Understanding the World of Tourism: Positive and Negative Impacts on Economy, Environment, and Socio-Culture

This report discusses the development of contemporary tourism and its positive and negative impacts on economy, environment, and socio-culture. It explores the factors influencing the tourism industry and its contribution to the GDP. The report also discusses the effects of Covid-19 on the tourism industry.

Understanding the
World of Tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Describe the development of contemporary tourism and discuss its positive and negative
economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts.................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals.....................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
An individual or group of people travelling to any place especially in their leisure are
considered as Tourism (Wu, 2020). Number of firms involved in similar kind of work are
considered as industry. Therefore, the hub of tourism are termed tourism industry. As per WHO,
duration of staying outside the house in leisure time for one or less than year is considered as
tourism (Lu and et. al., 2022). This report included about the factors influencing and affecting
the tourism industry. The development of contemporary tourism along with the significant
factors of tourism industry. Lastly, the positive and negative impacts of tourism industry on
economical, socio – culture and environmental conditions will be explored (Altshuler and
Schmidt, 2021).
MAIN BODY
Describe the development of contemporary tourism and discuss its positive and negative
economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts.
As of now, trend for visiting popular spot in their leisure time is continuously increase,
this results in booming the tourism industry (Marinov, Vodenska and Assenova, 2018).
Meanwhile, in the pandemic the tourism industry was very much affected as they are closed
completely. After pandemic, the ratio of people visiting other places was the highest, this results
in booming the tourism industry. There are certain internal and external factors by which this
industry grows and declines. Apart from this, there are various factors which are not under
human control like if any natural calamity arises then this is not in control of human but tourism
industry is affected a lot by this. External factors includes political, social, legal, environmental
and economical aspects. All these factors are sometime in control of living being and sometimes
not, but this definitely affects the tourism industry either directly or indirectly. The pandemic
occurred due to Covid – 19 has created the huge impact on the tourism industry (Salazar and
Cardoso, 2019). The people who are directly or indirectly involved with this industry faced a
major loss. They remained unemployed for a long period of time. They don't even have food and
shelter at the time of pandemic. Tourism industry contributes in the economic growth and in the
gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. But due to covid – 19 this industry suffered a lot.
Decline in the profit of this industry, was also the major reason for decrease in GDP of the
countries. As compared to 2019 the count of domestic visitors fall by 45% and the count of

international visitors fall by 69.4% (Eom and Han, 2019). Apart form this, globally around 61.1
million people lost their jobs during the pandemic. This is how the covid – 19 pandemic affected
the tourism industry.
Economic factor is a factor thorough which the financial or economic condition of the
country is determined. The tourism industry contributes 3.6% directly and 10.3% indirectly in
the world's gross domestic product (Wang, Huang, Gong and Cao, 2020). Moreover, the impact
of tourism on economic conditions of the country is further divided into three categories – first is
the expenditure made by the tourism, second the spending done by the businesses and lastly the
capital which is being invested. Direct contribution in the economy is done when the tourism
purchase any good or services like food and beverages, hotels and entertainment facilities and on
any other thing which is being purchased by the tourism. Simultaneously, with increase in the
demand of the above mentioned products results in encouraging other people to start their own
ventures. Whereas indirect contribution is made when the tax is charged by the government
while the purchase of commodity and toll tax or any kind of tax to travel other countries are
charged by the government (Akadiri, Akadiri and Alola, 2019). The two most important positive
impact of tourism industry on economic factor is that it creates a lot of employment
opportunities. The local as well the other people get the job opportunity, as this industry requires
a lot of people. While increasing in the job opportunities for local people signifies the increase in
the income of the local people and all this results in increasing the living of standard of the local
people. Rising standard in income of local people implies in direct contribution in economy of
the country. The second and important positive thing is that the government will take care of the
historical places and monuments, as this is generating income for them. Not only historical
places but also the natural biodiversity will also be conserved. The government will make proper
efforts in keeping the places safe and in building the proper infrastructure. The contribution
made by government and people in saving these things will attract more number of tourists and
more income can be generated by practising theses activities. Whereas, the negative affect of this
industry on economy is that visit of the tourist creates a lot of pollution and over consumption of
natural resources are done by them. The other negative point is that the outsiders comes and start
doing the seasonal business impacts in two ways firstly the employment opportunity for local
people is over. Secondly, the situation of multiplier and leakage effect occurs, as the income

generating from the tourism industry is getting outside the host country (Garau-Vadell,
Gutierrez-Taño and Diaz-Armas, 2018).
All the factors related to environment, such as wildlife tourism, biodiversity tourism,
natural things whichever is directly or indirectly affected by the tourism are considered under
this (Saarinen, 2019). The positive impact of tourism on environment is that by have a tourist
spot in the county will make the government to take care of all the resources and natural things.
The government promotes the business who uses different sustainable development techniques to
save zone the environment. Even different sustainable products and techniques are used by the
government to protect the environment and make the county a clean and green country. Some
important initiative steps will take by the government to increase the count of tourism by taking
sustainable steps in the county (Joo, Cho and Woosnam, 2019). Whereas the negative impact of
tourism on environment is increase in pollution, by increase in the number of tourism in the host
country. Pollution is increasing either by over consumption of single use plastic or by the smoke
generated from the vehicles. The other negative impact is that over consumption of natural
resources is taking places, due to increase in the count of tourism (Gunn and Var, 2020). The
county is loosing it's natural resources along with it's natural beauty.
The interaction between the people of different culture provides the platform to know
about the different culture (Eslami and et. al, 2019). The positive impact of socio-cultural is that
the interaction of the local people with the tourism leads in understanding the culture of the other
countries. This helps in understanding their culture more closely and the will benefit the local
people and tourist both in easy interaction. Other thing is by knowing the culture of the tourist
the local people can present the things and varieties that the tourism wants. The negative impact
of socio-cultural is that firstly the local people getting more depended on the tourist for living
their lively hood (Brauer, Dymitrow and Tribe, 2019). During Covid-19, this made all the local
people employed, as they were fully depended on the visitors for their living their lively hood.
The second important factor is that more interaction among the local and tourism leads in
increasing the criminal cases. The criminal cases like gambling and intake and supply of drugs
are seeming to be increased more. The criminals start taking help of the local people for
supplying drugs and through this local people are developing the habit of in taking drugs. Huge
amount of income is generated and the criminally supply that money to their host country.

(Sharpley and Stone, 2020). Bad impact on the people of the country as well as the supply of
money to other country both the factors are taking place.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that the tourism industry is contributing a
major portion for the economy. The tourism industry is affected by certain factors the most
trending factor was due to Covid – 19. Large number of people lost their jobs due to this
pandemic. There are certain external factors which affects the tourism industry out of which
economic, socio-cultural and environmental has been discussed in the report. Lastly, the positive
and negative aspects are being discussed like - the job creation opportunity is the positive factor
of economic impact. Better interaction among the local and tourist people is the positive point of
the socio-cultural. Along with it improvement in sustainable development of the county is also
the plus point of the environmental factor. Apart from this each factors have negative impacts
too, like increasing in criminal cases, increase in pollution and many more.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akadiri, S.S., Akadiri, A.C. and Alola, U.V., 2019. Is there growth impact of tourism? Evidence
from selected small island states. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(12), pp.1480-1498.
Altshuler, A. and Schmidt, J., 2021. Why does resilience matter? Global implications for the
tourism industry in the context of COVID-19. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes, 13(3), pp.431-436.
Brauer, R., Dymitrow, M. and Tribe, J., 2019. The impact of tourism research. Annals of
Tourism Research, 77, pp.64-78.
Eom, T. and Han, H., 2019. Community-based tourism (TourDure) experience program: A
theoretical approach. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(8), pp.956-968.
Eslami, S., Khalifah, Z., Mardani, A., Streimikiene, D. and Han, H., 2019. Community
attachment, tourism impacts, quality of life and residents’ support for sustainable
tourism development. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(9), pp.1061-1079.
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.
Gunn, C.A. and Var, T., 2020. Tourism planning: Basics, concepts, cases. Routledge.
Joo, D., Cho, H. and Woosnam, K.M., 2019. Exploring tourists' perceptions of tourism
impacts. Tourism Management Perspectives, 31, pp.231-235.
Lu, J., Xiao, X., Xu, Z., Wang, C., Zhang, M. and Zhou, Y., 2022. The potential of virtual
tourism in the recovery of tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Current
Issues in Tourism, 25(3), pp.441-457.
Marinov, V., Vodenska, M. and Assenova, M. eds., 2018. Traditions and Innovations in
contemporary tourism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Saarinen, J., 2019. Communities and sustainable tourism development: Community impacts and
local benefit creation in tourism. In A research agenda for sustainable tourism. Edward
Elgar Publishing.
Salazar, A. and Cardoso, C., 2019. Tourism planning: impacts as benchmarks for sustainable
development plans. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Sharpley, R. and Stone, P.R., 2020. Socio-cultural impacts of events: meanings, authorized
transgression, and social capital. In The Routledge handbook of events (pp. 155-170).
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Wang, J., Huang, X., Gong, Z. and Cao, K., 2020. Dynamic assessment of tourism carrying
capacity and its impacts on tourism economic growth in urban tourism destinations in
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Wu, W., 2020, February. Analysis of digital tourism, virtual tourism and wisdom tourism. In The
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Springer, Cham.