There is no doubt that modern tourism has become one of the biggest popular industries in the world nowadays. It is an activity in which people can recreate and relax themselves. Furthermore, it seems that tourism not only can improve the transportation and most public facilities of a country, but also it can improve local services such as entertainment, accommodation, catering and hospital for tourists and local people. For another thing, tourism stimulates the growth of local economy. Even more, large numbers of organizations and governments invest much money in this industry at present. However, this essay will elaborate advantages and disadvantages of the way in which modern tourism affects the popular tourist areas in relations to the local services, local economy and environment and the local people.
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For one thing, one major advantage of tourism is the fact that developing travel industry can stimulate the popular tourist areas’ consumption ability and economy. “According to the OVTA, there are 12 million visitors who travel to Ottawa and consume 128million dollars each year. Moreover, the development of tourism leads to generating 45 million dollars income for the local government per year” (Chase, 2011). In addition, “China National Tourism Administration showed that there is a 15 percent increase of the price level of products which selling in the Middle East and Europe during the New Year holidays, compared to their daily price. However, these increases give some impacts on ecnomy and it is reported that in 2010, 52 million Chinese people travelled abroad” (Lixia, 2011). For another thing, tourism industry either can increase people’s income and the rate of employment. “As David Cameron says in Barnett (2010), if the UK tourism industry can attract 0.5% more international tourists, this could generate 50,000 new jobs for local citizens”. “Thus, it is obvious that tourism directly increase the employment rate because those industries like accommodation, tour, travel operations and factories manufacturing can provide large numbers of employment opportunities for the local people” (Nworisara, 2011). These business operations invisibly generate large revenue to the government. Therefore, most countries or investors make huge investments in the tourism industry because of its potential of boosting economic growth. Thus, developing tourism industry is the main contributor of the stimulation of the local economy.
Furthermore, tourism plays an important role on improving the living standards of the local people by improving community’s facilities and services. It can be seen that Hong Kong has become a famous and popular attraction, whether for mainland people or international people nowadays. “What is more, it is reported that the Tourism Commission invested HK$50 million to improve the tourism infrastructural. For example, it would improve the scenic square, the public facilities at Lantau Ngong Ping 360, the pedestrian bridge at the east of Tsim Sha Tsui, and upgrade some tourism signboards for tourists. Besides that, Hong Kong would improve the services of online ticket-selling, which make more convenient for tourists” (Mercier, 2009). There is no doubt that these kinds of infrastructures and facilities will considerably benefit for the local people and improve their living standards. Besides that, the transportation and public services have an impact on the tourism industry, which also influence the local people’s living standards and the tourism industry itself. “Take Beijing as an example: in order to welcome the Olympics Games, the government of China made regulations to improve environment and repair the tourism resources, public services and facilities. During the period of Olympics Games, ten million tourists visited Beijing and there was no complaint or dissatisfaction with the hotels, public services and attractions” (Alcantara, 2010). If facilities or services are not improved and cause tourists lots of inconvenient, this will easily push them to give up or change their travel plans.
Finally, it seems that it is a good opportunity to protect the culture and heritage when developing modern tourism. “The WTO estimates that there would be an increase of 15% in the areas of cultural tourism each year” (Nworisara, 2011). Most tourists are willing to spend money to learn and understand different cultures and customs of different countries. “Taking the European tourism industry as an example, a growing number of people prefer to visit Europe, especially Italy, France, Spain and so on. The main reason is that the governments of those countries understand the importance of the heritage and history of a country. It is a character or symbol of that country. Thus, the government is willing to spend money remodeling and restoring the heritage. For instance, the Indian government regarded Jammu and Kashmir as a heritage attraction for visitors. Thus, it foucused on it and started to protect it to attract tourists” (Naseem, 2009). It is well know that protecting a country’s culture and heritage is a big challenge, but it is very important because they represent the identity of the country. Moreover, visitors can understand deeply the local culture only by visiting it. Thus, in order to attract more tourists to popular tourist areas, both the government and the tourism industry have a responsibility to preserve the local heritage and culture.
However, firstly, it must be admitted that tourism brings many disadvantages. Without doubt the most obvious disadvantage is that tourism has negative effects on the local environment and the eco-system. “For instance, it is well known that the Hawaiian eco-system is the most diverse in the world. Nevertheless, due to the development of tourism industry, a large number of infrastructures such as hotels and restaurants were built, leading to the local environment’s deterioration. Besides that, it is reported that 60% of animal and plant species are dying out in Hawaii” (Darowski, Strilchuk, Sorochuk & Provost, 2006). “Bali is another example: it has been found that six tourist beaches, which include Kuta, Legian, Nusa Dua, Jimbaran, Tanjung Benoa and Canggue are contaminated. This is because the waste from hotels, restaurants and other hospitality and tourist-related businesses cannot be dealt with effectively” (Kencana A., 2010). It is obvious that a lot of businessmen do not care if the environment becomes bad, they just consider whether they can earn money or not. In addition, a number of tourists have the bad habit of throwing waste everywhere. Thus, the local environment becomes worse and influences the eco-systems.
Secondly, tourism has a bad impact on the society and culture of the popular tourist areas. “For example, it is well known that Indonesia is a special country which has a special cultural history. However, in order to attract more tourists and meet their needs, some original customs have changed, such as dances performed only in every 60 years while nowadays they are performed weekly. Besides that, original temples used to be quiet places while today they are always overcrowded with tourists. In addition, masks, costumes and jewelry which were used for religious rituals, have a special and unique meaning. In order to earn money, companies produce these productions largely and sell them in antique shops. Even more, most arts forms such as paintings and sculptures have been adjusted according to the taste of the current market. Furthermore, it seems that these cultural and social changes not only influence the local people, but also it may lead people to forget the original culture due to the commercial influences. For instance, in order to earn more money, investors have driven local communities out of their lands and even beaches, which influence the temples and local people of Bali. The resorts also would threaten the temple’s “cosmological primacy” (Wijaya, 2008).
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Thirdly, although the development of tourism has lots of advantages, however, it often do some unethical behaviors from local people and industry. For instance, when they lack employees in the peak season, some hotels and restaurants recruit low skilled people or people who are under 18 years old. Even more, lots of illegal migrants are working in tourism and hospitality industry. “It is reported that there are around 12 million illegal immigrant people in the United States, and the American Tourism and Hospitality industry employed them because they would pay them a lower wage. In fact, it is argued that these illegal immigrants are substitutes for low-skilled workers” (Fedeli, 2010). It seems that recruiting employees who are low-skilled and unprofessional is only benefit to the companies because they get low salaries. Actually, this is not good for the tourists because it easily causes troubles as these employees cannot deal with at urgent situations. Thus, it gives unsafe feeling to the tourists and that leads to hinder the development of tourism industry and also gives a bad imagine to this popular tourist areas.
In conclusion, it is clear that there could be great benefits to develop the tourist industry if governments and companies take the local environment into consideration. Furthermore, if all tourists obeyed the local rules and culture, the beautiful attractions will not be contaminated. What is more, if each person is aware of the importance of protecting our history and culture, the tourism industry can develop better and more and more people can have the opportunity to explore the history of the popular tourist areas. There is no doubt that developing tourism industry is essential and one of the reasons for this is that people can learn more about this world. Therefore, each person has a responsibility to protect the popular tourist areas.
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