Growth of Tourism Capitalism, as an Economic

Growth of Tourism

Capitalism, as an economic system, is doing much of what democracy, as a political system could not. China has long been known as a communist country, but this truly applies to both political and economic policy, although the Marxist idea was originally economic. However, during the reign of Mao and the communists, the country sank deeper into poverty, and instead of being a world leader as it had been for centuries, it became a third world country. For the past three decades, the government in China has been slowly implementing economic reforms and these have been paying immense dividends. One of the most lucrative decisions made was that to allow tourism to begin again within the country. China has become a good example of what tourism can do for a failing economy, and how it can stabilize one that is emerging and volatile. The example China provided has spurred economic growth through tourism in many areas, and has allowed new businesses to flourish because countries are realizing that tourism, as a force of capitalism, is a boon to an economy. This paper examines how emerging economies are using tourism to grow competition and the economy, and try to discover if there are any negative consequences that should be avoided.

The structure of capitalism revolves around free markets and allowing business and consumers to control the economy. In pure capitalism, greed is very possible because the business owner is not constrained by any regulation regarding how large he or she can grow their operations or what nefarious means they use to do so. Fortunately, the most countries have a form of regulated capitalism that is an attempt to make the markets fair as well as free.

Because capitalism is largely unregulated in how people make money, except in when it comes to enterprises that are considered criminal, there are many different industries in a free market society. Tourism is often seen as a growth area that can become a very large contributor to a country's gross national product. The tourism industry has grown exponentially in recent years, especially in countries that were once devoid of guests, because of the rise of ecotourism and adventure. Although third world countries are benefitting greatly from this, tourism provides many different regions and nations with a great deal of capital and the trend only grows stronger every year.

In the United Kingdom, tourism is grouped with other similar industries and is called the creative industries. A recent study found that "The creative industries contribute £60 billion a year (7.3%) to the UK economy, and with a growth rate in the last few years twice that of the economy as a whole…" (Thomas, Hawkins & Harvey, 2010). This growth is consistent with what has been happening in other countries, especially those which have just recently been embracing capitalism as an economic system.

China was already mentioned as one of these countries, but there are others that have been leaving the bonds of the communist economic system also. China allows tourism in all areas of the country now and has started to engage in industrial and agricultural tourism as a boom industry (Willis, 2011). Famers from the United States and business people from around the world are going to China to see how the country has increased production and, at the same time, adding to China's tourism income. Vietnam has fully embraced capitalism as a means by which the country can continue to solve the poverty and depredation of its recent past (Ketter, 2008). Tourism has increased dramatically in this nation, and in neighbors, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia (Ketter, 2008). Cuba is another which within the last two decades has started to embrace the tourist industry as a method to grow their economy and improve the lives of its citizens. The original reason for the change in policy was the fall of the communist states in Europe, but since the country has seen the effect that tourism has had, it has increased the freedom that guests are allowed (Taylor & McGlynn, 2009). The economy has improved in Cuba, for the most part, because the people, who had lived in poverty for much of the reign of Fidel Castro, are now able to experience a small degree of wealth themselves (Henken, 2000). These are just some of the examples of how tourism is producing spectacular results for emerging economies around the world.

Within many countries, indigenous populations are also seeing how tourism growth can provide them with the benefits of capitalism. Indigenous peoples have been the primary recipients of poverty because they often live in areas that have not been attractive to industry or tourism in the past (Bunten, 2010). However, this is changing with the advent of ecotourism and adventure trips. One important quality of this type of tourism also is that it usually tries to maintain a harmony with nature, and tries to leave as small a "footprint" as possible on the land (Bunten, 2010). The author of the article did not try to say that this method of encouraging capitalism was superior in any way, but she did suggest that it demonstrated the difference between a capitalism of the past, and one that is emerging around the world (Bunten, 2010).

There is a problem that a number of researchers and activists have found in the rise of tourism and the exportation of capitalism of this ilk to the economically developing world. Capitalism often brings an attitude that if it is done in the name of progress it is fine. Unfortunately, this attitude has led to strip mining, deforestation and other wounds that the Earth has had to suffer from capitalist endeavors for several centuries. In an article discussing how the effects of tourism, Diaz-Guerra (2008) writes "The impact of the conventional tourism on the vegetation of a natural environment is evident for multiple causes: first for the felling of trees…[and] it produces some other series of alterations as the change of percentage of vegetable cover… or in the variety of species…"