The economic advantages are that the country increases the size of the domestic economy; more people are employed, as tourism tends to be labour intensive. The market of souvenirs and craft industries makes a huge mount of profits. The fundamental thing is infrastructure (roads, water supplies, and electricity) has been improved for tourist visiting, which help a lot of the local people living there. Some of the disadvantages are that the country does not gain the full benefits of the total income of the visitors from overseas. As much as 15 percent of the total money spent on a holiday reaches the host community. This is the result of what are called leakages. It can be the outcome of many things, such as a foreign ownership of a hotel or leisure facilities in which the profits are returned to the mother companies.
The majority of the population is Muslims, and the government and Gambia tourist organizations have come to an understanding the social and cultural impact on tourism had to be seen to with stern measures. They will be looking to create a mutual understanding between the host Muslim community and the tourist. Muslim being a dominant religion determines the culture and lifestyle of the every one living in Gambia, which includes the way they dress and behave. It is in the Muslim religion to cover up (especially for women) when going into a public environment, and by the British European tourist wearing beachwear in the town center, the host communities are offended. The tourist that visit Gambia come from all over the world which mean the cultures are all different too. Tourists switch off when they go on holiday then do not see the holiday destination as a place of worship or home for people and therefore abuse the facilities by getting drunk and being irresponsible; because they are on holiday they think they can do whatever they want to.
Frequently this means the behaviour, which they find acceptable and find natural might be classed as a sin or an offense to the host community or the other tourists. For example in Gambia they have been raised to believe, that kissing, holding hand, and hugging in public is not acceptable behavior. Many tourists from Europe, openly kiss, hug and hold hands that cause unnecessary friction between the host and tourist communities.
One of the main reason Gambia’s tourism economy is not strong is because of all-inclusive holidays.
An all-exclusive hotel: source taken from
http://www.gambianews.com/yp-images/hotel-images/atlantic-hotel1. JPG
This is the holiday in which you pay the tour operator before hand for everything you eat and drink. Due to this tourists have no reason to go outside the hotel grounds and explore the country's true beauty. In order to make the tourist feel more at home and ease, hotels import British stock such as alcohol and tomatoes, which are grown perfectly well in Gambia. This is more of an expense on the hotel as importing costs are high. When the products can be brought in markets from people who actually need the money and help the poverty in Gambia. It will also help money circulate around the country giving the poor a chance of earning money too.
The Gambia makes money from tourists in a number of ways, some of which are: the government charging tax to tourists and tourism business. Money from this helps to improve schools and the money gained from these methods helps to improve schools and health services, the improvement of these such services create jobs, which the host community has. There are a variety of jobs available in the tourism industry, some of which are working in hotels, restaurants, bars and club which are known to be direct jobs, in the sense that it I directly related to tourists. And there are indirect jobs, which include, farmers who sell their foods to the restaurants and the art & craft people who provide the shops with souvenirs.
Several people in Gambia make their living out of selling good to the tourist, souvenirs, arts and crafts and jewelry. Many a time the Gambian craftsman, may make untraditional art but which suite the tourists’ taste, for example wall hanging are very popular for many Europeans. A worry about the souvenir trade is that the damage that can come to the cultural and religious side, this can happens when tourist buy something sacred because it looks good. Even a tourist to a religious building can cause grief due to inappropriate behavior, or unacceptable dress.
Masai Mara
Map of the Masai Mara: source taken from
Masai Mara Wildlife Sanctuary is situated southwest in Kenya. The country is known as a frequently visited tourist destination for its wildlife, pleasant climate, and beautiful scenery. The Masai Mara covers an area of over 1500 km2. It is Kenya’s finest wildlife sanctuary, with wild beast, elephants, zebra and Kenya’s largest lion population among others.
Beautiful Scenery of the Masai Mara: source taken from
Many people visiting the Masai go there to see the animals in their natural and open environment. Tourists have a huge impact on the animals they go to see. Tourists are driven around the Parks in specially adapted minibuses with open tops so that the tourists can safely view and photograph the animals. Tourist minibuses compete between themselves to offer the best view of animals to the tourists, and there can be as many as forty buses around one animal. There are policies forbidding buses to go closer than 25 meters to any animal, but these rules are hardly ever obeyed, It is difficult for the few anti-harassment patrols to implement any sort of rules in the huge park. Because of this the animals are disturbed, their natural way of life is disturbed, the flashes off the cameras also scare many of the animal. Another rule in the parks is that buses are only allowed on designated roads. This is ignored in attempt by bus drivers to get as close as possible to animals and in order to impress their tourist, hoping in the end that they would get a good tip. Tracks are gradually worn away, increasing soil erosion, and they become the new roads. The vegetation needed by the animals is reduced.
The effect of off road driving: source taken from
Tour operators are more concerned about pleasing their customers than they are about the environment. Although touring the park in a hot air balloon is an effective and quicker way of seeing the park the animals’ way of life is disturbed, gas burners used by the balloons make a very loud noise, and the balloons shine huge shadows over the ground, which scare and frighten the animals.
Having more tourists in the park means we need to have more facilities to accommodate the tourists, increasing tourist facilities has caused the loss of habitat and naturalness of the area. Many of the lodges have rubbish and sewage disposal problems. Rubbish attracts wild eaters such as hyenas, and baboons. These problems concern the reserve's executives because animals can be a danger to the tourists. Another impact of litter is that scavengers, such as hyenas, may feed on the waste foods and rubbish, which may change their natural feeding habits.
The traditional people of the Masai Mara Park are the Masai people. The Masai are well known for their bravery, it used to be normal for Masai warriors to kill lions. The Masai were forced to abandon considerable parts of their land, included grazing areas and land containing water supply for the cattle,they had to live in the allocated area outside the park. Tourists regularly visit the Masai village; often treat the Masai people like animals. They get souvenirs from the Masai, which majority of the time is hand made. Apart from selling souvenirs, the only other way the Masai can make a living is by growing crops and grazing animals. Every time the wild beasts stampede out of the Masai Mara Park, Masai people’s crops are crushed on and destroyed. For that reason the Masai have built fencing round the edge of the park, but the fences stop the migration of the animals in the winter. Living in the Masai also has a pleasant point; with the parks profit there have been schools built and water supplies had been put in to place. On the other hand, most of the profit made by the parks goes to the government, not to the people.
Many of the Masai people know how to speak English; conversational English. Well really they need to make an effort to learn the language of the majority of the population that come visit the Mara, in order to make money
Some of the Masai men have started wearing jeans and t-shirt. They have left their traditional dress and adapted to our attitudes and beliefs. This is known as the “demonstration effect”. This is when the local people copy the attitudes and beliefs brought by the visitors, possibly believing that people from the well off countries must be more successful and more sophisticated then they are.
Both the Mara and the Gambia are different in their own way. The Masai Mara is a wildlife sanctuary when the Gambia is a coastal resort. So firstly this divides them. The Mara and the Gambia have many differences. They are, the Gambia being a seaside resort and the Mara being a wildlife sanctuary; attract different people, some who like sun, sea and sand and some who prefer to go on safaris. And because they attract different sort of people they are going to want different thing from their holidays. As a person on safari would most probably want to see as many animal in the wild as possible: someone who has gone to the Gambia for the sun and sea might want to have a quiet time and relax on the beach as much as he can. It requires a completely different mindset, depending on where you want to go. The other difference I would think would be is that the Mara it is more likely to attract older adults rather then young adults. As in the Gambia is more likely to attract young adults rather then old adults. Younger adults are more likely to go to a place where there is sun; sea and sand rather then go to a safari. Due to that younger adults may have children of their own and children like playing round in water and swimming. When you are old, you do not have that much to worry about due to if you have kids then they’ll be married or at university, and due to that you have more time on your hands to go visiting the world and seeing what you want to see. An older adult would prefer to go to see a safari, learn about the culture and learn about the tradition of a certain place rather than go on a holiday to purely enjoy.
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The similarities that the Mara and the Gambia have I would say at firstly they are both in Africa and that they are both in developing countries. The cultural impacts on the two locations I would say are similar to a certain extent because they both have such rich cultures and traditions. The biggest similarity I would think these two locations have is that they both rely heavily on tourism as their main source of income into the country/region.
As a personal note if I had a choice to go to any one of these location I would go to the Masai Mara, after finding out so much about the place, which I never knew before, the Masai Mara has caught my eye. And I do hopefully intend on visiting the Masai Mara some time in the near future, experience the pleasure of being able to see such beautiful animal in their natural habitat.
Bibliography
Some of the websites used to help me.
Also used travel and tourism book: by john ward
Published 1997
Sheets provided my teacher
Gambia and the Masai Mara video
Watched in the class
