The Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourism

Now we come to a new part. I think it’s the most complex part and also a challenge for all the tourist market organizations. Also for me the topic is socio-cultural impacts. I will try my best to explain these to you. Ok as before here are the learning objectives, as before here are the learning objectives. I hope after you finish this part you will be able to describe in your own words the nature of social-cultural impacts of tourism. And you could be able to aware of the range of socio-cultural impacts of tourism and aware of the contexts in which these occur.

And also I hope you’re able to discuss the implications that these impacts have for the good management of the tourism industry.

In this section, firstly I will give a short introduction to socio-cultural impact followed by its explanation about the positive and negative impacts and as crucial issue in cultural related tourism research. I will also introduce you three phenomena induced by tourism. And then a summary as showed in this slide. These are all the contents in this part.

Ok Any discussion of socio-cultural impacts of tourism will require reference to . Any discussion of socio-cultural impacts of tourism will require reference to . and discussion of meaning of the term society and culture . So this is a question for you. You mind what’s the meaning of a sociology? And what’s the meaning of culture? Sociology is the study of society and is concerned with people in groups their interaction, their attitudes, and their behaviors. And culture as write here culture is about how people interact as observed through social interaction, social relations, the material artifacts. We could see social and cultural are high-relevant to each other And this made the topic more complex for all of us.

According to Burns and Holden culture consists of behavioral patterns knowledge and values which have been acquired and transmitted through generations. These two scholars also indicate that culture is the complex whole which includes knowledge,belief, art,moral law,custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society . As a short introduction we should have awareness that in front of socio-cultural impacts. It is a great domain in front of us.

Ok This section is concerned with the study of the impacts of tourism on people in groups and this includes both residents of tourism areas. Such people are usually referred to as hires and the tourists themselves. It also concerned with impact on the culture of the host population and with any effects on the culture of the visitors themselves. As culture is great fields, it is better to make notes about cultural attractions in relation to tourism. As showed in this slide cultural attractions could be handicrafts, could be language, could be traditions, could be art and music, could be history of the area, could be types of work engaged in by residence,architecture,religion and education system even dress and other leisure activities.

Ok Followed by this slide we can see there are five pictures. And each picture shows a positive social-cultural impact .

This beneficial impacts of tourism on society includes the creation of employment, the revitalization of poor or non-industrialized regions,

the rebirth of local arts and crafts and traditional cultural activities , 75 00:05:09.475 –> 00:05:13.813 the revival of social and cultural lives of local population,

the last renewal of local architectural traditions. All these are easily to understand. So I will make no further explain for this. Ok I add another one. I add another one. The promotion of the need to conserve areas of outstanding beauty which have aesthetic and cultural value ok We come to a special issue developing countries. In developing countries in particular tourism can encourage greater social mobility through changes in employment from traditional agriculture to service industries and may result in higher wage or better job prospects.

However, tourism also has the reputation for major detrimental effects on society and culture of host area. Tourism can cause overcrowding in resorts which can cause stress for both tourists and residence. Where tourism takes over as a major employer traditional activities such as farming may decline. In extreme cases regions can become over-dependent on tourism Residents may find it difficult to co-exist with tourists who have different values and who are involved in leisure activities while the residents are involved in working .

This problem is made worse when tourism is a seasonal activity,and residents have to modify their way of life for part of the year. In countries with strong religious codes altered social value caused by a tourists invasion may be viewed as a nationally undesirable. Okay There are more significant socio-cultural impacts of tourism We use these three important terms they are demonstration effect acculturation, authenticity. And I will explain these three terms one by one. They are also very important. Because many scholars take a research issue on these three terms. So first ‘demonstration effect’ in the demonstration effect. It is theorized that simply observing tourists will lead to behavioral changes in the residential population.

This depends on this being visible differences between tourists and the hosts Such a situation arises in many developing countries Under these conditions local people will note the superior material possessions of the visitors and aspire to this. This may have positive effects in that. It can encourage residents to adopt more protective pattern of behavior . However more frequently it is disruptive in that locals become resentful. Because they are unable to obtain the goods and lifestyle demonstrated by the visitors. Because they are unable to obtain the goods and lifestyle demonstrated by the visitors. Young people are particularly susceptible to the demonstration effect. Turism may then to be blamed for societal divisions between the young and older members.

The demonstration effect may also encourage the more able,younger members of a society to migrate from rural area in search of the demonstrated lifestyle in urban area or even overseas. The demonstration effect is most likely to occur where the contracts between residents and visitors are relatively superficial and short lived.

Another process known as acculturation may occur when the contact is for a longer period and is deeper . As a scholar noted that acculturation theory states that when two cultures come into contact for any length of time an exchange of ideas and products will take place that through time produce varying levels of convergence between the cultures that is they become similar. However, this process will not necessarily be balanced as one culture is likely to be stronger than the other. As with the demonstration effect it is in developed world or developing countries or developing world relationships where the process is most likely to occur.

As the USA has one of the most powerful cultures, it is usually American culture that predominates over the one from the developing country in any other such meeting of cultures. This particular process of acculturation has been dubbed the ‘Mcdonaldization’ or ‘Coca-Colaization’ of global cultures. One of the perceived negative effects of this acculturation process is the reduction in the diversity of global cultures .

Although acculturation become an important process towards the end of the twentieth century the desire of many tourists to experience a different culture is still a major motivation for tourist visits . The motivation is to see and experience. At first hand the actual culture and its manifestation in terms of art, music, dance and handicrafts. All these belong to the last specific issue-Authenticity. This desire has contributed to a revival of traditional crafts as well as the development of new activities. In a number of locations including, for example in Bali this in turn has promoted the growth of a souvenir treat that has made a significant contribution to the local economy .

The desire of visitors to experience the ‘real’ culture has brought into questions authenticity of the visitors experience.

In some developing world locations. For example, Bali the Solomon islands the developed world locations with indigenous cultures such as Canada, Arctic Norway, and Finland demand for cultural artifacts and performance has become packaged for convenient conceptions by visitors. Such commoditization has led to challenges concerning the authenticity of those tourism experience.

The commoditization has led to pseudo-events that share the following characteristics: they are planned rather than spontaneous, they are designed to be perform to order at times that are convenient for tourists and they hold at best an ambiguous relationship to real elements on which they are based. Also,of particular concern is that there pseudo-events eventually become the authentic event and replace the original event or practice. Ok, now we finish the three specific issues. After we finish the three specific issues we come to the Summary There is a range of both positive and negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism.

Much has been written about the supported negative impacts including the demonstration effect cultural damage authenticity and specific issues such as increase in sex tourism,drug taking and crime in general. The negative consequence has been noted particularly where there is a major cultural difference between the tourists and the local population