Problems of Tourism - Social, Cultural & Env.
Geography: Cambridge International GCSE (2027 Exams), topic 9.3.6
Social, Cultural and Environmental Costs of Tourism
There are several social, cultural and environmental costs to tourism, including overrunning destinations with visitors, soil erosion, damage to coral reefs and other ecosystems, and deforestation.
Social and cultural costs 1
- Traditional customs are made into performances for tourists, when actually the customs (e.g. cultural dances) are supposed to be for special occasions or represent significant things in culture or religion.
- The “Demonstration Effect”: people who live in LICs see westerners in their ‘fashionable’ clothing and aspire to copy them.
- This can have a negative impact on local culture and use of local dress.
Social and cultural costs 2
- Construction of resorts may be on land taken away from locals.
- Tourists bring alcohol and drugs, which locals may not be used to.
- Sex tourism (women and girls sell their bodies to men from HICs) creates huge income but is morally questionable, especially if the girls are young.
- There may be too many visitors in small places.
- eg. St Helena in the South Atlantic gets 1000+ tourists on cruise ships visiting every day, but only has 4200 permanent inhabitants.
Environmental costs 1
- Litter dropped by tourists can cause environmental problems if it is eaten by animals or washed out to sea.
- For example, in Thailand, there has been huge environmental problems from monthly Full Moon parties on the beach.
- Before 2005, people could just throw all their litter into the sea, damaging the ecosystem.
- Rules are now slightly stricter but there is still a problem with litter.
- Soil erosion is caused by paths for visiting a point of interest being overused.
Environmental costs 2
- Deforestation (removing forests) often takes place to make way for hotels and airports.
- This can cause issues with soil erosion, flooding and loss of habitat for animals.
- Coral can be damaged by careless divers, boats’ anchors or tourists taking a souvenir piece of coral home with them.
- This can destroy or damage ecosystems, e.g. Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
- Animal mating in safari parks can be reduced because animals get disturbed too much by tourist jeeps getting too close.
Test yourself on Problems of Tourism - Social, Cultural & Env.
What is the "Demonstration Effect"?
Which of the following is NOT a social and cultural cost of tourism?