Understanding the World of Tourism: Economic, Environmental, and Socio-Cultural Impacts

This essay discusses the development of contemporary tourism and its significant factors, as well as the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the economy, environment, and society. It also provides recommendations for sustainable tourism. Course code and college/university not mentioned.

Understanding the World
of Tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Discussing the development of contemporary tourism and its significant factors................1
Discussing the positive and negative economic impacts on tourism....................................2
Discussing the positive and negative environmental impacts on tourism.............................3
Discussing the positive and negative socio-cultural impacts on tourism..............................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Tourisms is defines as a set of inter-linked activities of tourist while travelling to a
destination. The tourism industry pays emphasis on covering all tourist activities with the
perspective of overall economic and financial point of view. The tourism industry is immense,
dynamic and growth oriented consisting of companies which focus on offering products and
services that are meant for tourist at their different stages of travelling journey. This industry
assist an economy to boost its growth and help develop infrastructures of a country and implant
cultural exchange between the citizens and foreigners visiting their country. The following essay
will discuss about the development of contemporary tourism and its significant factors.
Moreover, it will focus on the impact the economic, environmental and socio-cultural impact
both positive and negative on tourisms. In addition to this it will also cover the future economic
and environment impact on tourism with suitable recommendations.
MAIN BODY
Discussing the development of contemporary tourism and its significant factors.
The trend in tourism and the overall tourism industry are on a constance change with
establishment of new attractive destination around the world and a prospect for countries to boost
their economic growth and development. This has give the rise to development of contemporary
tourism which focuses on establishing advance and invigorating approach to understand the
change trends in the tourism world. Moreover, it focuses on various issues such as tourism-
ethics and destination marketing in order to enhance their functioning to build a effective tourism
industry structure (Cavalheiro, Joia and Cavalheiro ., 2020). The development of contemporary
tourism assist in establishing contemporary tourism system which helps in the understanding
relation between the consumer and the producer in the tourism industry by emphasising on how
the consumers interact with the products received and their overall experience. In the modern-era
it is vital to develop contemporary tourism for its industry to grow and provide maximum
satisfaction to consumers. The significant factors of contemporary tourism are mentioned below:
Political climate:
The political climate of countries play a significant role development of contemporary
tourism as it focuses on various aspects such as safety of visitors in a sensitive political countries,
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exchange control and taxation of tourists along with visa regulations (Charalambous and Violaris
., 2021).
Risk management strategies:
It is crucial for development of contemporary tourism to establish effective risk
management strategies which will assist in adaptation to dynamic changes along with emergence
of new technology. Moreover, it helps the tourism industry to be prepared and proactive to
reduces losses.
Pro-poor tourism:
It is a vital approach for the tourism industry to develop contemporary tourism as it
focuses on generating benefits for the poor. This has an positive impact on ensuring economics,
social and environment factors are fulfilled in order to promote growth and infrastructure.
Discussing the positive and negative economic impacts on tourism.
Positive impact:
Job creation:
The tourism industry has a positive economic impact as it creates new job opportunities
for individuals. This helps in improving the overall standard of living of people and assist in
lowering the unemployment rate of countries (Chingarande and Saayman ., 2018) For example
Olympics of 2021 held in Tokyo assist in creating new job opportunities for its citizens such a
labour, travel agents, hospitality staff which helped in decreasing unemployment rates.
Multiplier effect:
The tourism industry encourages growth and development of the primary and secondary
sectors of the industry due to its multiplier effect on the economy. The tourism industry enables
local vendors, hotels and other business to grow and improve their financial stability. For
example foreigners visiting the Eiffel tower enable individuals such as photographers, coffee
shops and other business to gain benefit. This financial gain is then circulates in the economy and
eventually leaks out.
Negative impact:
Increase in local price:
The increase in overall price of product and services in the local market during high
tourist visit season is one of the negative impacts of tourism industry. This situation arises as
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local vendors and business focus on gaining financial befits from visitors as they are perceived
more wealthy compared to local population (Eslami and et. al., 2019). For example during the
time of 2021 Olympics saw prices of hotel room shoot up leaving citizens to find alternatives.
Profitable for large companies:
The tourism industry does create job and help in economic growth, but it is advantageous
for large tourism companies as they taker major share of the market. This leaves local vendors
with limited market share which gives rise to high prices of products and services (Fang ., 2020).
For example companies such as Expedia and Virgin Holidays take majority of the tourism share
negatively impacting the local business.
Discussing the positive and negative environmental impacts on tourism.
Positive impact:
Preserve local heritage:
The tourism industry helps in safe guarding the local heritage of a region. It promotes
maintenance and up-keep of vital tourist attraction heritages and focuses on developing required
infrastructure needed to preserve them. For example The Taj Mahal in India goes under periodic
maintenance in order to keep its rich heritage preserve from natural element and to keep visitors
experience optimal.
Development of environmental infrastructure:
The tourism industry helps in developing and establishing environmental infrastructures
such as parks and modern landscapes. This helps to enrich the environmental aspect of a tourist
location and assist in increasing the natural elements which are appreciated by both visitors and
citizens (Gotham ., 2018). For example Australia's flower festival helps to improve the
environment by maintaining and planting thousands for flowers and plant. This not only
enhances the visitors experiences but of citizens as well.
Negative impact:
Over development:
The development introduced by tourist industry can have a negative impact on the
environment due to over development of infrastructure. The large number of visitors attracted by
the tourism industry require infrastructure to build such as hotels, restaurants, clubs, etc. to meet
their demand which has a negatively impacted the environment due to elimination of green
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zones (Woo, Uysal and Sirgy., 2018). For example tourist site such as Time square in New York
have developed to the point that there are no green zones left surrounding it.
Energy consumption:
The tourist industry attracts large number of visitors which results in increase in the
consumption of energy in the region. This has a negative impact as high demand for energy
translated to high level of resources needed (Le, Wen and Wang ., 2021). For example during the
Carnival in Rio de Janeiro the consumption of electricity increases which has a negative impact
on the environment.
Discussing the positive and negative socio-cultural impacts on tourism.
Positive impact:
Increase quality of life:
The tourism industry helps in enhancing the living standard to the citizens of the region.
The assists in creating jobs, new infrastructure and various facilities which help citizens to
improve their financial stability and lifestyle. For example Egypt has seen increase in quality of
life of its citizens as they are able to get new jobs and utilize infrastructure such as schools and
hospitals due to tourism.
Social events:
The tourism industry help in establishing various event across a tourist attraction or
region which help in enriching the experiences of both the visitors and citizens as well. This has
positive impact on the socio-cultural as citizens interact with foreigners and exchange their
cultures. For example the event such as La Tomatina in Spain help citizens and visitors to
interact with each other and exchange their cultures which help in enhancing social internation
and overall community.
Negative impact:
Overcrowding:
The tourist industry attract large number of visitors from around the world to experience
various attraction. This leads to overcrowding at public place and traffic jams which cause
hindrance and inconvenience to the citizens (Walker and Lee ., 2021). For example Venice faces
the issue of overcrowding during tourist visitation due to its limited amount of space. This makes
it inconvenient for the surrounding citizens and causes travelling hindrances.
Sanitation:
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The increase in the number to visitors during peak tourist season reduce the overall level
of sanitation of a tourist attraction or a particular region. This causes safety concerns for local
citizens and impact heir health negatively. For example the high level of tourism in Philippines
has reduces the already damaged sanitation infrastructure of the country as it cannot cope up with
influx of tourist visiting the country.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it is concluded that, development of contemporary tourism will
help the tourism industry to advance its overall operation in an effective manner wile ensuring
safety for visitors and growth for countries. Moreover, how factors such as economic,
environmental and socio-cultural have both positive and negative impact on the overall tourism
industry. Furthermore, it is observed that I future economic and environment factors will play a
major role for the industry due to increase in inflation and environmental concerns. These factors
can have a major impact on the industry if not handled appropriately. It is recommend that to
deal with environmental factors the tourism industry should focus on being sustainable and
environment friendly to ensure visitor and citizen satisfaction. In addition to this the industry can
deal with economic issues by focusing on promoting local business to insure they receive a larger
market share compared to big businesses.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Cavalheiro, M. B., Joia, L. A. and Cavalheiro, G. M. D. C., 2020. Towards a smart tourism
destination development model: Promoting environmental, economic, socio-cultural and
political values. Tourism Planning & Development, 17(3). pp.237-259.
Charalambous, C. and Violaris, J., 2021. Support for environmental, social and economic
tourism industry development in Cyprus. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Chingarande, A. and Saayman, A., 2018. Critical success factors for tourism‐led
growth. International Journal of Tourism Research, 20(6). pp.800-818.
Eslami and et. al., 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.
Fang, W. T., 2020. Cultural tourism. In Tourism in emerging economies (pp. 75-101). Springer,
Singapore.
Gotham, K. F., 2018. Tourism and culture. In Routledge handbook of cultural sociology (pp.
592-600). Routledge.
Lei, K., Wen, C. and Wang, X., 2021. Research on the coordinated development of tourism
economy based on embedded dynamic data. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 82.
p.103933.
Walker, T. B. and Lee, T. J., 2021. Contributions to sustainable tourism in small islands: an
analysis of the Cittàslow movement. Tourism Geographies, 23(3). pp.415-435.
Woo, E., Uysal, M. and Sirgy, M. J., 2018. Tourism impact and stakeholders’ quality of
life. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(2). pp.260-286.
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