spot, has maintained itself well. But the negative impacts that tourism
industry has on environment are countless. Pollution leads the list whether it comes to air, water

or noise pollution. Due to the development of tourism industry, transports are majorly used. This
increase in usage of transports contributes to air pollution (Bosak, 2019). Over consumption or
neglected behaviour for water by the tourists is another problem. While visiting various beach,
rivers, etc., tourists often throw garbage into the water which causes water pollution. Playing
high volume music causes noise pollution and is quite common among the tourists. Thus, the
Government should impose some more strict rules and regulations to minimise the effects of the
activities done by the tourism industry (Masiero, Yang and Qiu, 2019). When these regulations
are not complied with, necessary actions must be taken. It is the duty of the Government to look
after the well being of the country.
The effects that the world of tourism has on the society and culture of a country are
referred as socio-cultural impacts. Knowledge of different regions and their cultures gained, is
the most positive impact of tourism. Different classes of people travel, talk, stay together which
helps in promoting brotherhood in the society (Gu and Et. Al., 2020). Tourism involves meeting
new people that help people learn the cultures of various regions. Tourist industry is the best and
an interesting source of learning about the history of different places. Further, tourists often gain
respect from the local people who resides there. The tourists may also gain respect for the skills
possessed by them or for their social status. Local public is often influenced by the attires and
accessories of the tourists. This craze to know about the tourists and their culture, make tourists
focus on their social status (Liasidou, 2019). Thus, increased tourism leads to an increase in the
social status of the people. But there are often days when conflicts between the tourists and the
guide or the local public residing there arises. This is the major drawback of the tourism on the
society of a country. It is the most common consequence faced by the guides because they are
the only mediators between the tourists and the general public. Sometimes, tourists consider
themselves superior than the local community residing the place they visit. This may give birth
to anti–social behaviour and could be a reason for the dispute (Zhang, Zhang and Xu, 2021).
Threat to a cultural identity of an area should be examined and addressed seriously. Tourists are
generally, wealthy as compared to the local community. This may lead to an increase in the
prices of products, sold locally.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that the world of tourism is vast enough.
Tourism refers to a set of activities performed by individuals to pursue relaxation. These
activities are performed by the human beings away from home. Tourism is the biggest industry
all over the world and is a major source of revenue for UK. Tourism impacts the economy,
environment, culture, society, etc., of the country to a great extent. These impacts may be
positive or negative. It is an important activity for the humans as it gives them some quality time
with their loved ones without any tension or stress. Employment generation, rise in GDP of the
country, protection of wildlife creatures, conservation of forests, increase in exports, promotion
of brotherhood among different classes of people, etc., are some of the positive impacts of
tourism that a country enjoy. UK faced a gradual decrease in the occupancy rate of the hotel
rooms which was a huge loss as the country is quite dependent on tourism industry for funds.
Further there are various negative effects of tourism that a country goes through. Pollution,
depletion of natural resources, disputes among tourists and local public, etc., are some of the
negative impacts of the tourism industry.

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