Impacts of Tourism: Planning and Policy Development - Critically assess the key arguements regarding the outcomes of tourism in less developed societies.

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IMPACTS OF TOURISM: PLANNING AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT

CRITICALLY ASSESS THE KEY ARGUMENTS REGARDING THE OUTCOMES OF TOURISM IN LESS DEVELOPED SOCIETIES.

One does not have to look at literature too see that the impacts of tourism has been immense in the world we live in. Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries, according to WTO (World Tourism Organization) revised estimates total international tourist arrivals worldwide come to almost 595 million in 1996. International tourism receipts for 1996 are estimated to be $425 billion (WTO, 1997). An article in the Hutchinson Educational Encyclopaedia (1999) has pointed out that tourism is worlds largest industry. It sustained 120 million jobs in 1995 accounting for 7% of the global workforce (Hutchinson, 1999). As the figures show Tourism has a major impact on the world economy.

One has to realise that along with benefits tourism does also bring many detrimental affects on both the developing and developed countries.

For this essay one will predominantly look at the impacts of tourism in the world we live in. One will also be looking at issues surrounding development of tourism in the world and why the public and private sectors are concerned with developing tourism.

Private and Public Sector

All governments have a vital interest in the health of their countries economy. Working along with the public sector governments are choosing to develop and promote their resources in order to attract tourists. For many tourism is seen as a quick and easy solution to combating economic deficiencies (S.Medlik, 1991). This idea that tourism is good for the economy has increased the interest in developing, planning, government regulations and policies on tourism (WTO, 1997). Developers of tourism can fall into three categories, namely the government, non-profit making organisations and private businesses.

Forty years of mass tourism has come up with a wide variety of approaches to tourism development from participating countries. In the developed world tourism has attained its present importance largely as a consequence of the private sector enterprise and initiative (Medlik, 1991:275). However in developing countries the government have to adopt the role of entrepreneurship and fund tourist destinations. This is largely because in developing countries the private sector is small and private investment funds are limited, therefore the government have to intervene.

The governments of developed and developing countries share many areas of responsibility. In developing countries because the problems of resource scarcity, strong government control is necessary to prevent exploitation and waste, and insure that benefits from tourism are optimised.

A study conducted by Pizam and Milman (1988, cited in McIntosh et al) on residents of Nadi’s attitude showed predominantly positive reactions to touristic developments. The positive impacts seen by the residents were predominantly economic and few social factors. The positive impacts were employment opportunities, towns overall tax revenue, income, standards of living and quality of life.

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Some commentators such as Medlik (1991) in his book has said that tourism in developed countries can be regarded as a mainly social activity with economic consequences, whereas in developing countries it is largely an economic activity with social consequences. To support Medlik’s statement one could look at developing countries to see the social and economical impacts of tourism.

In countries that primarily rely on a single industry, such as agriculture, the introduction of tourism has often led to decline of the agricultural base of the country (McIntosh et al, 1995). In developing countries agriculture is a low ...

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