The Affects That Our Vacations Have - Who Should Take Responsibility?

Today, tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, grossing $1.03 trillion in 2011. With the increasing affects of globalization, people from around the world now have the accessibility to travel anywhere. But as we have discussed in class, there are repercussions that need to be considered with this quickly growing privilege. Let me dive deeper...

As we discussed in class, international tourism is most often accessible by the cosmopolitan population, who are usually the privileged demographic in the world. These privileged individuals bring both positive and negative effects to the countries they travel to. Looking at the positive side, these cosmopolitan travelers can bring economic benefits to many of the locations they travel to. For instance, with the increase in tourist to locations like, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and many other countries, there usually is a direct correlation to an increase in jobs. With more tourism comes the need for more direct accommodations, or indirectly more need for retail or transportation. In this way, tourism has a positive affect on economics in the areas visited by the cosmopolitans. 

However, it can be argued that the positive affects of tourism are not enough to trump the negative affects the industry has begun to create. Lets continue to look at the economic example: although tourism can bring jobs to many developing economies, these jobs are rarely paid at a fair rate. Additionally, the increase in tourism tends to create inflation among local/common goods to further profit from the cosmopolitan tourists. This makes it difficult for locals to afford the necessary items for their families and households. As seen in this situation, money generated by tourism does not always benefit the local community, as a lot tends to leak out to huge international companies, such as hotel chains, cruse liners and large resorts. The construction and production of these tourism locations usually have environmental externalities that have a negative impact on these locations. Many of these developing counties do not have regulations or policies in place, which result in large tourist conglomerates taking advantage of these developing areas, not providing fair wages or cleaning up after their environmental externalities. 

With the tourism industry’s rapid growth, and negative effects becoming more publicized, there are slivers of the industry trying to address the issues at hand. Subcategories, such as ecotourism and cultural tourism have surfaced, providing the cosmopolitan travelers with alternative opportunities. Though these subcategories have started to surface, the large tourism conglomerates are still functioning with very negative effects. With the rapid growth in the industry and it’s current transformation, I pose this questions…Who’s responsibility does it become to make sure that the large conglomerates do not continue to negatively affect these developing economies and cultures? Governing bodies like the United Nation’s World Tourism Organization? The consumers? Who?

P.S. - Here is a good example of an ecotourism resort that I visit this past summer. Great experience! :) http://www.xinalaniretreat.com/ 

Sources:

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/positive-negative-effects-tourism-63336.html

http://www2.unwto.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism