People are travelling outside of their workplaces for personal
People are travelling outside of their workplaces for personal, leisure and other purposes. However, it can have a negative effect on the environment if it is not managed correctly. From my perspective, I agree with some of the arguments that tourism can bring advantages and disadvantages to the country. The advantages are new opportunities for local people, gain of knowledge about the country’s cultures, spending time with family whereas the disadvantages could be environmental damage, development of illegal activities, high cost.
First of all, the advantage of tourism is a new opportunity for local people: the amount of employment will increase. Moreover, it can support country’s economics and help local people to earn money. For example, tourists will spend money on services like hotel, food, transportation, medical services and many more. So, an increase in tourists will allow more businesses to open up. If the level of tourism rises, the demand for local product might increase as well. It could also cause the firm to hire more employees. This will result in a decrease in the rate of unemployment. Furthermore, local people who live near the place of interest can earn money by working as local guides and provide tourist basic facilities. Based on News Desk (2018), Southland farmers have encouraged to think about way to gain benefits from development of tourism sector.
However, another advantage of tourism is that tourists can learn more about country’s culture and also can gain wider knowledge about the background of the country that they had visited. So, tourists have an opportunity assimilate to new cultures. They have chance to meet people from different social and cultural background to build more understanding and respect towards each other. This can help visitors to get awareness on how other people in other countries live, as well as to learn about local history. For example, tourists travel to the historical places and through various cultural and historical events they could acquire knowledge about that country’s context. The country that is tourism-friendly usually has to adapt to be open-minded and to be welcoming to foreigners to learn new cultures and become more tolerant and accepting. Gina Fairley (2018) states that there has been a further shift particularly in the past decade as people’s demand for more bespoke cultural offerings have forced a rethinking of cultural and heritage tourism.
Furthermore, the advantage of tourism is also spending time with family. Heike A. Schänzel and Ian Yeoman (2015) say that family tourism is one of the most important sectors of the tourism industry around the world and accounting for about 30 per cent of the leisure travel market. This is because it allows tourists to make more memories and release stress by travelling with family members. Nowadays, people who are always busy with their daily life and routine sometimes need to get out from the stressful environment. So, they must treasure this opportunity with family when travel. For example, they can plan a trip for a week to the place they choose to travel and they can release any stress and tension they have. They will travel for fun and enjoyment such as they can do whatever activities excited them and give them enjoyment.
On the other hand, the disadvantage of tourism is the environmental damage. With more tourists coming to the historical place that means they will produce a lot of waste. Likewise, more of street vendors in a tourist place will make the street crowded and unclean which bring about the air pollution effect. In addition, tourists will ride various types of transportation, from bikes and cars to increased number of planes and ferries, in order to reach the destination, so that could be the source of pollutions too. All these vehicles significantly increase the emissions into the atmosphere. Thai beach that is damaged due to appearance of too many tourists because of a famous movie, Leonardo DiCaprio is currently closing indefinitely(Perry Miller, 2018).This is a very important factor, as it is destroying places and endangers species, often by neglect of tourists and authorities.
Moreover, the disadvantage of tourism is development of illegal activities. One of the factors is uncontrolled alcohol consumption which brings aggressive or careless behaviour. Shoplifting and increased theft, drug problem, prostitution and begging rises as well because there are more tourists who possess large amounts of money and can become easy target. This also encourages people from less privileged backgrounds to look up to fancy lifestyle of tourists and commit such crimes in order to get more income. According to Mech Dara and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon (2018) state that the negative link between tourist influx and increased crime rates would be a situation in one of the provinces of Cambodia where attracted to tourism development investors are often involved in serious fights among their members and even a few cases of kidnapping.
Besides that, the disadvantage of tourism is a high cost of it. Many countries highly depend on expenditures by travellers as a source of taxation and income for local businesses. Government might have to spend more in attempt to make the country more attractive especially in less popular regions by improving transportation and other facilities. Thus, in order to generate more income, industry imposes high costs on the tourists where they have to pay more for accommodation, food, entertainment, transport and the price increases once resorts get more popular.
In conclusion, there are a few advantages and disadvantages of tourists visiting many places in the world. Therefore, every country should have a proper policy and be responsible to take over the tourism industry to avoid unexpected consequences and make sure tourists can get comfortable when they visit the particular country. Besides that, many tourists should have their role to keep the places they visit from environmental damage and ensure the continuity of that place for the future. Moreover, we cannot ignore the fact that it also gives positive impact on economic condition where the country is able to create more job opportunities for local people.
