In recent decades, the tourism industry has occupied a prominent position compared to other industries. This essay is intended to discuss its two sides, one of its clear obvious advantages, the other of its disadvantages.
Tourism is a service industry that brings a lot of benefits to other sectors and people. It boosts the economic activities. At first tourism creates demand for visiting places. They would like to experience natural wonders of places, cultures and many more. To fulfill the desires, transportation industry comes. More people are employed to act as tour guides, hotel staffs or coach services. When tourist travel to places they would like to do many other things like go shopping, eat at restaurants, buy retail products (Thakur, 2018). Commercial activities are encouraged which boost the economy.
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Tourism industry has great potential in creation of jobs which combats the widespread unemployment. It has increased employment opportunities for local communities, inspiring them to battle poverty (Khurana, 2018). It boosts the agriculture sector where farmers are employed to cater the demands of tourists. Farmers provide local fruits and vegetables to the hotels and the hotels cook them as delicious meals. Tourism also develops other enterprises in tertiary sector such as hospitality.
Tourism industry enhances international connections by playing a classic role in socio-cultural integration. It creates international understanding among the tourists and the local people regarding the culture and traditions. The natives of the country learn to be friendlier and welcoming to visitors. Tourism sector stresses the need to preserve the art and architecture of traditional culture.
Tourism sector develops the infrastructure. As the foreign money is injected into the economy, the government gets the benefit through the multiplier effect. Each time the tourist spends the dollars, jobs are created and economic activity which attract taxes and levies. Hence, projects are launched by the government that is beneficial to the community. New roads, bridges and parks are built or upgraded which improves the infrastructure.
Lastly and most importantly, tourism has led to development of technology. Technology has helped the tourism industry by improving services, communications and reducing costs. It has greatly supported tourism and hospitality sector. Through websites, hotels promote its services which give an insight about the hotel’s services and facilities available. It gives customers first experience about the hotels. In addition, computer system can act as a chain of communication between staffs and visitors. It helps staffs being on the same page and makes accessing information easier making the guests experience better. Guest requests, housekeeping information and reservations can all be found in one system.
Though tourism industry brings positive effects to the economy, it also has dark side of it. Tourism development does a lot of damage to the environment. Many habitats are destroyed, and species are becoming extinct. It creates environmental damage risks such as soil erosion, pollution and sometimes forest fires. Construction of recreational facilities stresses on natural resources which can lead to land pollution and degradation (Spelch, 2017). Removal of forest to create new building contributes to climate change most importantly, global warming. The construction of these buildings emits harmful greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, etc.). All these gases get accumulates in the atmosphere and there is not excess forest to take in the carbon. Hence, these gases get trapped in the stratosphere depleting the ozone layer which causes the harmful rays of the sun to enter the planet and heat up causing sea level rise and salt water intrusion.
Air pollution is another major disadvantage of tourism. It is mainly caused from tourist transportation. Travelling by air, land or sea, it adds to air pollution which damages the environment. As more and more tourist travels to tourist destination, the level of air pollution increases which affects the climate. Also, the smoke released from the manufacturing of the new buildings and tourism spots also adds to air pollution as the gases released contaminates the breathing air with harmful gases. If these gases are inhaled, it can cause serious health problems such as intoxication, reduce coordination, light headiness and headache, tremors, collusion and irregular heartbeat.
Improper waste management can be another disadvantage of tourism sector. Hotels and resorts produce large amount of liquid and solid waste and due to many hotels operate in remote areas where there are no services provided by town council, hotels do not have proper waste management. Hotels that are located near the sea, all the sewages go into the water and contaminate it. Many marine organisms die, and more people are suffering from diseases because their food chain is affected. New diseases are accompanied by increase in medical costs.
Furthermore, another disadvantage of tourism is that sometimes tourists fail to show respect to some of the local traditions and cultures. This is through the failure to abide by the religious place dress code and rudely behaving to locals. This makes the locals look down on the tourists and sometimes creates problem amongst the communities. Tourists bring westernization with them and sometimes native people want to copy their styles. This can cause problems as they start to neglect their traditions their forefathers have been following for ages all through the influence of tourists in the society.
Moreover, leakage is another form of disadvantage of tourism sector. This is where the major tourist hubs are owned by foreigners thus local stakeholders are left with small share of profits as the foreign owners takes the major share of profits.
In conclusion, certainly, there are advantages of tourism industry, however it is vital to realize the disadvantages that tourism can present to a country in terms of damages to the country’s financial structure, natural surroundings and local customs. Citizens do not seem to acknowledge the impact of tourism upon the nation and that the costs incurred could be permanent. Tourism needs not be ignored, however, its extent and impact should be taken seriously and monitored regularly by government agencies. Unless the country is careful in how it adjusts to tourism its impact can have drastic and long-lasting consequences.
References
- Creaco, S. (2003). Role of Tourism in Economic Development. Retrieved February 15, 2020, from IDEAS: http://www.ideas.repec.org
- Goodman, P. (2020). Advantages and Disadvantages of Tourism. Retrieved February 25, 2020, from https://soapboxie.com/economy/Advantages-and-disadvantages-of-tourism
- Khurana, A. (2018, September 14). Why Tourism Is Important. Retrieved February 15, 2020, from quora.com: http://www.quora.com
- Spelch, C. (2017, September 8). Disadvantages of Tourism. Retrieved February 17, 2020, from quora.com: http://www.quora.com
- Thakur, K. (2018). Importance of Tourism and Its Economic Value. Retrieved February 15, 2020, from Market Width: http://www.market-width.com
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