Tourism is the “sum of activities and relationships between various parties, which arises from the travel and stay of non-residents of a certain location to new locations, as long as the movement does not involve an earning activity or permanent residency” (Robinson, Heitmann & Dieke 220).
Domestic and international tourism are the two main categories of tourism. Domestic tourism refers to the movement of tourists within the same country. On the other hand international tourism refers to the movement of tourists to other countries.
According to the World Tourism Organization, people should not live in the new locations for more than one year (McLean & Hurd 300). Tourism is a very dynamic industry. It influences the development of other industries.
Tourism may lead to significant growth in the private sector and development of infrastructure (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1602). Tourism leads to the development of shops, accommodation, transport infrastructure, and growth of the hospitality industry.
Tourism affects education, the health industry, culture and religion either directly or indirectly. Growth of tourism and its economic significance has made governments give tourism special attention. Cultural tourism helps in boosting the pride and identity of a community.
Foreign exchange is critical for the economic well-being of any nation. A country uses foreign exchange to pay for it imports and foreign loans. Exports are the main sources of foreign exchange.
Availability of foreign exchange determines the strength of a country’s currency. Lack of adequate amount of foreign may lead to the diminishing of the value of a local currency. Tourism enables a country to earn foreign exchange.
Therefore, tourism plays a critical part in any country’s economic growth. The amount of foreign exchange that a country earns per visitor varies from one destination to the other (Robinson, Heitmann and Dieke 27).
In the Caribbean countries, tourism is one of the major sources of foreign exchange. Therefore, in these countries, tourism is a critical part of the national development plan.
There is no country in the world with an unemployment rate of zero percent. Unemployment means that there is idle labor in the country. Unemployed people do not help the economy of the nation.
Therefore, they are a burden to the country. Countries strive to reduce the level of unemployment by undertaking various strategies. Tourism is a labor intensive industry.
Therefore, it leads to the creation of a large number of the jobs. Tourism leads to creation of jobs in the transport, hospitality and entertainment industry. Rural tourism is one most important sources of income to people living in rural areas. It provides people living in the rural areas with an alternative source of income.
Rural tourism may facilitate the growth of rural industries (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605). In addition, rural tourism enables rural councils to increase their revenue. However, tourism provides seasonal jobs.
This is due to the fact that most tourists visit foreign locations only at certain times of the year. Most tourists visit exotic destinations during summer. Therefore, during other periods of the year, people who depend on tourism have to look for alternative sources of income.
Infrastructural development determines the economic growth of a certain region or country. In most instances, countries ensure that there is more infrastructural development in areas that of economic importance to the nation.
Rural areas have less economic importance to a country than urban areas. This is one of the principle reasons why there is more infrastructural development in urban areas than in rural areas. However, tourism increases the economic significance of rural areas.
This leads to the development of infrastructure that would support the growth of tourism in the rural areas. Infrastructural growth in the rural areas benefits people living in the rural areas significantly. Infrastructural growth also supports the growth of the local industries (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605).
This would ultimately strengthen the economy of the rural areas. Growth of the rural economy would enable a country reduce over-reliance on urban areas for economic development. This would fuel the overall economic growth of the country.
Economic growth in rural areas would also attract people to rural areas. This would lead to repopulation of rural areas and a significant reduction in congestion in urban areas. Reduction in urban congestion would reduce societal ills associated with congested urban areas.
The culture and national heritage of a country is the identity of any nation. Therefore, it is critical for a nation to preserve its national heritage and culture. Most cultures are slowly fading away.
Modernization is the major reason that leads to the fading away of various cultures. Cultural practices help in bringing social unity to people in the community. Therefore, fading away of various cultures may have dire consequences on the social unity of people in a certain society.
Tourism helps in preserving the cultures of the local people. Tourists visit local areas and pay to watch various cultural activities. This ultimately leads to the preservation of the cultural activities. In addition, tourism may lead to the development of infrastructure that supports the cultural activities (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605).
Therefore, tourism not only enables a nation maintain its cultural activities, it also enables a community to maintain its cultural activities while making money out of practicing their cultural activities.
Tourism also facilitates cultural exchanges between tourists and the local people. Tourists learn the cultures of the local population while the local people learn the culture of the tourists.
This may enable tourists to adopt the cultural practices that are good. In addition, the local population may adopt several cultures from the tourists that they perceive as good. Tourism may also encourage disbanding of oppressive cultural practices.
In most instances, tourists speak a different language from that of the natives of the community. Tourism may encourage tourists to learn the language of the locals whereas the locals may learn the tourists’ language. This enhances communication between the tourists and the local population.
Tourists visit exotic locations to view the scenery of the location in its natural form. This encourages government to take measures to protect the environment in order to attract tourists. Destruction of the environment would make it unattractive for tourists to visit the exotic locations.
This would make the tourists opt to visit other locations. Therefore, the government would lose out on the valuable economic benefits of tourism. In addition, tourism may encourage the rehabilitation of the environment or natural scenery to its original form to encourage tourists to visit the areas.
Tourism may encourage the government to rehabilitate traditional homes or historical monuments to encourage tourists to visit the areas (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605). Tourism may encourage governments to protect the natural habitats of animals to attract tourists to the areas.
Tourism is one the factors that makes governments strive to protect endangered species (Pidd para 8). Tourism may also encourage the beautification of the community in order to attract more tourists to the community.
Most tourists who visit foreign locations stay in expensive hotels. This does not enable them to understand the lives of the people in the foreign locations. Tour companies have developed slum tourism, which enables tourists understand the lives of people who live in slums.
Slum tourism involves tourists taking a guided tour of the slums in various countries. Tour companies offer tourists guided tours at a certain fee. Slum tourism is common in India and several African countries (Basu para 4). Slum tourism faces stiff opposition from various parties.
Various parties claim that it is an inhuman way of exploiting the poor, as slum dwellers do not live in their shanties willingly. Economic conditions force them to live in deplorable conditions. However, slum tourism has several advantages. It enables the slum dwellers to earn money from the guided tours of the slums.
In addition, slum tourism may expose the tourists to the deplorable living conditions of the slum dwellers. This would ultimately encourage the tourists, who are relatively much wealthy than the slum dwellers, to make donations to projects aimed at upgrading the slums.
Therefore, slum tourism is one method of attracting attention to the deplorable living conditions of the slum dwellers, thus facilitating the eradication of slums.
Tourism affects a myriad of industries in any economy. Tourism affects almost all industries either directly or indirectly. Tourism may encourage the development of the private sector. It may facilitate the development of businesses that would support the tourism.
Tourism leads to the development of the transport, agriculture, construction, and retailing industries. The high revenue associated with the tourism industry encourages entrepreneurs to invest in the industry.
Industries that greatly benefit from tourism are the retailing entertainment and hospitality industry. The high return of investment of the establishments related to the tourism industry leads to stiff competition among the establishments.
Tourism may improve development in other areas. Tourists usually visit various areas due to the culture or natural environment of the area. After visiting the areas, tourists may return and settle in the areas. This may lead to an increase in the value of property in the area.
This would greatly benefit residents of the areas as it would improve the value of their property. Tourism can also increase local awareness and interest. This makes the community have a greater sense of ownership and pride in their culture.
This is due to the fact that tourists may come from distant places to watch the cultural activities or traditions of the community. Increased community awareness and pride may lead to the revival of various cultural activities of the community. In addition, community awareness may increase the social cohesion of the community.
Tourism is one of the most important economic activities in various economies. Tourism affects various sectors of the economy either directly or indirectly.
Therefore, development of the tourism industry would have huge economic benefits to any country. Tourism may act as a critical pillar in the economic prosperity of any nation.
Works Cited
Basu, Moni. “Poverty tours: A learning experience or simply gawking?” CNN. 2012. Web.
McLean, Daniel and Amy Hurd. Kraus’ recreation and leisure in modern society. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011. Print.
Pidd, Helen. “Tiger population of India facing ‘total disaster’ due to tourism ban.” The Guardian, 2012. Web.
Pour, Sayyed khalil Sayyed Ali, Naser Egbali and Abbas Bakhshandea Nosrat. “Advantages and Harms Caused by Development Rural Tourism (case study of rural َsemnan province).” Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 5.12 (2011): 1602-1612. Print.
Robinson, Peter, Sine Heitmann and Peter U. C. Dieke. Research themes for tourism. Oxfordshire: CABI, 2011. Print.