Exploring the Impacts of Tourism on Society: A Sociological View

This essay critically analyzes the multifaceted impacts of tourism on society, exploring both positive and negative effects. It begins by defining tourism and its interconnectedness with society, emphasizing its economic contributions, particularly in the UK. The essay delves into the positive impacts such as economic stability and job creation, while also addressing negative consequences like resource scarcity and environmental concerns. It utilizes the tourism life cycle model to evaluate destination development and the importance of stakeholder management. Furthermore, the essay employs PESTLE analysis to examine the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing the tourism industry. It also investigates consumer behavior, expectations, and the motivations behind tourism, categorizing tourists based on social, economic, and environmental factors. The conclusion reiterates the economic benefits of tourism while acknowledging its environmental and social challenges, emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and technological advancements to mitigate negative impacts. The essay draws upon sociological theories and practices to provide a comprehensive understanding of tourism's influence on society.

Sociology and Tourism
Word count (2000 words)

INTRODUCTION
Tourism has been determined as the most important sector in society and within this it is
the area of interest among the social science concept as well. Tourism and society are inter-
linked with each other. It means that, activities in the tourism sector impacts the society and
society also creates impacts on the tourism sector. Thus, it can be said that tourism and society
are interlinked with each other and creating the impacts on each other as well. Tourism increases
the extent of economic integration among the countries and enable them to create a better
interaction (Irimiea, 2018). The people from different places come together and share their
interest with each other. This results in strengthen the community and enable them to interact
with each other in effective manner. Tourism helps in initiating the cultural integration which
bringing the people together. The current essay is based on critically analysing the impacts of
tourism on the society. Tourism sector is providing the vital impacts on the society which consist
of positive and negative elements.
The essay will analyse the positive and negative impacts in appropriate manner.
Examples of the UK will be taken in consideration wherever the appropriate examples will be
required. Sociological principles, theories and practices will be used in terms of evaluating the
socio-cultural, political and economic influence. Furthermore, ways in which tourism impacts the
sustainability will be discussed. The major reason behind conducting the study is aligned within
knowing impacts which is being created by the tourism on the society. It is important to know
the impacts as on the basis of this correct measures can be taken which are required to solve the
negative impacts. Therefore, the study has been taken in consideration as this will help in
analysing the negative impacts and provides guidance to the tourism industry for reducing the
negative impacts.
FIRST SECTION
Tourism can be defined as the social and cultural phenomenon which is affiliated with the
movement of people from one place to another place. Tourism sector is performing vital role in
bringing out the people together from the different culture and background. Society has been
determined as the group of the people who shares the common interest. Tourism and society both
the phenomenon are linked with each other that provide impacts on each other. Tourism sector is
the most important sector which leads to increase the GDP in UK. There are large number of
visitors that comes in UK for visiting the places and this results in earning of higher profit by the

tourism sector which automatically contributes in the GDP of the nation (Wood, 2018). Thus, the
major benefit that is creating by the tourism sector on the society is that it helps in the economic
stability of the nation which leads to assure the economic development. Same has been witnessed
in the UK as the tourism sector is growing on a high note which is creating the employment for
the people who are living in the society. In this manner, tourism creates the positive impact on
the society.
The demand of the customers in tourism industry in increasing on a high note due to
which there is being pressure created on the tourism sector in terms of meeting the demand of the
customers. The major issue arises with the resource scarcity. When visitor visit different places
then, it results in using the resource of that particular places which further result in the decrease
of the resources (Erdoğan, 2020). Thus, this is the negative impact which is being created by the
tourism sector on the society. Impacts are categorized under positive and negative parameters.
Positive impacts are beneficial however, there is need to focus on the negative impacts which is
creating the drastic effect on the society and the people who are living in the society.
The tourism life cycle model is being referred to that model which has been used in
wider manner in order to perform the evaluation of the tourist destination. It has been found from
various studies that, UK’S Tourism sector has adopted this model and approximately 70 million
of the tourist are coming per year for visiting the UK. The major stages of tourism life cycle
model are- exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and decline. The
destination has been explored by the visitors within making effective involvement. The
knowledge in regard to the places has been developed. In the consolidation stage, the number of
tourist are higher than the residents. In stagnation stage tourism starts declining and in the last
stage it completely gets declined (Singh, 2019). Thus, in this manner the tourism cycle depicts
the evaluation of the destination pace where tourist go to visit and how the visiting rate gets
declined. The stakeholder management needs to be done within following the framed policies of
the government and protecting the interest of the local communities.
SECOND SECTION
There is no sign of declining of the tourism industry. The industry of tourism is rapidly
growing. Through the social media there is the more attraction of the people of global visiting
(Nasution and et.al., 2021, May). To the society of tourism industry there is the both positive and

the negative impact. The impact to the industry can be identified through applying the PESTLE
analysis:
 Political factors – The country of UK is supporting the anti corruption so there is the
lower chances of corruption in the tourism industry (Athari, S.A., and et.al., 2021).
Travelling to different countries is easier as government has opened the borders for the
tourists.
 Economic factors – There is the increase in the income of the people which impacts in
more spending of the money. There is the change in the travel of the people which helps
the tourists in more accessible of the location. Sharing economies refers to the such
models of the businesses (Ren, T., and et.al., 2019). There is the consumer friendly model
by the companies such as the AirBnB and Uber. Thus, to increase the attraction and the
multiplier in the economy the government there is the development of the infrastructure.
 Social factors – To the younger generation there is the increase in the trend of tourism.
People were more attracted to the tourism through engaging on the social media (Mir and
Mir, 2019). The people want to visit the places to be more aware about the different
cultures in the world.
 Technological factors – To the recent times there is the improvement in the transport
industry. Transporting companies were providing more better facilities to the customer
which helps them in ease and safety of travelling (Nasution and et.al., 2021, May). The
services provided such as the online booking of the tickets which allows the people to
reserve the ticket from there home.
 Legal factors – Accessing of the visa is become more easier than before which will help
the individual in easy accessing of the world. To the purpose of tourism many banks were
providing the loans to travel (Figini, P. and Patuelli, R., 2022). This will help the
individual in easy access to travel internationally. There is the boost in the economy
because of the easy providing of the visa to the tourists.
 Environmental factors – Due to the change in the seasonality there is also increase in
the demand of tourists. Government has launched a mission of zero emission which was
adapted by many countries which help in the increase in the income and the protection to
the environment (Nasution and et.al., 2021, May). Due to the change in the weather it

also impacts in the affect in the tourism. There is also impact to the environment by
increasing the tourism such as it increase the level of pollution.
THIRD SECTION
The process of organizing information and the acquiring of the direction to the decision
of the using and purchasing of the product and the service is referred to as the behaviour of the
consumer. Through the analysis of the tourism industry and the tourists it has been identified that
there is the increase in the expectations of the people in regard to the tourism (Sharma and
Nayak, 2019). The available trends in the market were aware by the people through the medium
of social media platforms. Thus, the new trends was identified by the tourist the level of
expectations of the people also increases which negatively impact to the place. For example, the
pressure was created to the local people such as due to increase in the destination there is the
increase in the rent, prices of food which effect the income of the local people. Social, economic
and the environment are the three typology categories of tourists (Jia, Chung and Hwang, 2021).
The factors such as the economic, social, political and the environmental factors impacts to the
tourism such as the increase in the lifestyle of the people, increase in the revenue of the country
and the individual. The rate of unemployment decreases. In the tourism at the large extent there
is the exploitation of the resources. The resource were exploiting through the contribution of the
local people.
Intrinsic and the Extrinsic are two types of motivation. To the surrounding of the people
there is the came of the extrinsic motivation. The motivation which come within an individual is
referred to as intrinsic motivation. Understanding of the culture of the tourism helps in the
positive impact to the industry of tourism in UK (Sæþórsdóttir, Hall and Wendt, 2020). It has
been decided by the government to provide the best and effect services to the tourists as it helps
in the positive feedback to the destination which will lead in increasing more number of tourists.
Providing the service to the customer is identified as the large extent and the understanding the
concern of the people to the tourism defines the behaviour of the tourists to the place. To the
business of the tourism there is the opportunity to increase there income by increasing the level
of motivation to the people (Getz, 2019). Peoples can be motivated by providing the best
services to them which will provide the good reviews on the online platform. Thus, there will
also increase in the level of tourists in the UK due to increase in the level of motivation of the
people.

CONCLUSION
Thus, it has been concluded from the current essay that there is the increase the level of
the job of the employees due to the increase in the number of tourists. This may lead in the
development of the economy. Thus, there will be the increase in the rate of GDP in the future by
developing more infrastructure in the country. Thus, through the tourism there is the increase in
attraction to the different culture. It helps in the promoting of the peace, tradition and the
background. There is also the more development of the tourism in the tourism of the future as the
today's generation is more engaged to the travel. Thus, from the above essay it has been
identified that there is the various factors which impact the tourism and the tourism industry in
both positive and the negative way.
The positive impact from the tourism is there is increase in the income level of the people
and also increase in the wealth of the economy. Through the development of the technology
there will be the increase in the lifestyle of the people. To meet the demand of the tourism
customer there is the creation of the pressure to the environment. It has also been identified that
after the pandemic there is the increase in the rise of the tourists. There was a rise in the tourism
industry because the development of the historical places which allows the people to get
attraction to the place and also the learning of the individual also increases. Thus, many countires
such as UK provides the people the benefits in the tax refund.

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