Tourism: Development and Impacts on Economy, Environment, Culture

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of contemporary tourism and its multifaceted impacts on the economy, environment, and socio-cultural aspects of a country. It begins by outlining the evolution of tourism as a significant economic driver, highlighting its dependence on resources, infrastructure, and the travel industry. The essay then delves into the positive and negative economic impacts, such as job creation and revenue generation versus seasonal employment and the dominance of multinational corporations. It further examines the environmental impacts, including the protection of natural resources and wildlife conservation alongside increased pollution and damage to natural environments. Finally, the essay discusses the socio-cultural impacts, noting the benefits of cultural exchange and heritage preservation while also addressing potential cultural clashes and the commercialization of culture. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of managing tourism activities to mitigate negative consequences and preserve natural and cultural resources.

Understanding the World of
Tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
First section: Development of Contemporary tourism...........................................................1
Second section: Positive and negative impacts of tourism on the economy..........................2
Third section: Positive and negative impact of tourism on the environment.........................2
Fourth section: Positive and negative impact of tourism on social culture............................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is a social phenomenon that happens when people spend some time away from
their usual environment (Scott and et. al., 2019). This act is done for the purpose of
entertainment or business. Tourism sector is considered to be one of the most booming sector of
the economy as it accounts to a significant percentage in the Gross domestic product of the
company (Canteiro, Córdova-Tapia and Brazeiro, 2018). The tourism activity seems to be small
but the overall services and people associated with it are in a large number. A country such as
UK with great heritage and culture is always open to tourism, this helps in increasing the
engagement of people with the country. In this report developmental factors of tourism are
discussed along with the factors impacting the economy, environment and social culture of the
country.
MAIN BODY
Contemporary tourism refers to the engagement of people in the developed and
developing countries, this is regarded as one of the most important mechanism for the
development of economy. Tourism is considered as a modern social arrangement that helps
people in connecting with nature (Garrigos-Simon, Narangajavana-Kaosiri and Lengua-Lengua,
2018). This is further considered as an entertainment driver if the travel purpose is not for
business (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020). Tourism is based on the resources and infrastructure of the
country, this has significant impact on the places in which the infrastructure is located. The
contemporary tourism is an art of considering every aspects that is associated with this industry,
it also covers the threats that effect the tourists. There are several threats such as terrorism and
environment hazards, the major task is to avoid and condemn such activities in the country.
Contemporary tourism developed somewhere in Western Europe in the late 17th century.
International tourists are one of the most important part of tourism activities in country, the
contemporary tourism encourages people to visit beautiful places in country (Rasoolimanesh and
et. al., 2017). Tourism sector is majorly dependent on the travel industry as the different modes
help the tourists in transportation from one place to another. There has been advancement in this
field by the government which made the travelling part more easy, these activities encourage
people to travel and visit the heritage of United Kingdom. The whole tourism is dependent on the
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social and cultural lives of people as these activities are strongly influenced by such socio-
cultural values.
Second section: Positive and negative impacts of tourism on the economy
Economic factors such as tax and income of the people is a major factor in tourism. In
cases when country is facing economic crisis, their cost of living and monetary value of currency
decreases. By this the expenditure of tourism in that country decreases which invites more and
more tourists. This helps the countries in recovering from the financial crisis. Recently Lebanon
is going through a financial crisis due to which travelling in their country has become cheap.
This increased tourism activities in their countries.
Positive impacts
Job creation- The tourism industry has a high manpower requirement and due to a surge in the
activities of these industry, there is a lot of job creation in the country (Adiyia and Vanneste,
2018). This helps in decreasing the unemployment rate of the country, which helps in building a
strong economy (Qin and et. al., 2018). Several job roles are created in this industry in guiding,
accommodation and food, this helps people in creating a living out of it. Tourism turns out to be
a good source of money for the residents of the country as people start engaging them in tourist
activities.
Good source of income for the government- In monetary terms tourism contributes to a very
high percentage in the economy of the country. Activities that are performed by tourists
generates revenue for the country in terms of tickets and taxation (Tien and et. al., 2021). This
money is further used in improvement of the tourist attraction spots. The leftover money is
directly contributed to the Gross domestic product of UK.
Negative impacts
Job creation is seasonal- The tourism industry generally booms in the period of vacation which
means the jobs that are created are for a short period of time and not permanent (Nimri, Patiar
and Kensbock, 2017). A permanent creation of job is more helpful for the economy rather than
temporary one's. This season thing makes people unemployed around most of the part of an year
which puts a harmful impact on the economy.
Most of the generated revenue goes in the pocket of multi-national companies and not the
government- A very high percentage of revenue generated by the tourism sector is by the multi-
national companies, this gives the locals and the government less advantage. As most of the
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expenditure is done by the government and the major advantage of this investment is taken by
private multinational companies.
Third section: Positive and negative impact of tourism on the environment
Environment is one of the most essential factor in tourism as this directly impacts the
activities associated with tourism. The recent example is of covid-19 which adversely impacted
the tourism, for a significant amount of time all the travelling activities were stopped. This
impacted the revenue generation from this sector and many people associated with the tourism
industry lost their job.
Positive impacts:
Protection of natural resource- The revenue generated from the tourism activity are used to
protect and develop the natural resources (Leung and et. al., 2018). Tourism helps in
conservation of the natural resources such as oceans and forests. This helps the country in
achieving sustainability in the environment. Government do several campaigns to spread
awareness about the protection of nature among the tourists and local residents of the country.
Protection of Wildlife- Tourism helps in saving the endangered species, as there are several
wildlife sanctuaries which preserve animals. This encourage people to protect the wildlife as they
are important for the environment (Sheppard and Fennell, 2019). This approach helps in saving
the animals that are on the verge of extinctions. As people visiting different countries see
different kind of species, they learn new things about those species.
Negative impacts:
Increased pollution- Due to tourism activities the country becomes a hotspot for vehicles, this
degrades the quality of oxygen in air which puts a negative impact on the environment (DeBoer,
Panwar and Rivera, 2017). The pollution is a major concern for environment as it impacts the
environment as well as health of the people in the country. Recent studies have shown how
tourist attraction cities are suffering due to the pollution and degrading quality index of the air.
Damage to the natural environment- The tourists overcrowds the tourist spots and throw
garbage in these places which causes damage to the environment (Majeed Lu and Javed, 2017).
A lot of habitats in those places gets destroyed in the mean team when the tourists visits are on
peak. The major problem arises when the people don't keep those place clean, they throw non-
biodegradable waste in those beautiful places which degrades the beauty of the nature.
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Fourth section: Positive and negative impact of tourism on social culture
Social culture is one of the major aspects which impacts the operations of tourism. This industry
is derived by the choice and behaviour of the consumer. The tourism in Maldives recently saw a
hike as all the people were putting up posts on social media, these activities influenced many
people to travel to Maldives.
Positive impacts:
Cultural meet- Tourism fosters cultural learning as people from different countries come
together. People visiting UK from other countries would have different set of ethics and values,
this would develop knowledge of different culture in the locals of country (Sofronov, 2018).
People visiting the country interact with the local vendors and guides, this enhances cultural
learning among them. This is beneficial for everyone associated with tourism industry in the
world.
Adaption of cultural heritage and tradition- As people from diversified background visits the
country, the heritage and traditions get popular among the visitors (Papatheodorou, 2021). This
helps the country in gaining respect on international grounds as people start appreciating the
hospitality and the culture of the country. It is also beneficial for tourists as they get to explore
the new environment, tradition and culture.
Negative impacts:
Cultural clashes- As tourism encourages the act of meeting diversified background, sometimes
these meet ups end in cultural clashes. Every country has their own set of values, ethics and
culture and due to this disputes are raised between two countries. People visiting UK from other
country might not be able to understand the culture followed there which will make socialization
difficult.
Commercialization of culture- This refers to putting up a monetary value for the culture and
heritage of the country. Due to this everything that is of high heritage and culture is getting sold.
Culture is supposed to be close to the heart of the locals and if these values are in the market than
this would damage the ethnicity of the social values.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that tourism is a vast industry which has an
impact on every aspect that exists in environment. Tourism plays a crucial role in the economy
of the country and the gross domestic product of the company gets impacted in case of any
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alteration in the tourism sector. The contemporary tourism happens to have both negative and
positive impact. It puts major effect on the economical, environmental and socio-cultural aspects.
Positive impacts help the country in job creation, cultural-meet and development of natural
resources where as the negative impact puts the country in problems of pollution, over crowding
and commercialization of culture. Thus with the above analysis it can be understood that tourism
is important for the country but the activities of tourism should be controlled at some level in
order to avoid the damage to natural resources and the heritage of the country.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adiyia, B. and Vanneste, D., 2018. Local tourism value chain linkages as pro-poor tools for
regional development in western Uganda. Development Southern Africa, 35(2), pp.210-
224.
Canteiro, M., Córdova-Tapia, F. and Brazeiro, A., 2018. Tourism impact assessment: A tool to
evaluate the environmental impacts of touristic activities in Natural Protected Areas.
Tourism Management Perspectives. 28. pp.220-227.
DeBoer, J., Panwar, R. and Rivera, J., 2017. Toward a place‐based understanding of business
sustainability: The role of green competitors and green locales in firms' voluntary
environmental engagement. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(7), pp.940-955.
Garrigos-Simon, F.J., Narangajavana-Kaosiri, Y. and Lengua-Lengua, I., 2018. Tourism and
sustainability: A bibliometric and visualization analysis. Sustainability. 10(6). p.1976.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F., 2020. Socialising tourism for social and ecological justice after COVID-
19. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), pp.610-623.
Leung, Y.F., and et. al., 2018. Tourism and visitor management in protected areas: Guidelines
for sustainability (Vol. 27). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
Majeed, S., Lu, C. and Javed, T., 2017. The journey from an allopathic to natural treatment
approach: A scoping review of medical tourism and health systems. European Journal
of Integrative Medicine, 16, pp.22-32.
Nimri, R., Patiar, A. and Kensbock, S., 2017. A green step forward: Eliciting consumers'
purchasing decisions regarding green hotel accommodation in Australia. Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Management, 33, pp.43-50.
Papatheodorou, A., 2021. A review of research into air transport and tourism:: Launching the
Annals of Tourism Research Curated Collection on Air Transport and Tourism. Annals
of Tourism Research, 87, p.103151.
Qin, Y., and et. al., 2018. Research on relationship between tourism income and economic
growth based on meta-analysis. Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences, 3(1),
pp.105-114.
Rasoolimanesh, S. M. and et. al., 2017. Community participation in World Heritage Site
conservation and tourism development. Tourism Management, 58, pp.142-153.
Scott, D. and et. al., 2019. The differential futures of ski tourism in Ontario (Canada) under
climate change: the limits of snowmaking adaptation. Current Issues in Tourism,
22(11), pp.1327-1342.
Sheppard, V.A. and Fennell, D.A., 2019. Progress in tourism public sector policy: Toward an
ethic for non-human animals. Tourism Management. 73. pp.134-142.
Sofronov, B., 2018. The development of the travel and tourism industry in the world. Annals of
Spiru Haret University. Economic Series. 18(4). pp.123-137.
Tien, N.H., and et. al., 2021. Subjective Well-Being in Tourism Research. Psychology and
education. 58(5). pp.3317-3325.
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