Social Impacts Of Tourism

In recent year, there are lots of studies and researches about different impacts of the tourism industry. Tourism is defined as “the sum of phenomena and relationships arising from the travel & stay of non residents” (French, Craig-Smith, Collier (2000) p.8). The activities that take place in a particular tourist destination could produce a number of impacts on different environments. Some of the main environments that tourism operates in could be economic, cultural, social and the natural environments. Each of these environments would receive the benefits from the contribution of tourism; however these environments could also be harmed by the cause of negative impacts resulted from this industry’s activities. The purpose of conducting this …show more content…
One of the positive impacts of tourism activities on the social environment is that it helps people gain more knowledge and better understanding of different culture. Mason (2008) suggests that as the society becomes more complex and because of social influences, people have the need to leave their comfort zone and experience something new. By visiting many different destinations, tourists are surrounded by the host community and experience things such as interaction with the locals, food, festivals and events. Every tourist will have different experiences and this actually forms some sort of values for each individual. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), there were more than one billion people travelled to other countries in 2014 (UNWTO 2015, p.1). It shows that tourism encourages people all over the world to travel and learn …show more content…
The continuity of these events and festivals help to create a better interaction between the locals and the tourists. By joining these events, tourists are able to merge themselves in the lifestyle of the locals; and that fosters their understanding of the destination’s culture. Deery et al. (2014) also suggests that the host community’s pride increases as they are proud of their cultural customs and that tourist also want to experience those customs. The continuity of local festivals and events also has a positive social impact, as it encourages the people in the community to create a stronger bond and relationship with each other (Frew & White 2011, p.125). Examples of some famous local festivals could be the Moomba festival in Melbourne, Australia or the Tomato Throwing festival in Valencia of