Bargain Breaks

Socio Cultural Impacts of Tourism

Tourism has become one of the dominant activities in the 21st century and the government has declared tourism as an Industry because it bears the value of more earnings. A number of manufacturing and non-manufacturing units or companies had developed in the country in order to facilitate both positive as well as negative impacts.

First are the socio impacts (positive) that tourism creates. Some of them are as under:

It helps to widen the social opportunities by the interaction of locals, residents with tourist.
It helps in creation of national and international integration.
It is simply a medium for understanding
It brings people face to face
It helps to break the barriers between different religions, communities, prejudices etc.
It removes the misconception regarding a particular place to some extend.

Besides this tourism also have some (positive) cultural impacts too. They are as under:

It facilitates cultural propagation or uniformity.
It helps to retain the rich tradition and culture of a particular destination.
It also helps to preserve monuments of ancient eras, which can depreciate in its value over a period of time.

As the two sides of a coin every merit will have a demerit one-way or the other. Similarly, the socio cultural negative impacts are briefly discussed below.

Improper planning may do harm than development. E.g., proper infrastructure that may not affect the ecological balance.
The tourists that visit a particular destination are from different backgrounds, economic status etc.
The local tourists will have a tendency to raise their standard of living and this may lead to damage to a particular culture or tradition.
Acculturation happens and is a negative impact of tourism on society and its culture.
Crime is yet another problem created. There are possibilities of miss happenings like crime, theft, robbery etc from localities since tourists carry expensive items purchased.
Health problems are created because of tourism e.g. spreading of diseases like AIDS, SARS ETC.
Another problem created is the displacement of local communities, say, for the sake of development of tourism; government authorities may construct international airports in urban areas, which leads to the displacements of local residents either forcefully or urgently. This may cause disturbance and depression, which later create agitation in the mind of the people.
Forceful development in developing or underdeveloped countries sometimes leads to damage to a particular culture.