卢敏旋（Class 5, 20050100090）
Prof. Huiyun Xiao
Contemporary British Culture and Society
December 25, 2007
Outlines:
Topic: How far does tourism support or damage what is best in British society and
culture?
Thesis Statement: Tourism has some negative effects on British society and culture
I. Introduction:
A. tourism becomes an important industry in Britain, offering job and money
B. tourism still brings with negative impact, to society and culture in Britain
II. Negative effect in natural environment of tourism
A. reason why tourism influences natural environment
B. mass of transportation and the bad habit of travelers’ increased the waste level in
Cornwall of England
C. a report points out that British don’t want to change traveling habit in order to save
the natural environment
III. Negative effect in local culture of tourism
A. traditional customs become commercial
B. the commercialized event in London's West End and Edinburgh explain the
situation.
VI. Conclusion
Solution is always needed to protect the environment and local, traditional culture.
Negative Impact of Tourism on British Environment and Culture
Along with the rapid development of economy over the world, tourism becomes an
important industry in many countries, and at the same time, more and more influential
transition such as job creation and foreign exchange earning.
"It stimulates enormous investment in infrastructure, most of which also helps to
improve the living conditions of local people. It provides government with substantial
tax revenues. Most new tourism jobs and business are created in developing countries,
helping to equalize economic opportunities and help rural residents from moving to
overcrowded cities.” From the statement made by the World Tourism Organization
(WTO 2007), it is easy to figure out that tourism has become one of the world’s most
important sources of employment.
And to the economic sector of a country, tourism is vital. According to a statistic
report of the British Tourism Administration, from September 2004 to December 2005,
the most famous travel destinations have received over 27,700,000 foreign visitors.
The whole industry has contributed more over 815,000,000 pounds to Britain in 2004.
Despite of the benefit, tourism still brings with negative impact, especially to
environment and culture. In this research paper, I would like to give some statement
and evident concerning the damages which are aroused by traveling industry on
environment and culture in Britain.
As an essential role in tourism, environment devotes to the quality of the tourist's
experience, and it includes two parts, the natural and the man-made. In this essay, I
would mostly focus on the natural side.
Beauties in nature, such as forest, waterfall, and seashore and so on, are the main
attractiveness and courage tourism developers to explore. Most of the travelers come
with the aim that they could enjoy themselves in a natural and peaceful environment.
Britain is famous for the evergreen scenery and foreigners rush into countries to look
for capacious grassland, delicate flowers.
Nevertheless, when the number of visitors exceeds the number which the
environment can comfortably hold, problems and damages will pop out. That is to say,
the damage done to the environment is caused by the volume of visitors arriving at
destinations which are not used to supporting people in such great numbers. The
natural environment can hardly escape damage. The quality of water and air are
inevitably influenced in some way.
With the increasing number of international traveling, travelers prefer to use plane
more often. And to the domestic aspect, the increasing number of visitors requests
mass of transportation.
As Karl G and Peter N state in an essay on the negative impacts of the environment
that the negative impacts on the environment have become the biggest problem and
quoting the opinion above.(2001, P457) “Trips to distant conferences can have serious
environmental impacts, especially if made by airplane. Because of the aggressive
impact of greenhouse gas emissions in the upper atmosphere, their threat to the global
climate is more serious than similar trips made at surface level.” Greenhouse gas
emissions increase causes air pollution and tourists throw rubbish randomly causes
the local environment to become worse and worse. The waste level in Cornwall of
England is 45% higher in August than in December, because many tourists spend their
holidays in Cornwall. (BBC news, 2005) We can see from the news that tourism
makes the local environment worse and causes economic impact as well.
Instead of paying more attention to the management of tourist, people tend to use
more money to cover the problem. British local citizens seem to have enthusiasm
toward traveling. "Even though a great number of British realizes the negative impact
of tourism on environment, but few of them feel like to changing the traveling
habits..."travelsupermarket.com points out that many British travelers refuse to change their
traveling habit or pay more money in order to protect the environment. Only 23% of female who
were interviewed feel ashamed of their attitude toward environment during traveling.
When tourism industry is doing harm to the whole environment in Britain, at the same time, the
overcrowded tourist create more harmful effect on the local culture. Local and traditional customs
becoming commercial may be one of the negative effects. The definition of "trivialization "is
given in Page 8 "When aspects of the host culture become a degraded and commercialized form of
entertainment for tourists".
Some people may argue that such kind of situation happens more often in the developing
countries, and Britain, belonging to the developed world, will not have the trouble. An example
can explain. "Cockney nights" In London's West End, and "Caledonian evenings" in Edinburgh, at
which guests are given kilts to wear and haggis to eat, have become commercialized to the extent
that they now trivialize these traditional cultures from different parts of Britain. Hence, special
events or aspects of the everyday life, history and religion are used as material for travelers’
entertainment which gives little real insight into the lives of the destination. Travelers just rush
into the ancient villages and spend couples of hours to model the local people. They wear
traditional clothes, do some dancing, and take picture with the shy children. Of course, they would
buy souvenirs and then head forward to another place. However, the host does not have time to
realize that their precious traditions are commercialized and lost when they receive money from
the tourists. In order to attract more tourists and earn more money, they give several times of
ceremony such as religious ceremony and traditional wedding party in a day. The local customs
become victims. They used to be special and were carefully produced for particular purpose.
Quantity rather than quality becomes the main concern. One positive effect is the artifact may be
changed to satisfy the need of the travelers. The original form of ceremony which is out of date
and difficult to understand is transforming into a modern way and become easier to comprehend.
And the result is the unique customs and artifact is lost.
To conclude, even though tourism is benefiting Britain with a great amount of money, solution
is always needed to protect the environment and local, traditional culture. A country which could
maintain its best in society and culture as long as it could is always receiving benefit from its
unique and precious history.
Bibliography:
World Tourism Organization (2007) “About the World Tourism Organization”
http://www.unwto.org/aboutwto/eng/menu.html (accessed 28/01/2007)
News about the total number of money making of tourism in Britain
http://www.cits-sc.cn/news/world/200510/55135.html
Karl G and Petter N (2001) “Conference Tourism” Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Vol.9 No.6 pp451-470
BBC
news,
(2005)
“Med
threat
from
concrete
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4612895.stm (accessed 08/02/2007)
News about "British attitude toward the changing of traveling habits"
http://www.ask789.com/experience/news.asp?forumID=10&threadID=46833
coasts”