The word “travel” invokes images of exotic cultures and foreign destinations. The allure of travel comes from encountering the unknown and experiencing something completely new, be it new cultures or activities. Travel helps us temporarily live in a new “reality” that is different than our own. During the last fifty years, the demand for first world commodities in third world locations increased, the industry transitioned from being about culture shock to more about being pampered abroad. What used to be exploratory tourism is now recreational tourism. Tourist destinations in third world countries offer five-star resorts and spas on pristine white-sand beaches rather than focus on cultural notes. The essential question is: Does modern tourism closely represent reality? Does the industry, in order to attract more visitors, hide the unappealing parts of reality and only present the good things? This paper will explore what practices the tourism industry employs to make a place more appealing to visit, their repercussions on local culture and order, the reality of the situation, and the changing tastes of foreign tourists for more luxuries rather than experiences.
The tourism industry practices veiling stark realities behind shimmering illusions of luxury and comfort. It is especially evident in the tourism in Mexico, Sochi (the location of the 2014 Winter Olympics), and North Korea, where travel agencies and resort owners create carefully planned packages that will show tourists only the best of a region while segregating them from the locals and the realities of life. Most tourism plans and development are state sponsored and involve private investors that employ the locals as service staff. This involves a nation’s government, in...
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...cals and are shown only what is on the government-planned tour. They are treated like royalty and given wonderful rooms with wonderful meals while the Korean population suffers of famine. By reading travel blogs about North Korea or watching documentaries with first-hand experience, it will be possible to demonstrate how the North Korean government goes about covering up the reality of life in North Korea and presenting an ideal country to foreigners.
From personal accounts by tourists and researchers about tourism, it can be said that tourism has changed and become about profits and not really about the traveler experiencing a unique culture. The people who create these tourist destinations and the agencies that operate them do a thorough job of masking the reality and true culture of a region in order to accommodate the changing tastes of the traveler.
The Maldives, Rome, Paris, New York City, Buenos Aires, Venice; don't they all sound like magical places whose cultures and histories put us in awe? Well, there are many other great places in the world not yet labeled as “incredible tourist-attractions” due to several reasons such as failed infrastructures or the absence of five-star hotels. The speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a speech, “The Danger of a Single Story”, addressing the problem of stereotyping places, people, their cultures, and believing that there is beauty in certain aspects only and not others. She talks about how people tend to be narrow-minded about specific topics and judge based on how information is portrayed to them by the local news channel, by magazines, or by social media. As the famous saying goes: “There are always two sides of a story”. Consequently, I believe it is not entirely correct that what is shown to a person, is what actually defines something or someone, and it is dangerous to believe that one detail displays the importance of a specific person or country.
The tourist gaze of Mexico is of an exotic destination which consists of sun, beaches, tropical weather, and turquoise waters. Tourism in Mexico began in the 1970s and during the past two decades the country has become an exclaimed tourist destination. Currently, tourist revenues are the third-highest source of foreign exchange (Wilson, 2008, 6). Mexican tourism is predominately marketed to the United States (Swords & Mize, 55). These Western tourist visit Mexico to experience a sense of exoticism. Exoticism is defined as, “A romanticization, fetishization, and/or commodification of ethnic, racial, or cultural otherness (Chandler & Munday, 2011).” The exposure to an unfamiliar place creates an adventurous environment for tourists. This allows them to experience a pleasurable surrounding that is different from their average routines. Tourists acquire a nonchalant mentality, which causes them to search for connections that cannot be replicated (Van Den Berghe & Keyes, 1984, 345). The exoticism of Mexico produces an “authentic” experience. This is highly marketable to tourists and establishes the country as an alluring getaway.
The discourse concerning the impacts of tourism in national development, economic and otherwise, has had both negative and positive connotations. Societies hosting tourist attractions are seen as the victims of the negative effects of tourism while the tourists seen as the perpetrators of the crime; bringing their culture and values and imposing them on the host societies. While these generally accepted stereotypical thoughts may be true in some instances, it is however misleading to hold these notions regarding the changes in the social and cultural aspects of a society. Whereas sociocultural changes may in part be due to tourism, it can also be due to other modernization and global factors such as international trade relations, military actions, migration etc (Sharpley R. and Telfer D., 2002).
For the introduction, brief information regarding my purchase and the travel and tourism industry is presented. It was then followed by the explanation of the 2 chosen theories from two different chapters.
In a society fixated on the latest aviation technology and the ability to have an expedition to anywhere around the world, a person can easily travel to any destination that they craved. The ever changing and expansion of flight destination allows the consumer to go where they had never been before. In a world that is increasingly driven by uniqueness and the specialty that none other countries have, tourism act as a catalyst to the economic growth of the local industries there as well as the country itself. Therefore, every country in the world is racing towards having a beautiful or cinematic area which can attract these types of consumers. There are lots of categories for having a tourism destination place, in which this dissertation are
The 20th century has seen the creation and rapid expansion of the tourism industry, fuelled by our ability to travel faster and more conveniently to remote places on the planet. Tourism describes a huge variety of different activities, all falling under the banner of people traveling for pleasure. I think of tourists as falling into two main categories, those people who travel to find somewhere to relax, and those who travel to experience new cultures. The first category has less direct effect on the spread of tourism, as these people prefer to travel to places in developed countries, where they can relax in comfort. The second category likes to travel to experience new cultures and environments without necessarily having a relaxing trip. It is these people who are constantly pushing the tourist industry into new areas. Once the tourist industry realizes a region is becoming popular with adventurous tourists, big resort hotels appear, and the wild is tamed for the benefit of the tourist who likes to feel adventurous without having to endure the hardship of dingy, cockroach-ridden hotels. The location is now ruined for the adventurous tourist. These westernized resorts can be found all over the world, giving a highly sanitized version of the local culture. This leaves the adventurers to go in search of a new location to visit, an even more remote and exotic place is visited, and so the cycle continues until we will have a resort hotel next to every lake, mountain, forest and beach on the planet.
Tourism may be defined as the processes, activities, and outcomes arising from the relationships and the interactions among tourists, tourism suppliers, host governments, host communities, and surrounding environments that are involved in the attracting and hosting of visitors. According to UNESCO (2002), culture is defined as ‘the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group.’
Tourism is something seen as common and in most cases, good for the economy as well as for a person in need of a vacation. From one person’s point of view, it would seem as if nothing was ever wrong with tourism. However, if one was to read A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, one might see a different approach to the idea of tourism. Through exploring the problems of the island of Antigua, Kincaid shows one the ways in which tourism obscures the island's struggles. In this sense, A Small Place tells one that tourism is a double-edged sword – while it provides money for the nation, it also exploits it. Before gaining its independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, Antigua was a large slave country. Upon the nation receiving its freedom, it was struck with the reality that it was quite poor, leaving the nation with few options for economic support.
Tourists desire to seek the authentic and original experiences; they want to experience the local culture, be immersed in it and to have close contact with the locals. However, some parts of it may be manipulated and created just for
For many tourists, travelling to experience different cultures equates to cultural tourism. For these travellers, encountering different cultures is synonymous with a cultural tourism experience. They consume the different sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of an unfamiliar culture. On the other hand, academics and tourism marketers define cultural tourism as a discrete product category that is differentiated from other tourism activities or attractions by consumption of a destination’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage (Hall and MacArthur, 1998; Leask and Yeoman, 1999; Richards, 1996; Shackley,
The notion of motivation plays an instrumental role in decision making as well as desiring satisfaction from consumer perspective. The tourism industry is highly dynamic and influenced by varying forces based on the behaviours of the consumer as well as the aspect of motivation. The concept of tourism typology contributes to a large part in comprehending the aspect of tourist needs as well as motivation. From this perspective, avenues towards satisfying and motivating tourism from around the globe can be developed. Notably, the development of tourism industry in based on the two fundamental concepts, the consumer behaviour and the typology of the tourists. Considering Krippendorf’s (1989), argument on the notion of tourist motivation from the
In general, the political situation of a country is recognized as an important factor that influences tourism development. A stable political condition is a significant requirement that enables a tourist to visit and travel within the destination country (Hall & O’Sullivan, 1996). When the political situation is instable, tourists will perceive negative image that directly effects the tourism industry. As Neumayer (2004) said tourists are sensitive to the negative image of a tourist destination, events of violence can affect tourist destination long after the event has passed and stabilized. Cook (1990) noted political instability is a condition of a country where a government has been toppled, or is controlled by factions following a coup, or where basic functional pre-requisites for social order control and maintenance are unstable and periodically disputed. Hall and O’Sullivan (1996) said perception of political stability and safety are prerequisites for a touristic in nature vacation. They also listed violence protest, social unrest, civil war, terrorist actions and the perceived violations of human rights can be a cause to make tourists alter their travel behavior. The tourist behavior has a significant effect from the potential risk and also has an impact on the decision making process. Tourism is vulnerable to the sinister power of political instability (Seddighi et al. 2001). Tourists are only willing to travel to foreign places in mass numbers if their journey and their stay are confirmed safe and shielded from events that threaten a joyous holiday experience. Faced with violent events in a coutry, potential tourists might fear for their lives or physical integrity, might simply anticipate becoming involved in stressful s...
People are able to travel across the world in a short span of time (Paynesville press, 2001, May 30). Tourism can play a positive role in the social, cultural, economical, environmental and political development of the destination and as such represents a significant development opportunity for many countries and communities only if it is well managed (UNEP, n.d). On the contrary, unconstrained tourism development or growth can pilot to extremely damageable impacts. However, tourism is a very complex business concerning various organizations requiring significant amount of
Today tourism is an important phenomenon. It helps man to find out new things which they are not experienced yet and enhance his life. These travelling of the man from one place to another include pleasure trips, business trips, pilgrimage, educational purpose etc. It has a capacity to transform certain apparently economically useless goods or services into marketable attractions. Such goods and services may include cultural, natural and social assets of the society.
Tourism industries know how to act as a revenue originator and as a catalyst for development in a region. In order for the tourism prospective of a region to be harnessed there is need for a security environment that is stable, complemented by helpful administrative machinery. Developed marketing strategies and logistics which comprise conducting sightseeing tours, hospitality and communications, and other necessities are constructive for tourism to increase in a region. Tourism by clarification is a regional activity. Each region, country, continent, city, town, village, eventually has to fend for itself in the competition to attract tourists. Thus, financial capital along with publicity can considerably have an effect on the tourism of an area.