Analysis of tourism’s contribution to Australia
Introduction
Before getting into the analysis of the tourism’s contribution in Australia, it is significant to understand the meaning of the tourism. Tourism can be defined as the interaction activity carried out by the people that contains educational element that enables understanding between people and the cultures (Church & Coles, 2007). This educational element also offers opportunities for an exchange of ways of life and own personal culture. Tourism is an activity that is conducted in various sectors such as retail trade, transport, cafes of tourisms, and accommodation. Therefore, measuring the impacts of tourism whether negative or positive is a complex process.it requires the understanding and determining of the overall contributions in wide range of environment such as economic, social and environmental.
The economic contribution of the tourism in Australia can be measured in the perspective of job created and the total contribution it brings to the value of the products and services traded in the name of tourism. In terms of the social environment, the impacts can be measured by the influences of tourism on the culture of the involved community (Lemelin, Dawson & Stewart, 2011). However, for the tourism to be considered sustainable, it has to be critically managed so that the potential negative impacts on the environment and the host community are not allowed to offset the positive impacts. This paper analysis the impacts of tourism in Australia both negative and positive, on the economic, social and environment perspectives.
Tourism has become the world’s leading industry. It plays a mainly influential role in the developing world. But the economic benefits can come at a very real price. In most cases, tourism can result in a significant impact upon the physical environment. However, there is a growing focuses upon sustainable tourism, pro-poor tourism and ecotourism that encourage tourists to learn from their travels but not at the expense of leaving a negative impact on the people or the environment. Tourism can only be sustainable if only is carefully managed so that potential negative impacts on the host environment and the community are not permitted to outweigh the financial benefits (Theobald, 2005).
Tourism is known for bringing many economic and social benefits this are the positive effects. They include the development of positive attitude towards one another. These include interacting and learning of each other’s customs and cultures, friendships developments, respect, lessening of negative stereotypes and perceptions, development of pride and heritage. More to the positive of the tourism industry, it generates jobs for many economies and the people in respective countries. This, therefore, become a critical industry in any developing economy. Tourism industries develop more of positive effects and this, therefore, supports the concept that overly, on balance, tourism’s contribution is positive (Mieczkowski, 1995). Tourism also facilitates in encouragement of learning the new languages and skills from the tourists.
Tourism creates employments to the host communities. Some of the opportunities created are hotels industries, airlines and tour operators which the visible business associated with tourism. Many people get employment in the tourism industry either directly or indirectly. The high rates of employment bring better future since the citizen in particularly can achieve their daily bread. Tourism industry also has a positive impact in contribution to local economies. This ultimately comes up with a big solution to the crimes that people engage in search of daily bread. This result to high-secured community and bring up a continuous development through massive investments (Chambers, 1997).
On the other hand, the environment quality is critical in tourism industry be it man made or natural environment. In Australia, tourism has led to development of its environment, typically, environment involves several activities such construction of infrastructure. The infrastructure includes construction of roads, airports and tourism facilities such as hotels, restaurants and shops. Tourism encourages the preservation of traditional handicrafts, customs and festivals that might otherwise have been allowed to wane, and it creates civic pride. For instance there were many monuments and museums, opened and renovated in promoting the national traditions and culture. On the other hand, Australian tries to conserve the environment for the sake of the wildlife which contributes a lot in tourist attraction. This, therefore contribute in conservation of the environment (Theobald, 2005).
Tourism industry leads to contribution of government revenue in Australia. The direct contributions are generated by taxes on incomes from businesses and it respective tourist employments. The government also gets the revenue from direct levies on tourist such as departure taxes. This, therefore, result in stabilizing and diversifying the local economy. The foreign exchange is essential in every government in its operation as it serves its citizens. The Australia government be it in a developing economy it is able to provide it citizen with quality services such as good social amenities, good health facilities and maintenance and construction of infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water, mostly in local region in Australia (Mieczkowski, 1995).
Negative impacts
In the economic perspective, mass tourism is associated with various negative impacts. To enhance a successful tourism, it requires establishing and enhancing the basic infrastructures such as visitor centers, hotels and roads among others. The cost of doing so is burdened to the government so that government can raise it through tax revenue. As a result this cost is reflected to the host community hence diminishing their standard of living. In addition, the most of the jobs that are associated with tourism are seasonal and poorly paid and the money created from the tourism does not always benefit the host community (Australia, 2009). This is a common problem where the local workforce does not meet the skills that are required to fill the better paid management positions. Workers are laid off during the winter seasons when the tourism business is low. The international tourism companies such as hotel chains are the one that benefits most from the tourism. For instance, it is estimated that 80% of the tourists’ expenditures leak out to hotels, airlines and other international companies, and not to host workers or businesses (Australia, 2009).
Although tourism is significant in creating jobs, the working hours of the workers tend to be unsocial and the workers therefore have less social contact with their colleagues and the community. This is considered as the social impact. In addition, the tourist behaviors can result into detrimental effect on the quality of the life of the society that hosts them. In many cases the visitors are associated with the ides and lifestyles that conflict with that of the host community. For instance, there have been cases of the visitors in Australia reported to use prohibited drugs and wearing of attires that contradicts with the customs of the host country (Church & Coles, 2007).
More significantly, the tourism has brought about the loss of the culture and traditional values through imitation and influence of the visitor behavior or cultural diffusion that is as a result of the daily interaction. The visitors have also been given more preferences than the local community and in some cases it leads to the violation of the human right (Vanhove, 2011). For instance, people have been displaced from their land to create beaches for reserved hotels where the local communities are even denied access to them.
On the environmental perspective, tourism is anticipated to challenge various aspects. For instance, tourism may threaten natural resources which include historical sites, coral reefs and beaches. The visitors also bring the competition for limited resources such as land and water and this may result into loss of wildlife habitats, land degradation and deterioration of scenery. For instance, during the summer, both international and local tourism relies heavily on water resources. The pressure created by this demand can result to depletion of the resource base (Lemelin, Dawson & Stewart, 2011). The form of transport that is involved in the tourism also brings about the issue of emissions and pollution, and direct contribution to solid waste and sewerage.
In conclusion, tourism is not ideally an industry precisely in the traditional intelligence; rather, it is an activity, which takes place well over a number of sectors. Due to this, tourism contradicts and therefore it result in complex impacts, be it positive or negative in either economically, socially or on the environment. A research conducted shows that tourism impacts can be both negative and positive particularly on local communities in Australia. Mostly, this goes to the main factors that are economic, social, or environmental effects. It generally depends to which extent that the tourism industry is developed particularly in each region. What determines the nativity or positivity of the industry is, each region bearing capacity. This means, the limit of the incoming influence, which does not harm the community. Thus, the argument on the positives and negatives of the tourism industry remains wide open. There is no clear cut on which side overrides the other, but on mere grounds, the positives are many than the negatives. It is arguable that though there are many negatives of tourism, the positives complement the same and are better and more grounded. It is therefore arguable that, on balance, tourism’s contribution is positive.
References
Australia (2009). Economic significance of tourism in Australia. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Pub. Service.
Chambers, E. (1997). Tourism and culture: An applied perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Church, A., & Coles, T. (2007). Tourism, power, and space. London: Routledge.
Lemelin, R. H., Dawson, J., & Stewart, E. J. (2011). Last chance tourism. New York: Routledge.
Mieczkowski, Z. (1995). Environmental issues of tourism and recreation. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.
Theobald, W. F. (2005). Global tourism. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Vanhove, N. (2011). The economics of tourism destinations. S.l.: Elsevier.
