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“Tourism should be banned in order to protect local
environments, cultures and economies.” To what
extent do you agree with this statement? Evaluate
the impact of tourism in these three areas.
Vadys Thierry Lieutcheu Tientcheu
R2106D12413862
Induction Module
UEL-IND-M-100
12/09/2021
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Tourism can be said to be one of the industries in the world that are recording very higher
growth. It is also the industry that is seen to be offering other entities that have promising
growth. In the recent WTTC report, it was reported that the GDP of tourism had exceeded the
world's GDP concerning the growth rate for the last nine consecutive years. This continued
growth has triggered most of the researchers to develop case studies that would illustrate both
the favorable and challenging consequences of engaging in tourism to the local environment,
culture, and economy. This paper provides a deep analysis of the best impacts of tourism on
the environment, the culture, and the economy and tries to justify in a detailed manner that
tourism has a positive impact on these sectors or categories.
Over time, the tourism industry has been recognized for the value it brings to the
environment; this is both to the tourists who visit various places and to the host community.
The tourism environment is a mutually beneficial one because this is an environment that is
highly dependent on each other (Romeril, 2017). On a similar thought, tourism can greatly help
magnify awareness through the values of the environment and put people in a very good
position of responding positively to the challenges that the natural habitat has brought about.
This can best be done by tourism by enlightening people through education means on the
various positive impacts that accrue due to conserving the environment (Romeril, 2017). It is
an aspect of educating that people will be assimilated into since they will be in close touch with
the environment they should conserve. Residents are also equally being encouraged to give
more protection to the natural environment, which is often considered one of their most
important financial resources. Romeril (2017) posits that tourism helps increase the awareness
of the environmental values in circumstances where members of the local community correctly
perceive the potential worth of the natural resources. These preservation efforts are seen as acts
of dignity to the environment and also for the entire humanity.
The tourism environment can have greater benefits to the environment in both natural
and physical forms. The tourism industry helps in financing the efforts of restoring and
preservation of the natural and built environments. These include the wildlife surroundings, the
heritage sites, and historical monumental. In most instances, tourism has been highly
considered the key driver that leads to the creation of protected areas (Romeril, 2017). These
are areas whereby later will prompt the governments to develop various frameworks that would
be used to conserve those particular natural environments (Romeril, 2017). It is noteworthy to
posit that in the twentieth century, a period before even environmental science came in to
protect various areas, the tourism sector had taken the course of preserving both the natural
resources and the stimulation of the foundation of the first protected areas.
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For a while, the tourism industry has been known to have the potential and capability
of reviving a local culture. Tourism can also help in improving the opportunities that were
never there in some of the areas that have been marginalized (Muresan et al., 2021). On the
similar thought, it is noteworthy positing that tourism has positive impacts on the socio-culture
and these include helps in the renaissance of the traditional activity in an area, reduction of
poverty, a resurgence of ethnic life in a community, conservation of heritage sites ad generation
of jobs to places that they never existed (Muresan et al., 2021). In addition to this, after the
evolvement in the tourism sector, the tourism activities in the rural areas were seen as the only
alternative way to help the provision of leisure and recreational activities to some of the people
who would not want leisure activities in the cities. Muresan et al. (2021) present that tourism
would help a community survive economically and even socially. Tourism also helps reduce
poverty in these areas and enhances people's livelihood in rural areas, especially in most parts
of the developing world. For this reason, rural tourism is regarded as the aspect of elixir in
which the virginity of new places enchants the tourists.
The tourism industry helps promote most local cultures and heritages and introduces
these cultures in the spotlight, that is, in the real world. It can be said, in other words, that the
demands that have been derived and induced by the tourism industry highly help in conserving
and also a resurgence of the ethic and the traditional cultures that do exist across the entire
world (Muresan et al., 2021). It is also noteworthy to posit that most of the communities around
the world have been able to preserve and also conserve most of their important heritage and art
courtesy to the income that has been generated by the development that has been done to the
heritage tourism (Muresan et al., 2021). This is the side or aspect of tourism that manifests the
people's values and the historical cultures of different communities worldwide. Thus, people
in modern life can link today's events to those cultural heritages that have been preserved
through tourism. Muresan et al. (2021) present that there has been a constant demand by various
visitors from various communities or countries when they come to visit other communities;
this includes the demand for the historical souvenirs that exists in these communities and also
the traditional art performance by these communities (Muresan et al., 2021). This is an aspect
that helps relinquish the local communities' activities that were only being done in the past.
Moreover, when these tourists visit places with varying cultural backgrounds to their home
countries.
Concerning the economy, it can be said that tourism is a critical component of the
world's economy. This can be said so since tourism has a remarkable role in enhancing,
stimulating, and even strengthening the economies of both developed and developing
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countries. It is in order to say that the tourism economy is close to being everywhere with its
operations across boundaries that involve various industry sectors (Khayrulloevna, 2020). It
can equally be said that the economic impact of tourism has both direct and indirect ways that
help benefit the local government, the private sectors, and the general public. Khayrulloevna
(2020) attest to this by providing examples; a good example would be the jobs that the tourist
industry helps to generate, and the tax income that is received from the tourists helps in the
improvement of a positive inducement to a growing number of both the national and also the
international economies (Khayrulloevna, 2020). To add, the contribution that the tourism sector
contributes to helping in expanding other industries holds that the trade and high wages and
the taxes subjected on assets are the major components that form the tax revenue of the major
parts of the government income.
The tourism industry has got a very significant number of very positive effects. These
are effects that contribute to the economy in a very direct way. It was reported in the WTTC
that their Global Economic and Impact Trends that the in the year 2019, the tourist industry
shared a 10.3per cent of the global GDP, this makes the entire GDP total up to USD 8.9 trillion,
an amount that exceeded the aggregate GDP by 1 percent (WTO &ILO, 2014). Similarly, the
UNWTO asserts that the international tourism growth in terms of the gross revenues surpassed
the economy overall by 10 percent between the years 2009 and the year 2019 (WTO &ILO,
2014). The tourism industry is also reported to have accounted for 7 percent of the export made
globally. In terms of services, the tourism industry accounted for 28 percent of the services
exported globally (WTO, 2021). To add to this, tourism was ranked third among the largest
industries we're exporting on the global rank. This means that the tourism industry topped food,
automotive, chemicals, and fuels (WTO, 2021). It can therefore be said that the growth that
does occur in the tourism industry is not only beneficial because of the revenue being generated
from the foreign tourists, but also it is being taken into account as a significant income resource
sector that adds the resources to the economy basket meaning that it attracts the foreign direct
investments (FDI) in a very wealthy way.
The tourism sector can be said to be a very imperative industry and competent in the
world economy. It is an industry with a significant number of industries that are interconnected
directly and indirectly. This industry also has a wider range of populations, physical and natural
resources, and lastly, cultures. Tourism is indeed a very vital part of the economy in both of
their aspects. These are the aspects that cannot be taken for granted since in at the end of the
day, these aspects make up this rich industry to generate income for the economy. Therefore,
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it is remarkable that at the bottom line of the major argument, tourism needs to be embraced
tenfold because of its significant role in both the domestic and the global economy.
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References
Khayrulloevna, A.M., 2020. The substantial economic benefits of tourism. Academy, (3 (54)).
Muresan, I.C., Harun, R., Arion, F.H., Fatah, A.O. and Dumitras, D.E., 2021. Exploring
Residents’ Perceptions of the Socio-Cultural Benefits of Tourism Development in the
Mountain Area. Societies, 11(3), p.83.
Romeril, M., 2017. Tourism and the environment—towards a symbiotic relationship:
(Introductory paper). International Journal of Environmental Studies, 25(4), pp.215218.
Selvam, M.K., 2019. Role of employment opportunities & challenges in tourism and hospitality
sectors. Journal of Analysis and Computation. http://www. ijaconline. com/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/43-SELVAM. Pdf.
World Tourism Organization (2021), International Tourism Highlights, 2020 Edition,
UNWTO, Madrid, DOI:
World Tourism Organization and International Labour Organization (2014), Measuring
Employment in the Tourism Industries – Guide with Best Practices, UNWTO, Madrid.