With reference to examples, discuss the impact of mass tourism on destination countries.

Tourism is one of the most important global industries that accounts for 30% of the worlds exports of services. Since the 1980s, tourists from developed countries sought holidays in other countries with cultures and environments different from their own and some less developed countries also see the tourism service sector as the only possible way to raise their standard of living. These are some of the reasons that have kick-started the growth of the tourism service industry till now. A main type of tourism is mass tourism which has been changing due to influence by a variety of factors since the birth of this sector of services, such as consumers demand, product developments, technological advancements, and environmental considerations. With the growth of mass tourism globally, it is important to be aware of their impacts on destination countries. Despite positive impacts on the economy, mass tourism has negatively impacted the cultural aspects in terms of loss of cultural identities and the rise of staged cultural authenticity as well as resulting in environmental degradation in destination countries. This essay examines the positive and negative impacts of mass tourism on destination countries, giving the stand that mass tourism is not sustainable, especially those in the less developed countries (LDCs). Firstly, mass tourism has resulted in the loss of local identity and values in destination countries, especially in terms of the rise of staged authenticity of cultures. Local people in destination countries may be forced to discard their traditional cultures and values so as to change their activities into tourism-related ones so as to make a living through the tourism industry. Several cultural heritages and activities are altered to suit the tourists tastes and comfort, thus leading to cultural inauthenticity. For example, Masaai tribes tried to make a better living through the tourism industry by performing for the tourists, despite these performances are deemed as improper lifestyle to them. They are forced to discard their own cultural values and identities and fake out cultural aspects for the tourists to enjoy, just for the sake of earning revenues from the tourism industry. Thus, this shows that mass tourism has negatively impacted the destination countries cultures, giving rise to cultural inauthenticity. This is especially evident in LDCs compared to DCs as they are compelled to improve their economy through the tourism industry by altering their cultures that have been preserved for a very long time. The growth of mass tourism has also impacted the environment of destination countries negatively, resulting in degradations of nature. As tourists flock to destination countries for holidays, pollutions caused by them will increase when the level of visitors usage is greater than the environments ability to withstand and cope with the changes. Tourists result in certain levels of disturbance to nature and the environment, including the increase of noise pollutions and disturbance of wildlife and natural habitats. Moreover, environmental and natural alterations made by the government to suit the growth of the tourism industry have also resulted in soil erosions, deforestation, loss of habitats and wildlife, increased carbon footprint, and many other means of environmental destructions. For example, Ko Tao, one of the small islands in the Gulf of Thailand, has suffered from heavy environmental degradations due to the growth of tourism in that region. The beaches in Ko Tao are now heavily covered by rubbish, and the coral reefs along the coastline have also been damaged by the pollutions caused by the tourists and the activities of diving schools and tourist boats from the tourist industry. This concludes that with the rapid development of mass tourism in

many destination countries, the carrying capacities of the environment will be easily exceeded if a good balance between improving the economy and sustaining the local environment is not well maintained. However, mass tourism has also impacted the worlds destination countries positively through the improvements of their economy in many aspects. The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the service industry, giving rise to high tourism receipts that contribute economically to the destination countries earnings. Tourism expenditures made can generate higher incomes and also can stimulate the investment needed for the financial growth in other economic sectors in a country. The governments revenues are also greatly increased through local taxes on the incomes from tourism employments and investments, leading to the betterment of infrastructure developments in the country (which improves the quality of life and further facilitates the tourism industry). Moreover, the growth of mass tourism has also resulted in the expansion of employment creations in many countries, through both formal and informal employments of workers for this sector of industry. In general, the positive advancements of mass tourism will lead to the increase of revenues, which will lead to a cycle of multiplier effect to further facilitate tourism in the country and further improve the economy. For example, Thailand has earned a total of US$6695 million in the year 1999 through the tourism industry in the country. This huge amount of money made up 17% of Thailands total GDP that year, and the income earned also helped Thailand develop its infrastructures, such as the Monorails systems, and continuation of the facilitation of its mass tourism industry. Therefore, it is evident that mass tourism has also benefited the economy of destination countries, especially the LDCs that require higher income and revenues for their continued improvement of its economy. Despite mass tourisms contributions to the local economy of destination countries, there are many hidden costs to tourism that resulted in unfavourable economic effects on these countries, especially to the LDCs due to economic leakages. The main cause of economic leakages comes from the presence of large transnational corporations (TNCs) in developed countries (DCs), as many supplies required for tourism in destination countries are only made possible by the funds and help from the TNCs and many overseas investors from mainly the DCs are earning more profits back to their country of origin due to the fact that LDCs require investments from the DCs for the construction of tourism infrastructures and facilities due to the lack of initial capital to fund mass tourism. Moreover, mass tourism has also negatively impacted destination countries cultures and environment in terms of loss of local cultural identities and values and environmental degradation respectively. All in all, mass tourism has negatively impacted destination countries, especially challenging the economic, cultural, and environmental sustainability of the LDCs, while benefiting the DCs further through the possible economic leakages from the LDCs tourism industry sector.