Disadvantages of tourism free essay sample

According to Collier (1997) tourism involves three aspects, it involves people(tourists) away from their usual habitat, the activities of people away from their usual habitat will normally give rise to an industry and the activities of both the people and the industry may or will have impact on the host community. 2. 0 DISADVANTAGES OF TOURISM 2. 1 THREATHEN INDIGENOUS IDENTITY Tourism gives positive impacts to a country but the impacts arise when tourism brings about changes in value systems and behaviour, thereby threatens indigenous identity. Furthermore, changes often occur in community structure, family relationships, collective traditional life styles, ceremonies and morality. 2. 2 CHANGE THE CULTURE The relationship between tourism and culture is an extremely tense one, both in theory and practice. Modern tourism has been the target of cultural criticism right from the start (Keller, 1984). Large numbers of tourists are as unwelcome as hordes of migrants, since they upset the normal cultural equilibrium of a society or territorial entity. 2. 3 INFLUENCE THE LOCAL IDENTITY AND VALUES Tourism can cause change or loss of local identity and values, brought about by several closely related influences. It can turn local cultures into commodities when religious rituals, traditional ethnic rites and festivals are reduced and sanitized to conform to tourist expectations, resulting in what has been called reconstructed ethnicity. Once a destination is sold as a tourism product, and the tourism demand for souvenirs, arts, entertainment and other commodities begins to exert influence, basic changes in human values may occur. Sacred sites and objects may not be respected when they are perceived as goods to trade. Destinations risk standardization in the process of satisfying tourists desires for familiar facilities. While landscape, accommodation, food and drinks, etc. , must meet the tourists desire for the new and unfamiliar, they must at the same time not be too new or strange because few tourists are actually looking for completely new things. Tourists often look for recognizable facilities in an unfamiliar environment, like well-known fast-food restaurants and hotel chains. Adapting cultural expressions and manifestations to the tastes of tourists or even performing shows as if they were real life constitutes staged authenticity. As long as tourists just want a glimpse of the local atmosphere, a quick glance at local life, without any knowledge or even interest, staging will be inevitable. 2. 4 BAD INFLUNCE OF LIFESTYLES Many tourists come from societies with different consumption patterns and lifestyles than what is current at the destination, seeking pleasure, spending large amounts of money and sometimes behaving in ways that even they would not accept at home. One effect is that local people that come in contact with these tourists may develop a sort of copying behaviour, as they want to live and behave in the same way. Tourists often, out of ignorance or carelessness, fail to respect local customs and moral values. When they do, they can bring about irritation and stereotyping. They take a quick snapshot and are gone, and by so acting invade the local peoples lives. 2. 5 SOCIAL STRESS The physical influences that the increasing tourism flow, and its consequent developments, has on a destination can cause severe social stress as it impacts the local community. Resource use conflicts, such as competition between tourism and local populations for the use of prime resources like water and energy because of scarce supply. Stress to local communities can also result from environmental degradation and increased infrastructure costs for the local community for example, higher taxes to pay for improvements to the water supply or sanitation facilities. 2. 6 TRADITIONAL LAND-USES CONFLICTS Tourism can cause conflicts with traditional land-uses, especially in intensely exploited areas such as coastal zones, which are popular for their beaches and islands. Conflicts arise when the choice has to be made between development of the land for tourist facilities or infrastructure and local traditional land-use. The local people can suffer from tourism development, in coastal areas construction of shoreline hotels and tourist faculties often cuts off access for the locals to traditional fishing ground and even recreational use of the areas. 2. 7 ETHICAL AND CRIMINAL ISSUES Partly due to the above impacts, tourism can create more serious situations where ethical and even criminal issues are involved. Crime rates typically increase with the growth and urbanization of an area and growth of mass tourism is often accompanied by increased crime. The presence of a large number of tourists with a lot of money to spend and often carrying valuables such as cameras and jewelry, increases the attraction for criminals and brings with it activities like robbery and drug dealing. Repression of these phenomena often exacerbates social tension. Tourism can also drive the development of gambling, which may cause negative changes in social behavior. 2. 8 SEXUAL EXPLOITATION The commercial sexual exploitation of children and young women has paralleled the growth of tourism in many parts of the world. Though tourism is not the cause of sexual exploitation, it provides easy access to it. Tourism also brings consumerism to many parts of the world previously denied access to luxury commodities and services. The lure of this easy money has caused many young people, including children, to trade their bodies in exchange for T-shirts, personal stereos, bikes and even air tickets out of the country. In other situations children are trafficked into the brothels on the margins of the tourist areas and sold into sex slavery, very rarely earning enough money to escape. 3. 0 CONCLUSION When planning tourism and attracting visitors to a region, it is essential that the negative socio-cultural impacts tourism are identified and that strategies are implemented to help to reduce such negative impacts.