Critical Assessment on the Impact of Tourism on Low-Income Countries
Introduction
Tourism is one of the major income-generating economic activities in developing countries, but some issues within these ministries affect accountability programs within the country. In most instances, there are multiple aspects of income inequality contributions in the various departments and income generation further affecting the chances of tourism development. The local communities are often considered to be the primary beneficiaries for tourism in the developing countries but there is a ratio that needs to be followed when distributing these proceeds. There are a number of factors that lead to this outcome in the industry as we also concentrate on the effects of tourism on the environment and the economy. Similarly, there are a number of players to the development of a country’s tourism industry as these businesses are held with the task of attaining the required incentives from their activities. There are a number of strategies that are being drafted by leaders in these nations to improve the sector and monitor the activities of these firms linked to tourism practices. This paper will offer a critical assessment of the impact of tourism on low-income countries with much concentration offered to the environment and the economy.
Tourism and Inequalities in Local Communities
Tourism is one of the major employers of the local population around the tourist sites with these people tasked with the role of delivering a particular service to the tourists. For example, some of the tourist destinations will opt to employ the local individual as the guides based on the perception that they understand the area and its logistics. On the other hand, these facilities offer other lucrative positions such as management and executive administrative roles to people from other regions. The implementation of these ideologies symbolizes the level of inequalities that the local communities are facing in relation to the level of tourism growth happening in the region. Furthermore, these models of work due to tourism has a major influence on the ways of life and the salaries that are being paid to these different groups of people. It would be advisable to have some of the senior managerial and executive positions being offered to the locals other than having the majority of these positions lefts for the foreign people as the locals are left with the management of the region’s logistics in case the tourists visit the location. These levels and strategies of sharing some roles will also minimize levels of cruelty from the locals that may feel marginalized based on job provision practices.
Additionally, (Raza and Shah, 2017 p.876) look at the issue of considerations of consumption as a major player of the economy has often fostered a particular model of lifestyle that gives rise to serious social imbalances and threat of scarcity of other resources. Therefore there is a need to look into the activities of the people in charge of these tourism destinations as they have to create developmental programs that suit the needs of the localities. Nevertheless, these programs need to assume an aspect of sustainability both environmentally and socially creating a sense of equity among people in the region. The local communities should have a major role in the act of decision-making practices at these sites as they have a better understanding of the region’s logistics and the security detail of the area. For instance, the locals at a forested tourism site have an ideology of the most dangerous areas compared to a foreign individual that is being offered the duty of being a guide. Therefore a failure to have these groups of people get involved in decision-making activities will affect the security detail of the site leaving the tourists exposed to a particular level of danger in the long run.
The tourism industry as an economic sector contributes a particular sum of money to the country’s GDP with the aspect of income distribution proving to a challenge back to the various tourist regions. However, the distribution can be applied on equal measures as various sections deliberately tend to attract a large number of visitors in a given trade year. The primary target of these distributions is to enhance developmental programs that will help attract more people (local and foreign tourists) to come to the facility. In the long run, we are likely to witness a significant level of inequalities in the developmental speed and levels of these facilities which also indirectly affects the locals of that area. The concept of inequalities among the locals can further be described as the cultures that are being practiced by the people of the highly visited localities will quickly gain recognitions compared to the cultures of the remaining regions. These visitors will then have different conclusions about the cultures that are being practiced in these regions other than having a particular level of investigation on the different activities and cultural practices of these groups of people.
Impact of Tourism on the Environment and the Economy
The aspect of the environment in tourism is often used to cover various activities and regions that people visit as tourism attractions. For example, the forests can also be considered as the environment as people move around trying to find out the type of trees and animals in these forests. Additionally, some people move around chasing tagged birds as they research their habitats and model of survival based on seasons. However, there are some companies or organizations in the host nations that need to monitor these activities and conservation of the environment targeting the regular movements of these tourists. Some of the major difficulties emerge from the residents living in these forested areas as they are not friendly to some of these tourists in relation to the motive that is being applied when they pay a visit. These tribes look at the environment as their model of survival, but some leaders in these countries may wish to implement other activities to generate income within the industry. In the long run, the disagreements between the governments, private, or non-government entities linked to the tourism activity affect the level of success within the industry. Therefore, there is a significant difference in the amount of money that is being collected from tourism activity. Some tree and animal species in the forests are not being discovered or researched by the tourists affecting the tourism industry and science growth in the country.
On the other hand, the coming of tourists to these developing nations has had a major influence on environmental preservation programs within the state. However, the income distribution strategies that are being applied have affected the achievement of these goals. For example, these companies foreseeing these programs hardly implement the ideal activity as these incomes are being channeled to other programs minimizing the chances of environmental preservation. There are a number of bodies that are being created to make investigations on the misappropriated funds with these sections prohibited for tourist movements. In the long run, the affected regions hardly witness these visits reducing the rate of exploitation from the tourists. On the contrary, (Ahmad et al., 2018 p.3520) further claims that tourism is considered to be a trigger of incentive mechanisms that lead to numerous activities and economic growth in an area. Tourists will often move to selected regions based on various factors that are also affected by the residents’ choices. For example, if these residents regularly engage in environmental protection programs in their region, there is a possibility that the environmentally-based tourism economies will strive in the country.
Based on an analysis made by (Lee and Brahmasrene, 2015 p.222)there is a need to look into the concepts of the long-run equilibrium and the short-run dynamics between issues of economic growth, energy use, tourism, and carbon emission in developing countries. Similarly, the author further comments that tourism and energy use in various regions demonstrate a high impact on economic growth that further yields a positive effect on carbon emissions into the environment. Some activities are being implemented in these developing countries that have an impact on the environment and not tourism leading to these negative impacts. There is a need to have an interpretation of the concept of whether a country that heavily depends on tourism can attain long-run growth with an assurance that their natural resources are sustainably utilized. (Lee and Brahmasrene, 2015 p.228) further comments that the economic point of view is highly based on whether these developing countries endowed with natural resources, beautiful sceneries, and the undisturbed wildlife are making a fix to the aspect of mass tourism and green tourism. It is based on the perception that there are different sums of income that are collected when a country relies on one of the identified types of tourism hence the level of development witnessed.
There is a need to look at the concept of green tourism in developing countries and offer significant concentration on the factors that need to be applied to realize these goals. Instances where we have tourists associated with environmental preservation (Marsiglio, 2015 p. 183) further states that a balanced growth factor will be quickly realized, and along with such a movement the aspect of consumption is likely to grow with a rise of environmental quality. The leaders in these countries will concentrate on the preservation of green tourism sectors with the intention of generating more revenue from the taxes paid by these tourists. On the other hand, there is a likelihood of having developed research centers based on environmental preservation programs that will also attract people from different regions to come share information on the various activities that are likely to improve the country’s tourism sector. (Marsiglio, 2015 p.190) also claims that a number of tourists make preferences heavily impact the long-run outcome based on the perception that the economic and environmental growth patterns are increasing with the levels of green performance and also witness a decrease with the grey enactment and crowding repugnance presentations. Conclusively, the concept of tourism specialization in these regions is considered to be the ideal pathway to the developmental levels as these leaders need to focus on green tourism promotion.
Global Corporations Owning Tourist Attractions and the Spread of Revenue to Local Businesses
As stated by (Smith, 2018 p. 96), the world’s biggest all-inclusive hotel groups where various businesses like hotels, tour companies, and others are owned – as a minimum of 20% of the revenue collected from the tourists end up remaining in the regions that they have visited. Smith further explains that this system operates in the form of;
“The destination-located hotel invoices these multinational reservation firms in a tax haven like Curacao less than the entire value of the tourist’s package. The hotel will then show a loss at the destination and will not pay any taxes. The collected profits will remain in Curacao. Instances when the hotel will wish to make an expansion, the untaxed profits are brought as foreign direct investments and may also receive subsidies.”
Furthermore, there are moments when the economies matter and one of these instances is in the provision of significant strength to be listened to by the government. Key intercontinental hotel chains and tour companies are strategically placed to have their influence felt in the industry. The local businesses feel a huge threat in improving their businesses based on the fact that there will be little income that is being collected to meet the desired demands in the tourism industry.
According to a presentation by (Levitt, 1983 p.3), many firms have become disillusioned with the sales on the global scene as the old markets are becoming saturated and new ones have to be identified. There is a need to understand why they have to customize their products to meet the demands of the new markets and which items will help to improve their business. The application of this approach is highly linked to a firm’s strength towards amounts of reserved funds to invest in the business. (Levitt, 1983 p. 5) further states that the results are interpreted as a new commercial reality. The emergence of global markets for certain customized products in the past unimagined scale of magnitude. The companies that pay much concentration to this approach realize certain benefits from the economies of scale in marketing, production, distribution, and management practices. The conversion of these types of benefits into reduced world pricing, they have the ability to decimate the various competitors that exist in the disabling groups of ancient assumptions on how the world operates.
The international economic crisis has a huge impact on the poor affecting their businesses and their ways of life. Tourism has various models of impact on national economies as it is believed that tourists often consume various products and services that include among others accommodation, transport, food, and entertainment. The demand adds up to eth domestic demand with the impact visible in the economy and job creation opportunities. The sector also creates a demand and employment in the non-tourism sector of the economy influencing the entire figure being registered as the GDP. Nevertheless, the report by (World Tourism Organization, 2013, p.3) further adds that the tourism induced activities enlarge the tax rates and import tariffs revenues collected for the local governments. However, international tourism that may be interpreted as an export category offers huge foreign currencies to the destinations and also gives a positive impact on the balance of payments. On the contrary, the revenue collection patterns hardly favor the host countries and local businesses based on the assumption that these international companies return their profits to eth native country. These income spread patterns to minimize the development rate of the local businesses as they will have few foreign visitors enjoying their services. The occurrence of this fact happens on the booking approach by the tourist that pay much attention to the international companies as these local firms have to concentrate on the local tourist which in the long-run impacts the competition levels and revenue collection patterns in a particular trade year.
Conclusion
There are very few benefits that the developing countries enjoy from the tourism sector if there is a huge influx of international firms operating in this sector of their economy. This paper offers a critical assessment of the impact of tourism on low-income countries with much concentration offered to the environment and the economy. Similarly, different impacts are being witnessed on the environment, economy, and the local population as the affected nations have limited abilities to improve some of the adverse effects of international tourism. For example, the issue of employment affects both the local communities and the economy creating an inequality in the spread of income. However, some of these issues may arise based on the education levels of the two clusters of people. The paper further points out that the issue of environment and tourism creates a particular pattern on the class of tourists on an assumption that where the country is concentrating on environmental protection is likely to attract tourists of a similar motive into the country.
Bibliography
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