Mass tourism & Tourism in Jamaica case study

by supreme_fmanyahoocouk (student)

Mass tourism

Mass tourism definition

Mass tourism involves a large number of tourists coming to a particular destination. For a destination to be so popular, there must be a particular purpose or type of attraction, examples of the types of attractions mass tourism resorts offer can be physical, such as mountains, beach and climate, or cultural, such as museums, castles and restaurants. Many countries want to develop mass tourism, as it is seen to have many advantages, which outweigh the disadvantages.

Figure 1: Cultural and physical pulls of Italy, in the form of restaurants, castles, mountains and beaches. These pulls encourage mass tourism.

Mass tourism advantages & disadvantages

Figure 2: Locals visit Blackpool pleasure beach

Advantages

Tourism brings jobs, with more, reliable and often larger wage. These jobs come in the form of construction workers, building infrastructure put in place for tourists or jobs in tourist services, working in restaurants, theme parks or museums etc.

New infrastructure (eg: airports, hotels, theme parks) or leisure facilities (eg: swimming pools, golf courses, theme parks) put in place for tourists benefit locals.

Disadvantages

Activities are often seasonal, so jobs are only available to locals for part of the year, people would become unemployed and earn nothing for the rest of the year. Skiing and Sun-bathing are seasonal.

Figure 3: Skiing and sunbathing in Italy are seasonal

Industry is dominated by large travel companies, who sell package holidays by brochure or internet.

Mass tourist destinations do not appeal to wealthier groups of people, rather to lower-income and middle-income tourists.

Higher-salary jobs are taken by people who developed the resort; few local employees are well paid, taking worse jobs.

Mass tourist countries are often in lesser stages of development, so most profits go to richer investing countries; these profits that go to the investing countries do not benefit the host country, making development difficult.

Local farmland is used instead for tourism. The increased demand for food accompanied by tourism cannot be provided by local produce, because the farmland has been bought, so the produce and profit is not local, this means the local economy does not benefit as much as it could. On top of this, the kinds of people attracted by mass tourist attractions often prefer familiar food, rather than local food, so food is imported, instead of bringing local profit.

Locals may not benefit from facilities and infrastructure designed for tourists, as it may be costly or unavailable to locals.

Tourism in Jamaica

Importance of tourism to Jamaican people and economy

Tourism is the country’s second biggest earner, raking in US$1.3 billion in 2001, this contributes 20% of the country’s GDP, with 1,322,690 tourist arrivals in 2001, this makes a tourist expenditure of US$931 per person. 220,000 Jamaicans (8% of the population) work directly in the tourist sector, many more benefit from it and rely on it, for example, if they produce food for visitors and hotel providers. The plantation houses show that Jamaica provides some of the food produce tourists need; this means it makes more profit.

Figure 4: Tourist attractions of Jamaica

Tourist attractions of Jamaica

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Figure 4: Tourist attractions of Jamaica

Tourist attractions of Jamaica

Cruises sometimes stop in Jamaica, in 2002, there were 865 cruise ship arrivals. There is no shortage of facilities available to tourists; in 2002, there were 14,388 rooms available to tourists. Jamaica is famous for the large amount of water sports it offers. The wildlife sanctuaries are also popular. Golf is becoming increasingly popular and common in Jamaica. As you can see on Figure 4, there are many beaches and bathing areas, on the coast of the main tourist areas, and all around the coast, as you would expect in such a hot climate. Off the coast, there are many water sports areas, which are what makes Jamaica famous as a tourist attraction. Recently, community tourism and ecotourism have become more popular in Jamaica. The amazing coral reefs surrounding Jamaica are a huge attraction, as they encourage snorkelling, scuba diving and glass-bottom boating.

Figure 5: Jamaican community tourism

Community tourism

Community tourism involves local people directly, because visitors stay in homes and villages of Jamaicans, this means the families provide accommodation and food, and get the profit from what the tourists pay them. Local businesses, such as bars, restaurants and museums supply their other needs. Community tourism educates tourists about the way of life of locals, which makes it a form of cultural tourism, the benefits are that the tourists use fewer resources and support locals and local businesses, instead of most of the profit going to international businesses. The personal connection created between the tourists and locals makes the tourists more likely to spend and give money; especially if they know how hard life is for locals.

Ecotourism

Figure 6: Eco-lodge in Jamaican national park – the Blue Mountains

Ecotourism is becoming more popular worldwide, as it maintains a country’s tourist resources. Ecotourism in Jamaica commonly utilises inland areas, which are often wasted compared to the coastline, which is often used for water-sports and sun-bathing. An example of a popular ecotourism attraction in Jamaica is the National park, called the Blue Mountains. The environment is protected by ecotourism, because nature reserves and eco-lodges are built, tourist numbers are also limited.

Activities

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Question 1

Kingston, Montenegro Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio and Port Maria are Jamaica’s main tourist areas.
Activities available in main tourist areas include bathing, observing botanic gardens, deep-sea fishing, Golf, looking at museums and playing water sports.

& d)

I think tourism is beneficial to Jamaica’s people and economy, because it bring jobs, with more reliable and often larger wage. The jobs are always linked in some way to tourism and providing tourist services, whether the job is construction worker for tourist infrastructure, or waiter in a hotel. These jobs improve Jamaican economy, because workers are bringing money in, from foreign tourists this also benefits Jamaican people, because they are more likely to have jobs, with reasonable pay, decreasing redundancy and increasing pay. Leisure facilities and tourist services are beneficial to locals, as they improve their quality of life, as long as the facilities and services are available to locals. These facilities and services - that would not have been created if it were not for tourism - helped the development of Jamaica, making it a more developed nation than before. Statistics show the main economic benefit of tourism to Jamaica. Tourism contributed to 20% of the country’s GDP (US$1.3 billion) in 2001, it is the country’s second biggest earner. 220,000 Jamaicans (8% of population) work directly in the tourist sector, and 880,000 Jamaicans (32% of population) indirectly benefit from tourism, for example if their business provides hotels and supermarkets with food, not all their profit comes from tourism, but a significant amount does, or an engineering company, that builds various structures, as well as services and facilities for tourists. Ecotourism and community tourism offer profitable and sustainable tourism, which does not damage or harm the environment, so they have the positive impacts of tourism, without many of the negative impacts. Community tourism actually has more positive impacts, because the families get the money directly, without losing much of it to the holiday industry.

I think tourism is not beneficial to Jamaica’s people and economy, because beach holidays are seasonal, and only attractive in summer, this means that for the rest of the year, people who work in the tourist industry are likely to become redundant. Construction jobs are also temporary, so the seasonal and construction jobs result in redundant communities of squatters around the coast and tourist areas, these squatters cause sewage and environmental issues. Not only are the jobs short-term and unreliable, the salary is not as high as it could be, with high-salary jobs being taken by foreigner who developed and invested in Jamaican tourism, as well as most of the salary being taken by foreign investors, most of the profit is taken by foreign investors, as Jamaica pays off its loans. Tourism takes up much of the land and resources this land and resources cannot be used by locals for other uses, such as farmland, houses and public services and entertainment. Although locals may benefit from the facilities and infrastructure, they may be too costly for many people, or they may be so overrun with tourists in their peak, when they are most pleasant, that locals cannot use them. Because Jamaica agreed to take the loans from the holiday industry, it means the holiday industry has control over the direction and route Jamaica takes, because Jamaica owes the industry money, and the industry can do what it wants, because it is much larger, richer and more powerful. The environment of Jamaica is permanently damaged by industry, and future land uses are compromised. Many international tourism companies in Jamaica do not pay the true costs and compensation for damage caused to the environment for the activities, and the companies are so rich and powerful, that the Jamaican government cannot claim tax on their profits, all in all these international take about 80% of Jamaica’s profit from tourism and the tourist’s expenditure.

In conclusion, I think tourism is beneficial in the short term, as short-term advantages, such as jobs and profit outweigh short-term disadvantages, such as land and resource use. In the long term, however, I consider tourism damaging, as long-term disadvantages, such as temporary redundancy, unemployed or low-salary squatters, lack of control over direction of tourism and damage to environment, compromising land uses outweigh long-term advantages, such as development, infrastructure and services. Eco-tourism and community tourism, however are beneficial in short-term and long-term, because disadvantages, such as land and resource use and environmental damage are limited, there are also less honeypot sites, because tourists are dispersed throughout, this means there will not be communities of squatters concentrated around honeypot sites, and environmental damage and crowding concentrated in honeypot sites.