Asymmetric Relations
The relationship between the tourists and the local communities tends to asymmetric primarily because the organization of the relations tends to favor mostly one party at the expense of the other. Tourists are typically treated with a significant amount of dignity. The host community members are normally given the obligation and are told to commit to ensuring that the tourists have the best experience possible in an effort to attract more and more tourists in the future. The tourist, on the other hand, has very few obligations there are only required to pay the stated amount of fees for touring plus respecting the local cultures and traditions, and that is all they have to do for the whole period of their stay (Williams, 2009). However the actual binding force that ensures they observe local culture is very limited and is almost negligible and also the tourist has the option of changing their hotel or resort if they feel that the pressures from a particular area are overwhelming.
Local communities view the leverage that the tourists have for switching from one area to another like some kind of power based on the fact that the communities are always competing of the presence of visitors in their regions. Therefore, the host communities find it difficult to diminish the tourist to the nature of a typical client. Host communities find it satisfactory to be treated as friends rather than the owners of the resources.
Cultural Change
The effect of tourism on the culture change is not to a large extent unidirectional primarily because most of the members of the community have different attitudes and perceptions of the tourists and their presence. Some embrace the tourists with a lot of love while other temporarily stay away from the community just ensure that their schedules are not interrupted or that they do not experience any form of difficulties. Therefore, the effect of tourism on culture is often unlimited particularly when the tourists' culture and the host communities' are significantly distant (Williams, 2009). Culture and society evolve and change from effects of a variety of factors indicating that the perceived change is very limited, and there is also the fact that the tourists might carry home with them some of the local behaviors depending on their length of stay around the communities.
If a tourist visits a country where some of the moral codes and principles are more tolerant to some issues for example to gay marriages, this will tend to affect the tourist perception and will most likely carry this attitude back to their home countries where there are stricter moral codes on the particular issue. Most tourists who come from third world countries and visit the developed nations are more likely to adopt some of the cultures of those countries at their expense of the culture that prevails in their home country. To also add on to the fact that the effect of tourism can be both ways, most society values are based on the strength of the religious beliefs. A tourist may visit an area more than once and end up adopting those religious values (strong in this case) especially if they are a firm believer of the particular religion.
Reference
Williams, S. (2009). Tourism Geography: A New Synthesis. Abingdon: Routledge
