TRANSCRIPTS
For a while tourism actually makes this culture stronger. Increasingly, however, we find that this development is overturned as time goes by. People become hungry for money, and use a cheap, two-flights-a-day tourism strategy. This encourages people to come in their thousands and make the destination little more than a theme park.
It’s not surprising there is a real fear among people that this will affect the old culture. Tourism can have a negative effect on their way of life. Large numbers of tourists can undermine traditional beliefs, values and customs. In fact, there is a real risk of commercializing the very culture that they find so interesting. And where tourists are not sensitive to local traditions, their behaviour can cause great offence. To quote Professor Neil Leiper in his book Tourism Management (one of your core texts), ‘relationships between tourists and locals are often shaped and damaged by stereotyped images that each part holds’.
It’s true to say that the physical pollution of our environment can be prevented, but when the minds and the culture of a people are polluted, the effects can be long-lasting. So it should be clear that sensitivity to the cultural landscape is extremely important in the development of tourism.
So, what exactly have we looked at this morning
so far? Well, to sum up, we have seen that in countries opening up to tourism, tourists are usually impressed with the lifestyle that the indigenous people lead. At the same time, the native population, often led by government policy or simply by greed, develops tourism activities without much care for the environment and the cultural heritage. If developments are positive to start with, these are often overturned and become negative.
Finally, and this is an interesting way of looking at the problem, we sometimes find that people focus on the wrong things. In fact, as Macleod points out in his article ‘Cultural commodification and tourism: A very special relationship’, in volume 6 of Tourism, Culture and Communication, published in 2006, it may be that policymakers and others are missing aspects of culture that could give advantage to certain regions and their local population.
Now I think that’s all I’m going to say for the moment on the basics of tourism, culture and destination planning. Are there any questions so far? … No? Good.
Oh, one last thing, perhaps … to quote Mark Mann, from the Community tourism guide: ‘Next time you go on holiday, ask yourself who owns your hotel or the airline or the tour agency who booked your holiday, or who supplied the drink with your dinner. Who is making money from your holiday? Much of what we spend on holiday – even in the developing world – ends up back in Western countries.’
Unit 9, Lesson 2, Exercise D 2.3
1 As we shall see, tourism development had a profound impact on it.
2 In terms of cultural change, it started to understand global developments beyond its own borders.
3 It could be argued that in the seventies, many people in the West had become disillusioned with the price of economic growth.
4 Research has shown that they were also impressed by the way people with limited resources were able to support their lives and their culture without damaging the environment.
5 Increasingly, however, we find that this development is overturned as time goes by.
6 It’s true to say that the physical pollution of our environment can be prevented, but when the minds and the culture of a people are polluted, the effects can be long-lasting.
7 So it should be clear that sensitivity to the cultural landscape is extremely important in the development of tourism.
Unit 9, Lesson 3, Exercise A 2.4 1 'impact, 'influx, 'mainstream, pre'serve
2 ack'nowledge, 'consequence, 'heritage, 'influence
3 in'digenous, 'infrastructure, pub'licity, sus'tainable
4 'probably, 'generally, 'usually, fi'nancially
Unit 9, Lesson 3, Exercise C 2.5 Part 3
OK, let’s turn to possible solutions to the challenge of dealing with culture in tourism. Now, it’s important to remember here that globalization is happening all around us and the challenge of the
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