The advantages and disadvantages of tourism

Starter – Odd one OutEach row has an odd one out – which one and why?

Great wall of China Times Square Niagara Falls

Trafalgar Square Disneyland Paris Tokyo Disney

Notre Dame Louvre Fishermans Wharf

The vatican The coliseum Sydney opera house

Grand Canyon Empire State Building

London Eye

Taj Mahal Giza Pyramids Magic Kingdom, Orlando

What could you replace the odd one out with?

Advantages and Disadvantages of tourism

Lesson Objective:

• To be able to describe and explain how tourism can affect people, places and the economy in a positive and negative way.

Positives v. Negatives• Tourism has both positive and negative impacts

for an area.

• In the majority of MEDC’s tourism has been the catalyst for economic growth.

• Some LEDC's rely on tourism as their

principle industry so much that when a problem occurs they have to work very quickly to rectify it.

Activity One• In pairs, note down 3 advantages and 3

disadvantages of tourism.

• Try to think of more obscure ones!

Quick Facts• Tourism in the world’s number one export earner (beating cars, chemicals, fuel and

food)

• In 2011, more than 1 billion people travelled to a foreign country.

• In 2011, more than $478 billion was spent by tourists.

• Tourism supports 7% of the world’s workers.

• There are more than 11.3 million people working in hotels worldwide.

• Many jobs are created directly by tourism – hotels, restaurants, shops and bars/pubs.

• Also indirect jobs – supply of goods, delivery drivers, services etc.

Advantages• Tourism brings much needed investment

into an area. If it is an LEDC, the foreign currency is very important to the local people.

Advantages• Tourism provides employment for many

local people, ranging from working in the hotels to selling trinkets on the beach.

Advantages• Tourism provides employment for many

local people, ranging from working in the hotels to selling trinkets on the beach.Without the tourist industry some less developed countries would have a much greater unemployment problem.

Advantages• The money that tourism brings in can be

used to improve the infrastructure of the area.

Advantages• New roads, airports and facilities can be

built, which cater for the increasing number of tourists, but also benefit the local residents.

Advantages• Income from tourism may be used to help

conserve the natural environment that is the reason why visitors come in the first place.

Advantages• The country can benefit from overseas

investment, primarily in the tourist industry, but also in other related industries.

Advantages• Tourism may help to preserve local

cultures and communities, as they become a tourist attraction.

Advantages

• Tourism may help to preserve local cultures and communities, as they become a tourist attraction.This is certainly the case with some Masai tribes in Kenya and Maori's in New Zealand.

Both use the visitor's interest and curiosity in their culture to become a tourist attraction.

Disadvantages• In many resorts in LEDC's very little of the

money paid for the holiday actually reaches the country. The holiday company, travel agents, airlines and hotel companies swallow most of it.

Disadvantages• The jobs for the locals are often badly

paid, with very poor working conditions.

Disadvantages• The huge number of tourists coming to

see it could easily damage the environment. It is very easy for a country to see the short-term economic gains of mass tourism without really taking heed of the long-term environmental damage going on.

Disadvantages• Increasing numbers of tourists brings

problems such as littering, pollution and footpath erosion. All of these take time and money to clear up.

Disadvantages• Overseas investment, in things like luxury

hotels, can mean that the money goes back to the country of origin.

Disadvantages• These hotels may also take trade away

from local guesthouses and hotels.

Disadvantages• Local cultures could be devalued by

tourism. They may almost become a freak show, where the visitors begin to look down on the locals as different.

‘Leakage’

‘Leakage’There are two main ways that leakage occurs: Import leakage Export leakage

IMPORT LEAKAGE:• This commonly occurs when tourists demand

standards of equipment, food, and other products that the host country cannot supply.

• Especially in LEDC’s, food and drinks must often be imported, since local products are not up to the hotel's (i.e. tourist's) standards or the country simply doesn't have a supplying industry.

‘Leakage’EXPORT LEAKAGE:• TNC's have a substantial share in the export

leakage.

• Often, especially in poor developing destinations, they are the only ones that possess the necessary capital to invest in the construction of tourism infrastructure and facilities.

• As a consequence of this, an export leakage

arises when overseas investors who finance the resorts and hotels take their profits back to their country of origin.

Exam Question

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of tourism? (6 marks)

10 minutes

Activity Two

Complete the worksheet.

This time you should categorise the impacts into positive and negative:

• Economic

• Social

• Environmental

10 minutes