A goal of developing the tourism industry in a community is maximizing selected positive impacts while minimizing potential negative impacts.
It is essential to identify the possible impacts. Tourism researchers have identified a large number of impacts.
Here is a table outlining the general impacts of tourism on local culture and communities;
In order to answer my coursework title, “examine how tourism has had both positive and negative impacts on local culture”, I will be looking at a variety of places where tourism has
had an impact on local culture, either positive, negative, or even a bit of both. The places I will be looking at are; Nepal, Kenya, Brazil, Gambia, Machu Picchu, The Maldives, The Lake District, and Ayia Napa, where tourism has had an impact on local culture in a variety of ways. (See figure 1, map of the world, locating the case studies)
To analyse the impacts generated by tourist-host contact I will use Doxeys irritation index, which suggests that unless careful management strategies are developed, host irritation will increase dramatically.
N.B: tourist- host contact means: the contact the tourist has with the local people, therefore the host being the one living in the country.
The flow diagram links the relationship to time, suggesting that unless careful management strategies are developed, host irritation will increase dramatically.
ANALYSIS
Contact with local people
The socio-cultural impacts of tourism depend on the type of tourism as well as the type of tourist. There are two main types of tourists
- package tourists- usually demand western amenities, are linked to rapid growth rates and often lead to the restructuring of the local economy
- independent tourists- usually fit in better with the local environment and social structure, are related with slow growth rates and often lead to local ownership
A more detailed typology, such as one devised by Valene Smith, relates the type of tourist to volume and adaptation levels. He makes the point that in general, independent explorer tourists fit in best to the local environment and community. This is due to the relatively small numbers, and slow growth in their type of tourism activity and their possible involvement in the community.
Package tourists usually arrive in masses to facilities that have been built rapidly, often with fewer links to the local economy. They meet local people in shops, restaurants and bars or as workers in their hotel (“my friend the barmen” etc) or possibly as hawkers on the beach (where a feverish sales pitch can annoy tourists).
N.B typology is a method of sociological investigation that classifies tourists according to a particular phenomenon, usually motivations or behaviour
Table 1: smith's typology of tourism
Global explosion of tourism and part of page 9 of www.seagrant.umn...
Tourism: principles and practise pages 176-177, and The human impacts of tourism
The business of tourism, page 327