Tourism

In light of the latest statistics, some analysts believe that tourism has become the world’s leading source of export earnings. While extreme income poverty persists in many developing countries, they have also experienced considerable growth in international tourist arrivals and receipts.

 

There are several primary motivations driving tourism development in developing countries. Fist of all, commercial gain is probably the single most important underlying objective, and the private sector therefore is a leading force in the industry. Besides, governments, especially those that have adopted neo-liberal economic policies, consider tourism a powerful engine of macro-economic growth and job creation, and therefore encourage the industry’s development. Moreover, some governments are increasingly pushing ‘small scale’ niche tourism as a means of funding environmental, wildlife, and cultural conservation projects. Finally, governments, communities, and even international donors have recently begun to explore tourism’s potential as a springboard for rural development and poverty reduction.

 

Although the industry has many potentially beneficial impacts, these have been frequently outweighed by the negative consequences for local residents. At present, many governments have no long-term plan for tourism development and have opened up vast areas of land for development projects. This may cause damage to the environment, dissatisfaction from local residents, rapid social and economic change and inequity in economic distribution and an oversupply in the sector leading to a collapse in investment and employment. As a result, these countries may fall victim to the ‘tourism cycle’, where a destination becomes destroyed or damaged to such an extent that tourists no longer want to visit it.

  

While local populations must reap some social or economic benefits from tourism, this is principally to assure their cooperation and support for the primary objective of conservation.