With the ever increasing popularity of all inclusive holidays and cruise ship holidays, the trickle down effect to the host’s economy is next to nothing. With the host nation providing the capital investment in the form of the ship and hotels and importing the majority of food and water, together with guests having little time to venture out of the complex, very little indirect money finds its way to the host nation’s economy.
Worker’s are normally underpaid and poorly treated, coupled with tourists increasing the price of products to earnings ratio the standard of living for workers is normally poor. Due to the seasonal climate of tourism workers normally are only employed for 4-5 months of the year, with little guarantee of securing a job for the next season.
The TNC’s may also ask for infrastructure in the form of airports and roads to be paid by local government and as a condition of investment frequently ask for tax breaks and other financial incentives. This could divert funds from other important areas of the economy such as health, education and its own investment for growth.
On the other hand tourism can also contribute to an economy if the host nation is attentive to the details of the TNC’s investment. For example Malaysia and many countries like it are now bringing in tourism expenditures as a way to accelerate the foreign investment. This is essentially a cap on the minimum amount of local currency that is allocated to each tourist for each day of there travel. They are only allowed to enter the country with a minimum amount of cash and must not leave with it. Although this is proving difficult to implement practically many tourists still respect the rule and make a point of purchasing locally produced goods.
Further to the point regarding the poor trickle down effect of tourism to the economy should the host country find ways to “Plug the leak” and keep more of the direct and indirect contributions then the host country can in fact benefit as a whole through taxes. This in turn allows the government of that country to invest in other areas of the economy such as health, education and infrastructure creating a cycle of investment and sustained economics growth.
Regarding the poor treatment of workers and the seasonal aspect of their jobs many countries that are in the WTO top ten visited countries would simply have these people unemployed with no state benefits system. It is argued that even with such conditions of employment it is better that the inhabitants of the host country are contributing to society through taxes and so can stimulate growth in that country. Also with destinations such as Andorra with a population of four hundred thousand and no exports or comparative advantage in any industry tourism has found zero unemployment based on at first below standard working conditions compared with the west.
With the astronomical rise in sex tourism particularly with children in developing countries many have directly blamed the tourism industry for acting too little too late. After the rise of tourism came the rise of sex tourism which is almost according to the, EU sex tourism council, is almost always a male from a developed country visiting a developing country. It is a criminal offence in most developed countries to be a sex tourist and the implication of funding such activities in third world countries can mean the government becomes dependant on the industry and does little to stop such practices. Through the expansion of sex tourism more and more people are exploited year on year and this makes the host countries become more lenient with the law as they grow dependant on such practices.
A further implication of the expansion of tourism according to some sociologists is that culture is traded as a commodity in that the real culture of a society has already been lost to a standardised homogeneous western culture model. Using my own experiences of Spain I feel that the norms and values of specific countries are being diluted with an invasion of western cultural imperialism. British ex pats and a bombardment of American norms and values has cheapened the area and I feel Spain has lost its soul. The culture has become diluted and more of a show for tourists. This is not specific to Spain either, Dr Monk of The Institute of Learning, suggests that all major western tourist spots have become diluted over time.
Dr Monk does however offer a different overall viewpoint on the situation. He suggests that the invasion of western norms and values was inevitable in many parts of the world and tourism simply accelerated that process. He suggests that through the injection of cash local culture heritage sites such as monuments, parks and heritage buildings can all be protected, that otherwise wouldn’t be with the money that tourism brings in.
This point can be highlighted with the ever growing ethical tourism companies emerging. They only travel to places where they can support community development and economic
With the globalization of our world and the reduction in prices, tourism to further and further countries via jumbo jets is more common place than ever before. Last year alone 350 million pounds of carbon gas was emitted from airports and airlines across the country significantly contributing to global warming. Indirectly through traveling to and running airports a further 200 million pounds of carbon gas was emitted. In fact more carbon gas will be emitted in a summer holiday for the average family of four on a trip to Spain during a one week stay than in the entirety of the rest of the year combined. As almost the entirety of the fleet of planes currently in service do not fall under international treaties for carbon control and have no catalytic converters such as on a car most of the tones of fuel burnt per year on planes are simply untreated and the carbon dumped straight into the atmosphere. With the global expansion of tourism and the increase in frequency of cheap no frills flight this can only get worse.
However in recent years new technology has arrived that increases fuel efficiency on board planes engines. It was installed at great lump sum cost to the aircraft and reduces the amount of fuel needed to fly by up to 20%. I personally do not believe however the claim of many of the big airliners such as British Airways that this was done with the intent of reducing carbon emissions first and as a cost reduction excursive second, rather the other way round. This however is still seen as a small and insufficient move by government and industry as with the introduction of no frills airlines more there have been significantly more than a 20% rise in the number of flights taken each year.
Also a law still under discussion could sway the implications of tourism on global warming by introducing emissions trading. This, while making the average tourists holiday more expensive, would make airlines buy emissions credits off other industries to be able to fly their aircraft. This approach could essentially reduce emissions in other sectors to maintain the tourism industry’s level of emission output and could in fact lead to less people taking holidays to far off countries because of the increase in cost.
Tourism has had a great far reaching impact on everyone’s lives in this world in one way or another. With the trends in the astronomical expansion of tourism set to continue we can expect the consequences already present in this essay to become more intense over time. For example even with the concessions enforced on the airlines carbon emissions and the potential future scientific breakthroughs in fuel efficiency we are still looking at a world already engulfed in global warming. As one of the biggest worldwide sources of pollution the tourism industry has large future role to play in the fight against global warming and needs to stop hiding behind international treaties. In my conclusion I would say that in order for tourism to be seen as ethical and a cause for good to the host nations as well as the developed countries international law needs to protect the planet from the hazardous effects of airline emissions.
Looking at the way that the tour operators treat the government in demanding tax breaks and infrastructure growth for investment, constantly overlooking shabby treatment of employees and exporting most of the wealth created by them in host countries I feel that the potential for accelerated growth in that country is outweighed by the poor treatment. Referring to the Andorra example such sometimes necessary poor treatment, in my opinion, can be justified for such accelerated economic growth and increased living standards.
With a closer look at the benefits of the global expansion of tourism I feel that in general the implications of tourism on the culture of its destination are small. With such a big invasion of western cultural imperialism from the media and internet I feel that the impact of tourism on culture is actually a positive one. For example the money spent by tourists in Kenya helping to fund wildlife reserves and a anti poaching wing of the police.
In conclusion I feel that the implications of the global expansion of tourism are sometimes arguably bad influences on most people except the large western TNC’s that operate them. However if you look into more detail on the subject I found that under the surface of poor morals by the TNC tour operators a story of employment and growth in poor host countries has outweighed that treatment.
