To what extent is tourism a blessing or a curse for the world?
Introduction
The tourism industry has a lot of different influences on the environment, on local people and on
economic issues of all destinations. In this writing assignment important positive and negative
impacts will be discussed by using particular sources of experts in order to analyze the question of ‘to
what extent is tourism a blessing or a curse?’. The topics of UNESCO sites, wildlife-tourism,
authenticity, sex tourism, volunteer tourism and sustainability are being taken into consideration in
order to analyze the tourism.
Tourism – A blessing or a curse?
Referring to the guest lecture of Dr. Carol Westrik, tourists can be a big advantage to keep especially
UNESCO heritage sites in good conditions. To explain this effect, it can be mentioned that lots of
tourists visit beautiful natural or interesting cultural places because they are a listed as an UNESCO
heritage site. If tourists explore one of these heritage sites and they observe something which is not
what they expected, they will get in contact with the UNESCO. Because of a complaint, UNESCO will
get in touch with the site and the consequence is that the site has to react. Logically all the listed
heritage sites do not want to receive complaints and so they protect their places and take care of
them. Hence, tourists travelling to UNESCO world heritage sites are a blessing to all those beautiful
places. On the other hand through the high amount of tourists the sites need the protection they
maybe would not need when not being on the UNESCO list (Westrik, 2015).
Wildlife-Tourism is a very common way of travel nowadays. Especially elephants are being used as a
tourist attraction to provide legendary elephant rides or to watch them doing different acts. The bad
side of wildlife-tourism according to elephants is that they do not live in their natural environment.
Elephants are being kept in captivity and need to learn a lot of things they would not practice
naturally. It has to be kept in mind that elephants are still wild animals even if they are already born
in captivity. Due to that fact, elephants have to be trained and often they will not learn voluntary so
violence is part of the training they get. Moreover the training is stressful for those animals and some
of them stop eating and drinking and finally die (Case 1, 2015). Furthermore wildlife tourism in
National Parks can be bad for the development of the parks or for local communities even if there
can be a monetary support. On one hand the nature may suffer from the tourists and also the local
community feels disturbed by the amount of tourists. But on the other hand, the tourists bring
Tourism – A blessing or a curse? Individual writing assignment Ariane Zinneker
Studentnumber: 464139
, money into the National Parks which can be taken for hiring rangers or for conservation programs in
general (Boyd, 2002).
In order to discuss if tourism is a blessing or a curse for the world, authenticity has also to be taken
into account. The new tourists, which are seeking entertainment very rapidly because they do not
have much time but also search for authenticity during their travels, are a curse. They accept fake
experiences and are not interested in going deeper into the history of a particular culture or tribe.
The place where local people live their real life is not visited by the tourists. Many locals are even
paid for performing their culture to tourists (Kadijk, 2015). Furthermore the different destinations in
the world earn a lot of money by providing authenticity. For instance in Venice the famous Gondolas
are only used for tourist rides nowadays. It is a curse, because it is provided authenticity and not the
real life anymore. But of course the search of tourists for authenticity brings money into the
destinations and lead to more job opportunities for locals (Case 2, 2015).
In search for authenticity tourists book tours to see original tribes. Even if it is not the main money
the tribe receives, and tour operators as well as photographers are earning the most from it, it is still
revenue the tribes get in addition. Sometimes tribes are not happy with the high amount of tourists
and film teams, because in their opinion they are not payed fairly and they have been robbed out in
the past (Authenticized). Also in other regions tribes were not treated fairly by tourists. For Instance,
the Andaman Island Tribe is often seen like animals to tourists. There was no humanity shown while
tourists threw food in front of the tribe’s feet (Chamberlain, 2012). At first appearance tourism is a
curse for the tribe, because of the bad payment conditions and the penetration of tourists, film
teams and photographers. But with a deeper look inside one can see that the tourist excursions are
also a blessing for the tribe. Actually the tribe cannot evade the present life other people live. For
instance, the tribes are wearing normal clothes when they visit a city, they have mobile phones
available and the younger generations are dreaming of a European life and are not that much
interested in the old culture. With the arrival of tourists in their small village, the tribe is
demonstrating regularly their dances and different specified handlings in the everyday life. The effect
is that the tribes are able to keep their culture in mind. Even for the youngest generation it is
impossible to forget about the different practices of their ancestors. The preservation of the culture
is made by tourists and so tourists are a blessing for old tribes that will have the chance for no
disappearance in the globalizing world (Authenticized).
The important field of sex tourism should be noted as well. In the poorer regions of the world sex
tourism is used by locals in order to earn more money. The movie “Paradies Liebe” (Seidl, n.d.) shows
that many young men in Kenya are waiting on the beautiful beaches for European women to sell
Tourism – A blessing or a curse? Individual writing assignment Ariane Zinneker
Studentnumber: 464139
Introduction
The tourism industry has a lot of different influences on the environment, on local people and on
economic issues of all destinations. In this writing assignment important positive and negative
impacts will be discussed by using particular sources of experts in order to analyze the question of ‘to
what extent is tourism a blessing or a curse?’. The topics of UNESCO sites, wildlife-tourism,
authenticity, sex tourism, volunteer tourism and sustainability are being taken into consideration in
order to analyze the tourism.
Tourism – A blessing or a curse?
Referring to the guest lecture of Dr. Carol Westrik, tourists can be a big advantage to keep especially
UNESCO heritage sites in good conditions. To explain this effect, it can be mentioned that lots of
tourists visit beautiful natural or interesting cultural places because they are a listed as an UNESCO
heritage site. If tourists explore one of these heritage sites and they observe something which is not
what they expected, they will get in contact with the UNESCO. Because of a complaint, UNESCO will
get in touch with the site and the consequence is that the site has to react. Logically all the listed
heritage sites do not want to receive complaints and so they protect their places and take care of
them. Hence, tourists travelling to UNESCO world heritage sites are a blessing to all those beautiful
places. On the other hand through the high amount of tourists the sites need the protection they
maybe would not need when not being on the UNESCO list (Westrik, 2015).
Wildlife-Tourism is a very common way of travel nowadays. Especially elephants are being used as a
tourist attraction to provide legendary elephant rides or to watch them doing different acts. The bad
side of wildlife-tourism according to elephants is that they do not live in their natural environment.
Elephants are being kept in captivity and need to learn a lot of things they would not practice
naturally. It has to be kept in mind that elephants are still wild animals even if they are already born
in captivity. Due to that fact, elephants have to be trained and often they will not learn voluntary so
violence is part of the training they get. Moreover the training is stressful for those animals and some
of them stop eating and drinking and finally die (Case 1, 2015). Furthermore wildlife tourism in
National Parks can be bad for the development of the parks or for local communities even if there
can be a monetary support. On one hand the nature may suffer from the tourists and also the local
community feels disturbed by the amount of tourists. But on the other hand, the tourists bring
Tourism – A blessing or a curse? Individual writing assignment Ariane Zinneker
Studentnumber: 464139
, money into the National Parks which can be taken for hiring rangers or for conservation programs in
general (Boyd, 2002).
In order to discuss if tourism is a blessing or a curse for the world, authenticity has also to be taken
into account. The new tourists, which are seeking entertainment very rapidly because they do not
have much time but also search for authenticity during their travels, are a curse. They accept fake
experiences and are not interested in going deeper into the history of a particular culture or tribe.
The place where local people live their real life is not visited by the tourists. Many locals are even
paid for performing their culture to tourists (Kadijk, 2015). Furthermore the different destinations in
the world earn a lot of money by providing authenticity. For instance in Venice the famous Gondolas
are only used for tourist rides nowadays. It is a curse, because it is provided authenticity and not the
real life anymore. But of course the search of tourists for authenticity brings money into the
destinations and lead to more job opportunities for locals (Case 2, 2015).
In search for authenticity tourists book tours to see original tribes. Even if it is not the main money
the tribe receives, and tour operators as well as photographers are earning the most from it, it is still
revenue the tribes get in addition. Sometimes tribes are not happy with the high amount of tourists
and film teams, because in their opinion they are not payed fairly and they have been robbed out in
the past (Authenticized). Also in other regions tribes were not treated fairly by tourists. For Instance,
the Andaman Island Tribe is often seen like animals to tourists. There was no humanity shown while
tourists threw food in front of the tribe’s feet (Chamberlain, 2012). At first appearance tourism is a
curse for the tribe, because of the bad payment conditions and the penetration of tourists, film
teams and photographers. But with a deeper look inside one can see that the tourist excursions are
also a blessing for the tribe. Actually the tribe cannot evade the present life other people live. For
instance, the tribes are wearing normal clothes when they visit a city, they have mobile phones
available and the younger generations are dreaming of a European life and are not that much
interested in the old culture. With the arrival of tourists in their small village, the tribe is
demonstrating regularly their dances and different specified handlings in the everyday life. The effect
is that the tribes are able to keep their culture in mind. Even for the youngest generation it is
impossible to forget about the different practices of their ancestors. The preservation of the culture
is made by tourists and so tourists are a blessing for old tribes that will have the chance for no
disappearance in the globalizing world (Authenticized).
The important field of sex tourism should be noted as well. In the poorer regions of the world sex
tourism is used by locals in order to earn more money. The movie “Paradies Liebe” (Seidl, n.d.) shows
that many young men in Kenya are waiting on the beautiful beaches for European women to sell
Tourism – A blessing or a curse? Individual writing assignment Ariane Zinneker
Studentnumber: 464139
