Positive and negative effects of tourism on environment, community, and economy

Positive and Negative Effects of Tourism on Environment, Community, Economy

Positive & Negative Economic Impacts of Tourism on the Environment:

Tourism has several positive economic impacts. Visiting tourists to an area play an important part in boosting the income of an area by means of augmenting sales, profits, jobs and tax revenues. The frontline tourism sectors comprising of hotels, restaurants, transportation, and leisure and retail business enjoy the direct impact of growth of tourism. Moreover, through secondary effects, tourism impacts majority of the sectors of the economy. Undertaking an economic impact analysis of the tourism activity generally lays emphasis in sales, income and wage generation in an area from tourism activity. (Stynes, Economic Impacts of Tourism)

The economic impact of tourism of an area can be seen through an example. Suppose for example, a tourist area draws 100 more tourists and each one would be able to spend $100 per day, this translates into $10,000 in new daily spending in the area and if continued over a 100 day season, the area would get a million dollar in fresh sales. This million dollar spent will be spread over to hotels, amusement, and businesses depending on the spending pattern of $100. Maybe about 30% of the million dollars would go to the region immediately to include the costs of goods bought by the tourists which are not manufactured in the local area. The retail profits for these items must generally be included as direct sales effects. The rest of the $700,000 in direct sales might generate $350,000 in income within the tourism industries and provide assistance to 20 direct tourism jobs. In fact tourism industries involve a lot of labor and income thereby converting a substantial amount of sales into income and corresponding jobs. In effect, the tourism industry, purchases goods as well as services from other businesses which are prevalent in the region, and pays out a major part of the $350,000 in income in terms of wages as well as salaries to its employees. This facilitates the secondary positive economic impacts in the area. (Stynes, Economic Impacts of Tourism)

In spite of its positive impacts, the tourism industry also brings about its negative economic impacts. There are several hidden costs which accrue from tourism, which could create negative economic impacts on the host country. Particularly in the less-developed countries, food as well as drinks needs to be often imported to suit the demands of the tourists, because locally produced goods do not match up with the tourist's standards or because the host country does not possess a supplying industry. As a result, most of the income derived as a result of tourism expenditures tends to leave the country in order to make payments for these imports. Multinational corporations - MNC's as well as large foreign enterprises play a major part in this import leakage. The local businesses tend to witness their opportunities to make income from the tourism industry being seriously affected due to the formation of an all-inclusive vacation packages. For example, the cruise ship industry shows the economic enclave tourism which prevails. In the year 1999, non-river cruises had carried about 8.7 million international passengers. On several ships, particularly in the Caribbean, these passengers are being promoted to spend a major part of their time as well as money on the ship itself, and as a result the facilities to spend money in certain ports are being completely restricted. This creates problems in getting these areas developed which are dependent on the tourism industry. (Economic Impacts of Tourism: United Nations Environment Program)

The development of the tourism industry could cost the local government as well as local taxpayers a huge amount of money. The government resources being utilized on developing the airport, roads as well as other infrastructure or providing tax breaks for developing the tourism industry could enable the government to minimize their investment in other important sectors like education as also health thereby affecting local development. Further the seasonal nature of the tourism industry leads to economic issues for areas which are seriously dependent on it. The increased demand from tourists for basic services as well as goods could mostly lead to price hikes which could negatively impact the local residents whose income does not enhance in a proportionate manner. The development of the tourism industry and the increase in the demand for real estate which are being linked could bring about a hike in the building costs as well as land values. It could also lead to dominance by people outside the area in the real estate markets as well as in-migration which affects the economic possibilities for the local residents, ultimately disempowering the residents of the area. The poor people who live near the beaches would have to give way for tourism development of setting up beach resorts, hotels, businesses and so on. (Economic Impacts of Tourism: United Nations Environment Program)

2. Positive and negative impacts of the environment on Tourism:

Environmental quality, both natural as well as artificial are indispensable to tourism. but, tourism bears a complex relationship with the environment. It covers a lot of activities which can put an adverse environmental impact. A lot of these impacts are associated with the creation of general infrastructure like roads, airports apart from provision of tourist facilities including hotels, resorts and shops. The negative impacts of tourism have a debilitating effect on the environmental resources on which it is dependent. Conversely tourism has the potential to create beneficial impact on the environment by way of contribution to environmental safeguards and conservation. It is a means to increase consciousness of environmental values and it can act as an instrument to fund protection of natural areas and also raise their economic value. (Environmental impacts of Tourism)