Tourism As A Development Tool Tourism Essay
Why is tourism selected as a development tool by so many developing nations? Use examples to support you ideas.
Internationally, tourism is being used as a tool for development; this essay examines the power of tourism i.e. how and why tourism can influence a country’s development in terms of the four main motives; these are economical, political, socio-cultural and environmental factors. To assess the development level of a country, the four main motives are used; and on a broader scale, they are the reasons why many developing nations select tourism for development.
The overall aim of most governments to pursue tourism as a development tool is for economical reasons. There have been many successful examples in developed countries, for example under the Finnish ‘Travel 2000’ scheme, tourism has become dominant in Finland; (Finnish Tourist Board, 1993: 4 as cited in Burns & Holden, 1995): ‘The Finnish economy is in dire need of foreign exchange revenues to narrow and eventually stabilise the yawning current account deficit. This can only be achieved through a successful economy policy and broadly based, competitive trade in exports. The tourist industry can and must do its share towards this end.’
The aim of tourism is to encourage tourist to spend more in the country, such a way aggregate demand will increase; as well as increasing employment rate in the tourism sector. Tourism tends to generate multiplier effect for the economy; tutor2u define the term as ‘an initial change in AD can have a greater final impact on equilibrium national income. This is known as the multiplier effect and it comes about because injections of demand into the circular flow of income stimulate further rounds of spending.’
In terms of balance of payment, tourism can counteract any difference in between manufactured imports and exports. Tourism is an obvious source for earning hard currencies such as dollars, sterling, francs and marks (Burns & Holden, 1995). As a consequence of inflow of money into the economy, standard of living and the quality of life of population will be raised; new employment and education opportunities will also be improved. Elliott (1997, p6) described ‘Tourism can be a source for peace and better international understanding between different peoples by bringing them more closely together economically and socially and building up friendships.’
Following the economical reasons, the socio-cultural motives come into act. Because of the injection into the economy, population in the country are able to increase their standard of living, and improve on the quality of life. Aggregate demand of the economy will increase, and the population would improve on their tastes and preferences.
Many tourists go holidays for cultural and sightseeing purposes, therefore culture and heritage tourism can play a big part in tourism development. Tourism encourages civic involvement and pride and also encourages cultural exchange between host population and the tourists, and lead to cultural vibrancy. Demand may lead population to learn new skills and languages, as to the injection into the economy, tourism funds would have contributed to schools to increase education level of the country. Tourism has such great power in order to generate so much positive effects in the host countries, and that it is not a one-off benefit, it often generates multiplier effect in many aspects.
For example Uzbekistan proclaimed its independence in 1991, in famous regions such as Samarqand, Buhara and Horezm, the traditional of handcrafting wood carving, hammered copper work, handmade silk and carpets, and also preservation and maintenance of architectural and historical monuments were being significantly promoted by tourists. Uzbekistan became promoted of its culture and traditions, making local people being proud of their way of living (Mirbabayev & Shagazatova).
Ryu (n.d.) explained that “Governments can and do exert political pressure through tourism and use it as a promotional vehicle to convey a positive image or as a sanction against unfriendly countries.”
Governments are involved in Tourism development often because of the importance of Tourism and also because of the problems Tourism might generate. Tourism creates problems for the host country and it will be explained more in-depth later on. Governments play an important in Tourism development; they are responsible for providing essential services and basic infrastructure. Elliott (1997) says ‘it is only governments which have the power to provide the political stability, security and the legal and financial framework which tourism requires.’ When governments pursue tourism, the benefits include the changing of image or perception, and tourism has to power to create a national identity.
In 1973, the Ministry of Tourism’sBalikbayan Program was launched in the Philippine; tourism rose has contributed to the economical growth, the number of tourists visiting the Philippines rose to one million by 1980 from less than 200,000 in previous years. A big portion of the tourist group was composed of Filipino balikbayans (returnees) under the program (philippinecountry.com 2006).
However, historically political effects on tourism have always been seen negatively influenced, tourism has had effects on military groups, revolutions, civil wars, terrorisms and created political instability.
Governments would always invest a large amount into environmental projects and both natural environment and man-made are included. Tourism has the potential to generate positive impacts on environment by contributing to environmental protection and conservation. Governments may see it as a way to raise awareness of environmental values and tourism is often being used as a protection tool for natural areas. Host community may be encouraged into beautification of the environment and revitalisation, so there might be less litter and better air quality to some extent.
There are factors that affect the above motives; the level or the stage of overall development of the country; if the country is still poorly developed they may not have the enough resources needed to develop them further. An example would be to compare the East Europe with the West Europe; Eastern Europe is still to a lesser extent distinguished from the Western Europe because of the cultural, economical, religious and historical reasons.
The type of governance or political structure of the country is also a factor that would affect motives for development. Strict legislations could lead to limitation of developing; type of governance for example there are democracy governments, monarchy governments, oligarchy, and constitutional monarchy (stutzfamily.com). The reason for the limitation on tourism development is because for example, if the country has a theocracy government, where the country is rule by religious elite, for instance Israel, will have some restricted rules which limited the level for development of tourism in the country.
Economic structure of the country affects the motives by the level of GDP it has; poorer countries may not be able to afford the cost for development.
The term ‘how’ then comes into act, how do the developing nations develop tourism to be able to receive the benefits? There are different types of tourism development, for example enclave development, this is being referred as ‘When tourists remain for their entire stay on the same cruise ship or in the same resort, because it provides everything they need, not much opportunity is left for local people to profit from tourism’ (Rudolph 2000). Enclave development often focus on being ‘all inclusive’ under one roof, a typical example of this would be Disneyland; Disneyland has created significantly benefits for host countries in America, Japan and even the recent project in Hong Kong. Another successful example is the Sandals resorts in the Caribbean; it is advertised as the resort for couples, this also has a great effect on the nation’s economy.
Another type of development is regeneration schemes; the indigenous community is able to receive direct benefits. Regeneration schemes tend to be built in physically inseparable site location from existing community. China has adopted its regeneration scheme in 1988; the new central business district of Shanghai Lujiazui was being redeveloped, this centre now being used as the financial and trade zone in the area, and became more interacted with foreign expertises such as the Paris-based Institute d’Amenagement et d’Urbanisme de la Region Ile de France (IAURIF) which provide assistance to the Municipal Government in Shanghai (Chen 2007?).
London Dockland regeneration project also poses a big impact in British economy development. The new developments have attracted over 1.5 million visitors a year (Boniface & Cooper 2001). Dockland now has improved accessibility, transports in London were improved; London City Airport now designed to meet business executives’ needs, also the Dockland Light Railway (DLR) has a quicker transit system serving to the new Dockland developments. The Jubilee line of London Underground had an extension connecting Canary Wharf and Waterloo station (Boniface & Cooper 2001). All these developments have made travelling easier for residents and tourists.
Unit or establishment level development is another typical type of development some countries generally use; this is base on developing profit making accommodation such as hotels and campsites, and attractions such as building dry-ski slope and theme park. This type of development tend to involve much with the community, other types of businesses include restaurants and bars, host country could try to be innovative for example building themed eateries and diners; building retail outlets is also common.
There are many issues and constraints that hinder development of tourism; lack of resources is one of the major problems for many countries. A nation’s wealth and status are determined by its natural resources in the world economic system, resources they have determine its political influence on development. Most of the poorer countries do not have a choice in making development option, when tourism is the only option they could take. Because of the lack of resources they have in the country, where the only opportunity is to develop on the natural resources they currently have.
Many developed nations are less depends on natural resources for wealth, as they have greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production; these are production that is gathered or found beyond natural resources. This mode of production often leads to capitalism, where the resources are controlled by private power. Also industrial revolution may occur; this is a major change that has effect on almost every aspect of a country such as the economy, culture. Both capitalism and industrial revolution were started from Britain in the 18th to 19th centuries. However, some poorer or less developed countries many see a resource curse, when referring to the abundance of natural resources tend to have less economic growth than those who do not have these resources (answers.com). Some resources can be easily obtained but they could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption, a typical example would be oil.
To conclude, tourism plays a big part in a country’s development, however it is still all about sustainable development; it is important to maintain the resources you have in order to gain more. Tourism not only brings advantages to host countries, but it also brings costs to the country, therefore it is important balance the two.
Referencing
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Boniface, B. & Cooper, C. (2001) Worldwide destinations: the geography of travel and tourism. 4th ed., Oxford, Butterworth-Heinnemann.
BURNS, P. & HOLDEN, A. (1995) Tourism: a new perspective. Hertfordshire, Prentice Hall Inc.
Chen, Y. (2007?) Regeneration and Sustainable Development in China’s Transformation [online] last accessed on 17 Nov 2008 at: http://www.enhr2007rotterdam.nl/documents/W19_paper_Chen.pdf
ELLIOTT, J. (1997) Tourism politics and public sector management. London, Routledge.
Mirbabayev, B. & Shagazatova, M. [no date] The economic and social impact of tourism [online] last accessed on 13 Nov 2008 at: http://www.grips.ac.jp/alumni/UzbekistanTourism(2).pdf
Philippinecountry.com (2006) Philippine History – Marcos Administration [online] last accessed on 13 Nov 2008 at: http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_history/marcos_time.html
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Ryu, S. [no date] Political instability and its effects on Tourism [online] last accessed on 13 Nov 2008 at: http://www.authorstream.com/presentation/Obama-59041-Sarah-Ryu-Political-instability-effects-Tourism-Abstract-paper-examine-Introduction-as-Travel-Places-Nature-ppt-powerpoint/
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