Understanding the World of Tourism: Impact on Economy, Environment, and Culture

This essay discusses the impact of contemporary tourism on the economy, environment, and culture. It covers the factors leading to tourism development, economic impact, environmental considerations, and cultural impact. The essay concludes with the importance of considering the negative impact of tourism for sustainability.

Understanding the World of
tourism
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................3
Factors leading to contemporary tourism development...............................................................3
Economic impact of tourism........................................................................................................4
Environmental considerations related to tourism........................................................................5
Cultural impact of tourism...........................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Tourism is defined as the process or act of giving some time to self, away from the home or
routine work for the purpose of relaxation, pleasure or recreation and using commercial
provisions related to services (Kongbuamai and et.al., 2020). Tourism is not only considered as
an activity for self-pleasure or enjoyment but is also equally important for gaining knowledge,
business, boosting of revenues of economy, cultural preservations as well as infrastructural
development of economy and humanity. Various factors such as globalisation, technology,
transportation services, changing social preferences and dynamics have greatly contributed in
various forms and trends of tourism (Scarlett, 2021). These developments have both positive and
negative impact on social, economic, cultural and environmental perspective. This essay will
provide a discussion of significant impact of tourism development on these multidimensional
aspects.
ESSAY
Factors leading to contemporary tourism development
Contemporary tourism has gained majority of changes and development. The foremost
change that has been observed in tourism is the way in which tourism activities are accessed. The
technology developments act as key driving force in this context. Now a day’s it has become
very easy for people to go online and to search for multiple destinations and on one single click
access the services such as transportation, hotels, food as well as knowledge about the culture or
insights of destinations (Koens, Postma and Papp, 2018). With social media and increasing
digital marketing social perspective about tourism has also changed a lot. Contrary to only
business or family trips people are now considering tourism as integral part of their life.
Thus apart from conventional forms many other forms such as sport tourism, adventure
tourism, spiritual tourism is also gaining huge popularity. Customers in this segment are
exploring various reasons and ways to go for travelling. Easy transportation through cab
services, technology based direction assistive devices, plenty of airports, railways and other
transport medium has made tourism very popular activity. Another major change observed in this
industry is that tourism is now seen as essential element of economic development (Koçak,
Ulucak and Ulucak, 2020). With globalisation and global trade different economies are
connected and dependent upon each other. Thus foreign reserves or exchange of resources
greatly affect the development of nation. As a result of this many countries are completely
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dependent upon tourism for their full development. Thus in order to grow economically such
countries pay great emphasis upon development of tourist destinations (Comerio and Strozzi,
2019). Development of various tourism destinations help to encourage different form of tourism.
Currently in the era of internet the expectation of customers or tourists have also changed
significantly. Hospitality service providers used technology as well as personalisation in services
to improve the customer experience. However, demand of customers is dynamic and now
consumers are seeking more ethical and quality services. It has created immense competition in
terms of pricing and service quality (Ibănescu and et.al., 2018). With increasing concerns over
health and hygiene after Covid pandemic tourism industry is also adopting measures for
sustainable and safe tourism. This is included at all level of tourism development and related
activities.
Economic impact of tourism
There are several economies which depends on tourism only for their survival. Thus some of the
key implications of tourism on economy are:
Positive:
Infrastructural development: Due to increasing tourism activities countries used to develop
communities and other facilities for encouraging business and tourism. Thus growing
infrastructure also improves economy and living standard of people.
Employment generation: Tourism also gives employment to local communities and ventures
such as hotel owners, restaurants, transportation services as well as local businesses. Thus huge
employment is created by such activities (Sadq, Othman and Khorsheed, 2019).
Private and public investments: In order to increase revenues and employment investments are
made to improve public infrastructures such as airports railways or tourist destinations as well as
cultural sites. It not only improves lives of local people but also attract attention of foreign
investors or brands.
Revenues and cash flow: With hospitality services as well as tourism destinations huge cash flow
is generated. Certain services also generate source of income in form of municipal taxes (Koçak,
Ulucak and Ulucak, 2020). These revenues are used for the development of destination and
contributes in GDP or economic growth of country.
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Multiplier effect: When tourism actives increases then jobs are created in multiple numbers. As
tourist buy souvenirs local product demand and employment is also increased (Godovykh and
Ridderstaat, 2020). However, its prolong effect may result in leakage of money through import
of goods; particularly in less developed economy or destinations which import services or goods
for their tourists.
Negative: Despite huge economic benefits tourism also impose following threats:
Inflation: Increased tourist population also contribute in higher prices of commodities. The land
prices hike also make it challenging for local inhabitants to buy houses or lands (Santos, Silva
and Amorim, 2018). Thus daily life pricing is also affected due to high tourism.
Profit outflow: With popular tourist destinations foreign investment is also increases and thus the
profits generated by them is also sent outside as profit outflow. This can have negative impact
upon economic development.
Leakage effect: The tourism generated revenues is also lost to economy of other countries. For
instance, undeveloped countries may not have resources to build infrastructure and thus in such
cases tourism related services are often leaked out of country. Similarly, if countries import
goods or services for providing to their tourists, promotional expenses, foreign travel agents or
tax exemptions can also make leakage effect prominent loss for economy (Silva and Henriques,
2021).
Environmental considerations related to tourism
Positive: On positive side tourism has following benefits for the environment:
Awareness: As tourism provides employment opportunities, people are also encouraged to
protect and conserve their natural resources and environment (Su, Cheng and Swanson, 2020).
They give more emphasis on sustainability efforts to protect their tourism heritage.
Pollution control efforts: In order to provide better experience to tourist’s local citizens as well
as government authorities also focus on making destination clean. Thus it contributes in
improving conservation of natural resources as well. Increasing awareness and demand of
sustainability from tourists also lead to better sustainability measures to make environment clean
and green.
Negative: Potential negative effects of tourism activities are:
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Overcrowding: There are valuable heritage tourist sites which are being damaged by
overcrowding. It often creates difficulties for local citizens as well as biodiversity when
overcrowding occurs (Mahadevan and Suardi, 2019). It sometimes also causes shortage of
natural resources like water or food.
Pollution: Excess number of people on certain destinations also causes burden on destination and
thus can also create resource crisis. More tourist activities also result in higher generation of
waste and thus also pollute the natural environment of destination.
Cultural impact of tourism
Positive: On positive side tourism has great contribution towards cultural aspect. Some of the
key benefits of tourism are as follows:
Preservation of culture: To support tourism activities responsible agencies and authorities used
to fund, preserver and conserve their valuable cultural heritage so that traditions can be
revitalised and cultural pride can be created and protected. It also opens up doors for cultural
sharing and learning (Pratama and Mandaasari, 2020).
Institutional infrastructure: There are certain cultural activities and heritage which gains
immense popularity in terms of fame as well as money by tourism activities. For instance, when
cultural arts and crafts are indulging in tourism then they used to gain even international
popularity and demand. Thus cultural values are shared widely.
Negative: The most prominent negative aspect of tourism on culture is:
Acculturation: While meeting needs of tourist’s local citizens used to adapt the behaviour,
attitude and values of tourists. This has more dominating effect on young generations (Goliath-
Ludic and Yekela, 2020). Thus increased tourism may often lead to endanger certain cultural
values which are in debate among young and old generation. Thus cultural identify of local
people is lost and traditions are displaced.
Damaged to cultural heritage: There are certain valuable cultural insights which must be valued
and protected. However, increasing and uncontrolled tourism activities may cause damage or
disrespect to cultural symbols. Though preservation measures are adopted but still increasing
tourism intervention becomes a cause of trouble for sensitive cultural heritage (Kamb and et.al.,
2021).
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CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that contemporary developments have given huge
encouragement to tourism activities. This has given immense rise in social and economic growth.
However, with this growth certain important threats have been also generated. Thus for
sustainability it is required that these negative impact or threats of tourisms must be taken into
consideration. It is equally important to emphasis on negative side of tourism as well otherwise it
will nullify the great prosperity provided and enjoyed by entire tourism industry, related
professions and individuals. It can also be concluded that for huge developments economies must
focus upon one or other type of tourism. It will help them in contributing in development of
economy, cultural heritage or social standard or each of them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Comerio, N. and Strozzi, F., 2019. Tourism and its economic impact: A literature review using
bibliometric tools. Tourism economics. 25(1). pp.109-131.
Godovykh, M. and Ridderstaat, J., 2020. Health outcomes of tourism development: A
longitudinal study of the impact of tourism arrivals on residents’ health. Journal of
Destination Marketing & Management.17. p.100462.
Goliath-Ludic, K. and Yekela, S., 2020. Resident's Perception of the Environmental Impact of
Tourism: A Case Study of the Bawa Community in Butterworth, South Africa. Geo
Journal of Tourism and Geosites. 33. pp.1527-1531.
Ibănescu, B.C. and et.al., 2018. The impact of tourism on sustainable development of rural
areas: Evidence from Romania. Sustainability. 10(10). p.3529.
Kamb, A. and et.al., 2021. Potentials for reducing climate impact from tourism transport
behavior. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 29(8). pp.1365-1382.
Koçak, E., Ulucak, R. and Ulucak, Z.Ş., 2020. The impact of tourism developments on CO2
emissions: An advanced panel data estimation. Tourism Management
Perspectives. 33. p.100611.
Koens, K., Postma, A. and Papp, B., 2018. Is overtourism overused? Understanding the impact
of tourism in a city context. Sustainability. 10(12). p.4384.
Kongbuamai, N. and et.al., 2020. The impact of tourism and natural resources on the ecological
footprint: a case study of ASEAN countries. Environmental Science and Pollution
Research. 27(16). pp.19251-19264.
Mahadevan, R. and Suardi, S., 2019. Panel evidence on the impact of tourism growth on poverty,
poverty gap and income inequality. Current Issues in Tourism. 22(3). pp.253-264.
Pratama, I.G.S. and Mandaasari, I.C.S., 2020. The impact of tourism development on the
economic, cultural and environmental aspects of local communities. International
research journal of management, IT and social sciences. 7(1). pp.31-36.
Sadq, Z.M., Othman, B. and Khorsheed, R.K., 2019. The impact of tourism marketing in
enhancing competitive capabilities. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and
Leisure. 8(5). pp.1-11.
Santos, C., Silva, D. and Amorim, E., 2018. The impact of Tourism Security on the Image of the
Destination-The case of Portugal. Journal of Tourism Research.19. pp.207-216.
Scarlett, H.G., 2021. Tourism recovery and the economic impact: A panel assessment. Research
in Globalization. 3. p.100044.
Silva, H.E. and Henriques, F.M., 2021. The impact of tourism on the conservation and IAQ of
cultural heritage: The case of the Monastery of Jerónimos (Portugal). Building and
Environment. 190. p.107536.
Su, L., Cheng, J. and Swanson, S.R., 2020. The impact of tourism activity type on emotion and
storytelling: The moderating roles of travel companion presence and relative
ability. Tourism Management. 81. p.104138.
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