The idea of the family vacation has been an integral part of
what it means to be a family for as long as I can remember. My dad always asks
our family where we would like to go for he and my step mom’s two-week vacation
in the summers. These trips were mandatory, regardless of if I liked the
destination or not. At first we’d skip summers because we didn’t always have
enough money to travel but when my dad bought into the wonderful world of
timeshares we rented a big, gas-guzzling SUV and traveled every summer. This
was the story for millions of families of the past and it will until the end of
time. We have our small bubble IE: a four family home but when you multiply
that by your neighbors, your city and your state you may begin to realize that
things add up.
A professor of tourism by the name of Robert Nash gave us a
lecture on the impacts of tourism right before our short exploration of the
famous Gold Coast. As we know,
there are tons of positives to tourism. The theory is that locals get jobs,
foreigners get exposure to the local culture and grand, beautiful
infrastructures get built that everyone gets to enjoy! Perfect right? Not so
much. Taking a closer look into the effects of mass tourism there are a lot of
opportunity costs that come into the mix. Local communities have to lose some
of their native traditions to appease Western comforts. They have to provide
fancy hotels and cheap souvenirs. The presence of an abundance of outsiders
taking advantage of the sanctity of indigenous culture also turns into an
exploitation of those people. In this situation, local integrity can actually
be lost when a large amount of people began to compromise the beauty that was
once only explored by a few.
Aside from moral issues, there are multiple economic issues
that just don’t match up with plans associated with mass tourism. Taxes are
levied on local people to fund building or renovation plans that must occur to
please tourist. In the case of Hawaii, inflation makes it hard for people that
live there to afford anything but there’s always a catch 22 because the natives
depend on tourism for most of their economy. In the case of jobs, it is not
uncommon for companies to hire out or even contract workers that they prefer to
man these tourists hot spots instead of people living there who are sharing
their land.
One thing that I noticed is that a majority of ploys to get
tourists to visit your country are tied to traditional events that I never have
seen as such. BBC network produced an info
graphic on the harms of this historical sporting event actually does more
negative than good economically to the cities that host the event. It was
surprising to me because the Olympics is pretty iconic and always gets hyped up
as a cultural mixer for multiple countries. Jackson pointed out that most of
the interactions between tourists and locals in this situation have to do with
monetary transactions, which is pretty superficial.
For instance, the Olympics,
To say the least, this lecture was disheartening, especially
when you consider the fact that we were the very tourists that Jackson seemed
to be preaching against. The day before we actually got a big new bus, which we
were initially excited about, but now all we could think about was how it
represented a gas-guzzling symbol of Western comfort. Regardless of all this,
I am a firm believer in positivity and hope when it comes to human kind. Like
it or not, we are part of nature and it is true that we have the power to
destroy life but we also have are more capable than any other species to save
lives as well. There are things we can do to travel safely and sustain the
beauties of this world.
Eco tourism is a form of travel that includes treading
lightly on natural territories and using an environment sustainably.
Backpacking, in my opinion, is also a form of eco tourism that includes
experiencing a foreign atmosphere for longer periods of time. It is a form of
small scale tourism in which in you stay in smaller, cheaper hotels and have
direct, personal contact with the locals of the country you inhabit. Ways that
people can lessen the impacts of mass tourism are to stay in places for more than
a few days and stay and smaller scale hotels like hostels rather than resorts
that use a lot of water and energy. Also, try your best to respect the rules of
the natural environment you are in, for instance, don’t climb a sacred mountain
if there are indigenous signs warning against it. Tourism isn’t evil but, like
everything else, moderation is key. I know I’m convinced because the pictures of what happens
when a beautiful place gets all of its resources sucked out by a massive amount
of people are not pretty.
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