1. Impacts of
Tourism
Part 2
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2. Sociology and Culture
• Sociology is the study of society and is concerned with
people in groups, their interaction, their attitudes and
their behavior
• Culture is about how people interact as observed
through social interaction, social relations, and material
artifacts
• Culture consists of behavioral patterns, knowledge and
values which have been acquired and transmitted
through generations
• 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
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3. Cultural attractions
• Handicrafts • Types of work
• Language engaged in by
• Traditions residents
• Gastronomy • Architecture
• Art and music • Religion (including
visible manifestations)
• History of the
area/including visual • Education systems
reminders • Dress
• Leisure activities
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4. Socio-cultural Impacts (Positive)
• Creation of employment • Renewal of local
• Revitalization of poor or architectural traditions
non-industrialized regions • Promotion of the need to
• Rebirth of local arts and conserve areas of
crafts and traditional outstanding beauty which
cultural activities have aesthetic and
• Revival of social and cultural value
cultural life of the local
population
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5. Socio-cultural Impacts (Negative)
• Overcrowding • Residents may find it
• Stress for both difficult to co-exist
tourists and residents with tourists who
• Traditional activities have different values
(e.g. Farming) may and who are involved
decline in leisure
activities, while the
• Regions can become residents are involved
over-dependent on in working.
tourism
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6. Demonstration Effect
• Theorizes that by simply observing tourists
will lead to behavioral changes in the resident
population
• Local people will note the superior material
possession of the visitors and aspire for
them.
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7. Demonstration Effect
• Positive: may encourage residents to
adopt more productive patterns of
behavior
• Negative: locals may become resentful
because they are unable to obtain the
goods and lifestyle demonstrated by the
visitors
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8. Demonstration Effect
• Young people are more susceptible.
• Most likely occur where the contacts
between residents and visitors are
relatively superficial and short-lived.
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9. Acculturation Theory
• Occurs when contact is for a longer period and
is deeper
• 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
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10. Acculturation Theory
• No balance- since one culture is stronger
than the other (e.g. US influence is known
as ‘MacDonaldization’ or ‘Coca-colaization’
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11. Pseudo-events
• Caused by commoditization
• They are planned rather than spontaneous
• They are designed to be performed to order, at
times that are convenient for tourists
• They hold at best an ambiguous relationship to
real elements on which they are based
• They eventually become the authentic events
and replace the original events or practice
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13. Doxey’s Irritation Index
Euphoria (exploration & involvement) Visitors are welcome and there is little
planning
Apathy (Development) Visitors are taken for granted and contact
becomes more formal
Annoyance/ Irritation (Consolidation) Saturation is approached and the local
people have misgivings. Planners who
attempt to control through increasing
infrastructure rather than limiting growth
Antagonism (stagnation etc.) Open expression of irritation and planning
is remedial yet promotion is increased to
offset the
deteriorating reputation of the resort
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14. Doxey’s Irritation Index
• AKA: Irridex
• The resident population or hosts in a
tourist area would modify their attitudes to
visitors over time
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15. Doxey’s Irritation Index
• When tourists first visit they will be
greeted with euphoria
• Stages progress to apathy, annoyance and
then to outright aggression towards
visitors
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16. Getz Study
• The attitudes of residents do not appear
to change greatly over time
• Attitudes to tourism by the host
population were closely linked to economic
fluctuations
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18. Environmental Impacts
• Environment is made up of both natural
and human features
• Tourism-environment relationship is
symbiotic
• Ecology is the study of the relationships
between animals and plants
• Ecosystems are individual components and
links between plants and animals
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19. Five (5) Aspects of the environment
(Swarbrooke)
• Natural environment
• Wildlife
• Farmed environment
• Built environment
• Natural resources
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20. Factors important to environmental impacts
• The ‘where’ factor. Some environments are
more susceptible to tourism impacts than
others
• The type of tourism activitiy
• The nature of any tourist infrastructure
• When the activity occurs, particulalry any
seasonal variation
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21. Positive Impacts
• Tourism may stimulate measures to protect the
environment and/or landscape and/or wildlife
• Tourism can help to promote the establishment
of National Parks and/or Wildlife Reserves
• Tourism can promote the preservation of
buildings/monuments (e.g. UNESCO World
Heritage Sites)
• Tourism may provide the money (e.g. via
entrace charges) to maintain historic buildings,
heritage sites and wildlife habitats
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22. Negative Impacts
• Tourists are likely to drop litter
• Tourism can contribute to congestion in terms of
overcrowding of people as well as traffic congestion
• Tourism can contribute to the pollution of water courses
and beaches
• Tourism may result in footpath erosion
• Tourism can lead to the creation of unsightly human
structures such as buildings (e.g. hotels) that do not fit
in with vernacular architecture
• Tourism may lead to damage and/or disturbance to
wildlife habitats
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23. Carrying capacity
• A threshold measure, beyond which
damage and possible irreversible change
may occur
• e.g. Plant or animal species threated by
the damage cause by visitors, and any
increase will lead to more damage
• Can be viewed scientifically and
perceptionally
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24. Three (3) forms of carrying capacity
• Environmental (physical ) carrying capacity –
usually refers to physical space and the number
of people (or the number of cars) in a particular
place
• Ecological carrying capacity – is a threshold
measure, which if exceeded will lead to actual
damage of plants/animals habitat
• Perceptual carrying capacity is the level of
crowding that a tourist is willing to tolerate
before he/she decides a particular location is too
full and then goes elsewhere
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25. Other analytical tools
• Limits of acceptable change (LAC)
technique – involves establishing an
agreed set of criteria before the
development and the prescription of
desired conditions and levels of change
after development
• Environmental impact assessment (EIA)
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