Ash Tourism

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Tourism In Developing Countries

TOURISM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Define in your own words what is tourism and how can it

impact a country's development?

DEFINITION OF TOURISM:-

There have been many attempts to define tourism. One of

the most enduring definitions is that used by the Tourism Society:

"the temporary short term movement of people to destinations

outside places where they normally live and work, and their

activities during their stay at these destinations."

Tourism refers to all travel that results in one or more nights

being spent away from home. The travel is, in essence, actually a

massive flow of people of diverse backgrounds, languages,

cultures and religion interacting under the collective description of

being tourists.

The purpose of travel follows the 1993 UN Statistical

Commission's definition, which encompasses leisure, business and

other reasons. The tourist can be a domestic tourist (eg. a resident

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of one country, India, travelling within the country), a regional

tourist (a visitor from Nigeria spending one or more nights in

Benin). The visitor can also be overseas or international tourist (a

resident of the UK staying one or more nights in Singapore).

Tourism is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure

purposes or the provision of services to support this leisure travel.

The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who

"travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for

not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other

purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated

from within the place visited".

Tourism is vital for many countries, due to the income

generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists,

the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, and the

opportunity for employment in the service industries associated

with tourism. These service industries include transportation

services such as cruise ships and taxis, accommodation such as

hotels, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and other

hospitality industry services such as spas and resorts.

Tourism impacts a country's development in various ways.

This can be easily explained through the PEST or the STEP model. It

stands for - Political, Economic, Social and Technological. The

impacts may be described as follows.

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PEST/STEP MODEL

POLITICAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

Due to the benefits tourism gives to the economy,

governments promote tourism in a big way.

As the government promotes foreign tourists coming into the

country, they try and bring improvement in the home country

as well.

Campaigns are launched internationally to bring in more

tourists.

Tourism is a way in which the reputation of a country can be

built on a global level.

It creates good relations with other countries, when tourists

come in.

Earlier any person could travel to different places (foreign

people) without any passport or documents, but now due to

stringent rules and regulations people cannot just go into

other countries without a passport.

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It was not safe for people to travel by sea or road easily, a lot

of robberies or unwanted things took place, but now the

different governments have made it much safer to travel. The

waters as well as land are guarded well.

The government makes sure that there are consumer

protection laws and safety regulations all in place.

ECONOMICAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

The Positive Economical Impacts of Tourism are as follows

Tourism expenditures generate income to the host economy

and can stimulate the investment necessary to finance

growth in other economic sectors.

When tourists come into the country and spend their money

– it causes the multiplier effect – and boosts the economy,

apart from increasing foreign exchange.

Multiplier effect - A visitor staying in a small guest house

pays his/her host who then goes out and spends some of

that money in local shops, so the local shop owners and

workers indirectly benefit from the visitor even if they never

see them. This is the multiplier effect.

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The tourism industry is "decentralized". This means that there

is little dependence on urban centres and imports to sustain

tourism activity. Sustainable/community based tourism relies

on small, locally operated business, local features and

products and thrives on entrepreneurial activity from

individuals.

Tourism provides opportunities for regional development

particularly areas undergoing structural change. Being a

labour intensive industry, with the right encouragement

tourism can deliver great employment and training

opportunities particularly for young people.

Tourism contributes to government revenue

Direct contributions are generated by taxes on income from

tourism employment and tourism businesses, and by direct

levies on tourists such as departure taxes.

Indirect contributions come from taxes and duties levied on

goods and services supplied to tourists.

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More Job Opportunities

Tourism can generate jobs directly through hotels,

restaurants, nightclubs, taxis, and souvenir sales, and

indirectly through the supply of goods and services needed

by tourism related businesses.

A study has shown that tourism supports about 7% of the

world’s population.

Infrastructure Development

Due to tourism, the government may be induced to make

infrastructural improvements such as better water and

sewage systems, roads, electricity, telephone and public

transport networks.

This improves the quality of life of the host community and

facilitates tourism as well.

The Negative Economical Impacts of Tourism are as follows

There are many hidden costs to tourism, which can have

unfavourable economic effects on the host community.

Often rich countries are able to profit from tourism than poor

ones.

Whereas the least developed countries have the most urgent

need for income, employment and general rise of the

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standard of living by means of tourism, they are least able to

recognize these benefits.

Among the reasons for these are the large scale transfer of

tourism revenues out of the host country and exclusion of

local businesses and products.

Leakage

The direct income for an area is the amount of tourist

expenditure that remains locally after taxes, profits and

wages are paid outside the area and after imports are

purchased; these subtracted amounts are called leakage.

In most all-inclusive package tours, about 80% of traveller’s

expenditures go to the airlines, hotels and other international

companies, and not to local businesses or workers.

In addition, significant amounts of income actually retained at

destination level can leave again through leakage.

A study of tourism ‘leakage’ in Thailand estimated that

70% of all money spent by tourists ended up leaving

Thailand.

Infrastructure Cost

Tourism development can cost the local government and

local taxpayers a great deal of money.

Developers may want the government to improve airports,

roads and other infrastructure, and possibly to provide tax

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breaks and other financial advantages, which are costly

activities for the government.

Public resources spent on subsidized infrastructure or tax

breaks may reduce government investment in other critical

areas such as education and health.

Increase in Prices

Increasing demand for basic services and goods from tourists

cause price hikes that negatively affect local residents whose

income does not increase proportionately.

Dependence of the local community on tourism

Many developing countries with little ability to explore other

resources have embraced tourism as a way to boost the

economy and are dependent on it.

In the Maldives 83% of the workforce depends directly or

indirectly on tourism.

Over reliance on tourism carries risks to tourism dependent

economies. Economic recession, the impacts of natural

disasters such as tropical storms and changing tourism

patterns can all have devastating effects.

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Seasonal Employment

During peak periods, a lot of jobs are available but as soon as

the tourists go back, the jobs disappear as well.

For Example: Goa – India, the locals get their income only

during the peak season (December – February, April – July)

afterwhich they have no jobs and no income.

There is no guarantee of employment from one season to the

next.

SOCIAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

The Positive Social Impacts of Tourism are as follows

Tourism helps to foster a sense of community pride as visitors

choose to visit a location for a reason.

However, community pride is often related to economic

prosperity with affluent communities more likely to take pride

in their district. Well-presented and well maintained facilities

help visitors to feel welcome and can contribute to

community pride.

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Tourism facilitates the interaction between communities and

visitors (domestic and international). Economic benefits aside,

outside contact draws attention to the host community.

Tourism can be used as a tool for raising awareness. Branding

of local product and achievements creates regional identity

both nationally and internationally. Tourism can also raise

awareness of local issues and needs.

Attraction to natural and heritage icons often helps fund

conservation efforts and provides opportunities for effective

management of sensitive and significant areas.

Cultural events assert cultural identity and help preserve local

traditions in younger generations while influencing visitors

firsthand.

Tourism allows for local crafts, foods and personalities to be

kept alive while raising funds for the community.

Many local customs have been revitalized due to tourism. In

many places, there has been a reappearance of traditional

customs that had been forgotten: “folklore”, crafts,

festivals, gastronomy, etc.

One of the more important positive social aspects is the

improvement in the facilities and services: sanitary attention,

means of transport, parks, etc.

Tourism can boost the preservation and transmission of

cultural and historic traditions. This often contributes to the

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conservation and sustainable management of natural

resources, the protection of local heritage, and a revival of

indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts.

The Negative Social Impacts of Tourism are as follows

The first remarkable negative aspect is the social differences

between local population and visitors. In certain places,

mainly in those of the most underprivileged countries, the

residents tend to become servants of the tourists. This

creates resentment towards the visitors and areas of social

tension appear.

Thus, tourism establishes the basis of a new form of

colonialism based on the foreign currency dependency.

Tourism causes an increase in crime rate. With the increase in

tourists, crimes like smuggling, hustling, pick-pocketing and

so on increase as well. It also causes an increase in drugs,

prostitution and promiscuous behaviour.

The local youth tend to look at the tourists and try and follow

them. They sometimes are embarrassed of their own culture

and want to adopt the foreigner’s ways. At times, tourism

causes a loss of cultural pride and values.

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TECHNOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

Due to Globalization, the whole world can be considered as

competition.

Since one wants to attract as many tourists as possible; the

tourism industry constantly needs to improve and upgrade its

technology.

Information technology is being used for a variety of

functions in the tourism industry, ranging from an internal

organization role to external communication between

different parts of the industry. The continuous development

of information technology has profound implications for the

whole tourism industry.

The most important role of information technology is the

development of competitive advantages by both reducing

cost and enhancing differentiation.

As the tourism industry also includes various types of

technologies, the public also get educated about the same.

Schemes where online bookings are cheaper, provide an

incentive for people to become more tech savy.

With air travel and various other modes of transport, now it

has become very easy for people from various parts of the

world to go to any destination of their choice.

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Due to technology changes, every country has atleast one

airport, train stations, bus stops and so forth.

Earlier it used to take travellers from Asian countries a week

or even more to travel to Europe, but now, due to Airlines,

that distance can be covered within a few hours itself.

CONCLUSION:-

At the first level, tourism fosters economic growth through

foreign exchange earnings and increases in state revenue

and, at a second level, improves the people's well being in

the areas of job creation, revenue/income distribution and

balanced regional development.

Although tourism causes facilities and services to be

provided, there are possibilities of these facilities not being

accessible to local residents. In addition, tourism has been

criticised for exacerbating the problems of societies: the

destruction of social patterns, neo-colonialist relationships of

exploitation and dependence, inflationary pressure among

others.

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Tourism does generate revenue and valuable foreign

exchange, marked dependence on tourism can also create

problems of an economic or socio-cultural nature, particularly

for a small country.

Heavy reliance on revenue from tourism can result in sharp

revenue fluctuations since the industry is very seasonal, as

well as being subject to changes in taste or fashion, fears of

political instability, allegations of health hazards etc. A high

degree of seasonality not only causes large fluctuations in

earnings from tourism but also implies considerable social

costs in terms of underutilization of productive capacity, and

in particular, high levels of seasonal unemployment.

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