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STUDENT NUMBER: 967776

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Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 5
ECONOMIC IMPACTS............................................................................................... 6
ENVIROMENTAL IMPACTS .................................................................................. 7
SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS ................................................................................... 8
References ............................................................................................................... 11

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Introduction
There isn’t really a clear definition of what Tourism is. Cambridge dictionary defines it
as ‘‘the business of providing services such as transport, places to stay, or
entertainment for people who are on holiday’’ ( Cambridge Academic Content
Dictionary ©, 2018). The Oxford online dictionary describe it as ‘‘the commercial
organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest’’ (Oxford
English Dictionary Content Team , 2018). However you define it, it is undeniable
that Tourism has been the matter of criticism for its impacts and influences on
societies, cultures and environments around the world. These impacts are mainly a
cause of Mass Tourism, which is a form of tourism that involves a large amount of
people going to the same tourist resort often at the same time of year. It is the most
popular form of tourism, probably because it is often inexpensive compared to other
holidays. However, because mass tourism has proven to be something that is
unsustainable (Pollock, 2013), the term ‘Alternative’ Tourism was introduced, which
is basically different forms of Tourism which are alternative to Mass tourism. For
example ecotourism, adventure tourism, wine tourism, cultural tourism etc. (Statev,
2011). This essay will contrast and compare the economic, environmental and socio-
cultural impacts and influences of Mass Tourism with forms of Alternative tourism.

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ECONOMIC IMPACTS
Tourism generated 1,892,500 jobs directly in 2014 (5.7% of total employment) and is
forecasted by 2025 to grow by 2,280,000 jobs directly, an increase of over 20% over
the next ten years (5.7% of total employment).This consist of employment by hotels,
travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services(excluding
commuter services). It also includes, for
example, the activities of the restaurant and
leisure industries directly supported by
tourists (Turner, 2015).

Mass tourism in general is subject to having

economic benefits to tourist destinations
economies. It can be highly effective in
generating employment and revenue in the
less developed regions of a country, where
there are limited alternative opportunities
for development. Tourism growth in such
areas, where often many of the local
residents are farmers or fishermen, can
Figure A - TOTAL CONTRIBUTION OF TRAVEL &
provide financial incentive for the TOURISM TO GDP (United Kingdom) (Turner, 2015)
maintenances of many local crafts, whereas
the tourist hotels/accommodations may create a market for local produce, thus
having positive effects on the welfare of the resident population, maybe even greater
than the same amount of tourism might of had on the more developed parts of the
same country (Theobald, 2005 ).

Ecotourism, which is defined as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves

the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves
interpretation and education" (The International Ecotourism Society Corporation ,
2015) and is a form of alternative tourism, has similar positive economic impacts to
mass tourism, as it also provides employment and consequently income for staff who
work at ecotourism sites, as well as providing them the opportunity to receive training
in skills that can transfer to other areas of employment and even nutrition when they
receive meals at work. The extra income generated allows workers or their family
members to start up small businesses or to pass on the money to other community
members by buying local goods and paying for child care and other services (Green,
2018).

Both mass and alternative forms of tourism can have negative economic impacts.
Countries which are heavily dependent on Tourism for their economies sustainability
and growth, such as the Mediterranean island Cyprus, where Tourism occupies a
dominant position in the island’s economy (CountryProfiler Corporation , 2018), will
be significantly affected financially by factors which effect inbound tourism for

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considerable periods of time, such as impactful weather conditions, natural disasters,
terrorist attacks, political commotion etc.

ENVIROMENTAL IMPACTS
As previously pointed out in the introduction, Mass tourism involves large quantities
of people visiting a leisure destination at one time. Large amounts of people visiting
a country in the same time period, puts pressure on natural resources because of
the increase in consumption, such as (Sunlu, 2003):

 Water resources: Water resources are generally overused by the tourism

industry for hotels, swimming pools, golf courses and personal hydration. The
outcome of this is water shortages and degradation of water supplies, as well
as generating a greater volume of wastewater. In dry and hot regions like the
Mediterranean, this issue will cause significant distress. Thailand for example,
due to poor resource management, have extremely limited water resources
with the water allocated to the tourist areas not being able to support the daily
need of local residents and to make matters worse, water consumption in
tourist resorts has increased to 200 litters a days (Journey Close to Home
Corporation, 2015)
 Local Resources: Energy, food, and other raw materials have increasingly
high demands in order to meet the high expectations tourists often have when
on holiday, for example consistent heating, unlimited hot water, etc.
 Land Deprivation: The growth of tourism must be matched by the increase of
tourist facilities (Accommodation and entertainment facilities). Consequently,
the demand for land resources has increased significantly, including
resources like minerals, fossil fuels, fertile soil, forests (wood), wetland and
wildlife.

Mass tourism has also resulted in environmental pollution issues such as air
emissions and noise pollution from increasing transportation required, solid waste
and littering, releases of sewage, oil and chemicals and even visual pollution
(Sunlu, 2003).

Striking contrast between mass tourism and alternative tourism, more specifically
ecotourism, which aims to protect the environment and to improve the local’s
prosperity. It is based on cooperation between tour operators, tourist agencies,
local communities, associations, protected areas, science communities etc. More
importantly, its objective is to diminish all negative tourism impacts on the
environment, while informing tourists about local regulations and procedures.
Part of ecotourism is participating in regional nature conservation programs, thus
influencing tourists’ behaviour towards the environment and the area they are
visiting. The most diverse ecotourism programs are in countries with well-
preserved biodiversity, well-managed natural parks and local communities with

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 reserved traditions (Bulgarian Tourism Corporation , 2006).

SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS
Socio-cultural impacts are mainly concerned with the impacts Tourism has on the
culture and social changes of the host population, and also with any effects on the
culture of the visitors themselves. The resulting effects of Tourism usually depends
on the strengths of the region. (Humphreys & Holloway, 2016)
Mass tourism is the centre of attention for this topic, as tourism usually has
significant impacts on destinations cultures when there is large amount of tourists
involved. For instance, very large numbers of visitors can cause overcrowding in
destinations which will probably lead to stress for both tourists and residents. It is
also observed in the previous pages with the analysis of the economic and
environmental impacts of tourism, that high number of tourists compared to the
numbers of local residents, usually leads to negative consequences. Andorra for
example, welcomed 2.36 million tourists in 2014, but there are just 70,000 people
living there. That works out at 33.5 tourists per resident (Smith, 2017).
Host populations are always looking to entertain visiting tourists, and consequently
adapt to tourists requirements, attitudes and values which eventually could lead
them Acculturation, or in other words to start following them. The transmission of
innovation of cultural in a social framework is determined by the compatibility,
advantage, and complexity of the cultural objects (Shahzalal, 2016).
Tourists demand authentic and unique experiences of other cultures, leading locals
to attempt to provide these experiences or staging them to seem realistic. For
example, cultural events that typically would take place once a year, may be .that are
only cooked at certain times of the year may be made available all year around. This
has threatened cultures to become underestimated and commercialised, and is
referred to as “staged authenticity” (Humphreys & Holloway, 2016). Thailand for
example, which has become a big tourist attraction in recent years, contribute to
practices such as mass production of low-quality artefacts to supply the existing
demand of Tourists (Journey Close to Home Corporation, 2015).
Cultural tourism undesirably impacts destinations cultures similarly to mass tourism.
It is defined as is ‘‘the subset of tourism concerned with a country or region's culture,
specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of
those peoples, their art, architecture, religion(s), and other elements that helped
shape their way of life’’ (Audiences London, 2016). Even though cultural tourism’s
purpose is to save and to inform people about different cultures, it could indirectly
have negative impacts on them. With the intention of attracting more tourists, cultural
tourism destinations would have to demonstrate special activities to display and to
promote their own culture in irregular timeframes, which again leads to “staged
authenticity’’.

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DISPLACEMENT
The increasing growth of mass tourism has caused communities to be forcibly
displaced. Many tribal people have been forced out from their familial lands by
governments and private companies, to make way for tourist attractions and
facilities, such as national parks. Hotel beach resorts are being built causing
beaches to become privatised, resulting in fishing communities being removed from
their coastal villages and blocked from accessing the sea, destroying lifestyles and
traditional ways of life. Moreover, mass tourism has seriously disrupted local
communities progressively, with the arrival of large number of tourists leading to
basic cost of living and land prices to rise significantly. Wealthy tourism developers
are left competing with the locals over natural resources, such as energy and water,
with the tourism developers usually winning out (Inkson & Minnaert, 2018).

A worthy example of this is the 2010 FIFA World cup, which was hosted in South
Africa. Apparently, more than every 10th South African lives without appropriate
shelter and the government has long been determined deal with this issue by
supporting low-cost housing. However, due the millions of fans the tournament-host
attracts at each event, big preparations had taken place and inevitably there was a
need for public investments in the event infrastructure, causing unavoidable national
budget restructuring, which meant cuts for subsidised housing projects. The
widespread building and construction activity before the World Cup caused land
prices to escalate. The rise in prices also meant less public housing could be built
(Steinbrink, Haferburg, & Ley, 2011).

But of course, there are two sides to every coin. Not all socio-cultural impacts of
mass tourism, or tourism in general are negative. Probably one of the most
significant impacts of tourism on culture, is the increasing cross cultural interaction.
Tourism gives the opportunity to people to develop a better understanding of
different cultures, to observe and attempt to maintain local culture, arts, crafts and
traditions, empowering host communities and strengthening traditional values.

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References
Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary ©. (2018, November 2). Cambridge
Dictionary . Retrieved from Meaning of “tourism” in the Cambridge Dictionary:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tourism

Audiences London. (2016). Definitions of Cultural Tourism . Cultural Tourism

Resources, 1-3.

Bulgarian Tourism Corporation . (2006, February 6). What is Alternative Tourism .

Retrieved from BAAT: http://www.baatbg.org/definitions/17/27/

CountryProfiler Corporation . (2018, September ). TOURISM. Retrieved from Cyprus

Profile : https://www.cyprusprofile.com/en/sectors/tourism

Green, J. (2018, April 27 ). Advantages of Ecotourism. Retrieved from USA TODAY :

https://traveltips.usatoday.com/advantages-ecotourism-61576.html

Humphreys, C., & Holloway, C. (2016). The socio-cultural impacts of Tourism . In C.

Holloway, & C. Humphreys, THE BUSINESS OF TOURISM (pp. 133-157).
Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited.

Inkson, C., & Minnaert, L. (2018). THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL. In C. Inkson, & L.
Minnaert, TOURISM MANAGEMENT (pp. 188-212). LONDON: SAGE
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Journey Close to Home Corporation. (2015, April 29). Part of What You Need to
Know about Thailand. Retrieved from JourneyClosetoHome:
https://journeyclosetohome.wordpress.com/tag/staged-authenticity/

Oxford English Dictionary Content Team . (2018). OXFORD ENGLISH

DICTIONARY. Retrieved from Definition of tourism in English:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/tourism

Pollock, A. (2013, August 21). Six reasons why mass tourism is unsustainable.
Retrieved 2018 , from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/six-reasons-mass-tourism-
unsustainable

Shahzalal, M. (2016). Positive and Negative Impacts of Tourism on Culture: A

Critical. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Sports, 20, 30-35.

Smith, O. (2017, September 27). The 51 destinations where tourists outnumber

locals. Retrieved November 2018, from The Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/countries-where-
tourists-outnumber-locals/

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Statev, V. (2011). THE ADDED VALUE FORMED BY THE ALTERNATIVE IN
TOURISM. In V. S. Statev, BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS (Vol. 1, pp. 245-257 ).
Veliko Turnovo: ALGARVE - St Cyril and Methodius University of Veliko
Turnovo. Retrieved from
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Steinbrink, M., Haferburg, C., & Ley, A. (2011). Socio-spatial consequences of the
2010 FIFA. South African Geographical Journal, 15-28 .

Sunlu, U. (2003). Environmental impacts of tourism. In U. Sunlu, Local resources

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The International Ecotourism Society Corporation . (2015). What is Ecotourism?

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Theobald, W. F. (2005 ). Global Tourism . Burlington : ELSEVIER - Butterworth

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Turner, R. (2015). WTTC Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2015. In W. T. Council,
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