'Cultural tourists are not entirely to blame for the negative sociocultural impacts on locals'

'Cultural tourists are not entirely to blame for the negative sociocultural impacts on locals'

Keywords; Culture, authenticity, acculturation, commodifying, modernisation,

Abstract
Analysts face severe difficulties in separating the effects of tourists on host cultures from those changes induced by other causes. Tourists are only one form of exposure of hosts to elements of societies with a different culture (Wall and Mathieson, 2006).

Therefore, the extent to which tourists have influenced the process of cultural change is the focus of this report. Other causes (media, government and nature etc) of negative sociocultural impacts are also outlined.

Main body

Cultural tourism is travel to experience and in some cases, participate in a vanishing lifestyle that lies within human memory (Novelli, 2005).
Cultural tourism is a quest for authenticity where tourist travel to rural areas or to remote places where local's lifestyles have not been 'contaminated' by modernity and western culture (Page and Connell, 2009). Hence, such tourists want to avoid the traps of staged authenticity. However, such quest for genuine authenticity can itself also lead to negative impacts on the host community (Mason, 2008).

In tourist settings, local's acculturation results from their interactions with tourists (Novelli, 2005). This slow phenomenon is one of the main socio-cultural impacts of tourism involving the development of a hybrid culture, initially most noticeably in language and clothing (Novelli, 2005).
However, it is argued that tourists actually provide more positive effects than negative ones (Goeldner and Brent Ritchie, 2009).
On the other hand, resentment of visitors by local (indigenous people) can occur (Mason, 2008).
Research does however suggest that increasingly tourists are willing to support companies who respect the local culture (Spenceley, 2008). Moreover, consumers are seeking a different type of experience and a much deeper connection to the local community.

However, athough tourists are more satisfied with socially responsible companies they are unlikely to demand responsible tourism explicitly (Mason, 2008).

The exotic indigenous cultures of both 'developing' and 'developed' nations are promoted as commodities of difference to fulfil a commercially created need in the consciousness of affluent tourists, or 'authenticity-seeking' tourists including backpackers and other independent travellers (Weaver and Lawton, 2006).
This relates to the complexities of tourism and its power to construct and reduce social identities, space and place, and systematically arrange poorer parts of the world (through the agency of travel firms and governments) for the benefit of the richer (restless, bored) populations (Spenceley, 2008).
Tourists will remain less aware of the destination culture than may be desirable due to the inadequate marketing material that focuses on tried and tested previously successful formulaic images and narratives (Wearing, Stevenson and Young, 2010).

Interestingly however, it is argued that the best way to control tourists and therefore limit the adverse impacts of tourism on local culture is to control the touristy experience by standardising, modifying and commodifying that experience (McKercher and Du Cros, 2007). Whats more, most tourists actually want to have their experience controlled as they wish to get the most out of their experience.

Kerr (1994 in Lomine and Edmunds, 2007, p.17) observes that "what is good for conservation is not necessarily good for tourism and what is good for tourism is rarely good for conservation". In practice, cultural values have been compromised for commercial gain where cultural assets are presented as commodified tourism products for easy consumption by visitors. Cultural heritage managers, on the other hand, choose to ignore the reality of tourism, and in doing so, regret the perceived adverse impacts that tourism poses on heritage site (McKercher and Du Cros, 2007).
It is this failure to find a connection between cultural heritage management and tourism which has resulted in the delivery of cultural tourism products being below standard and the continued unsustainable development of the cultural tourism sector (Lomine and Edmunds, 2007).

The media is also a key player towards causing considerable influence in shaping the fake beliefs and ideologies of a local culture (Cooper et al, 2008).
This in turn has a negative impact on host destination as the tourists will only see what they have been taught to see and therefore miss the harsh realities of host destinations (Jennings and Nickerson, 2006). Many development opportunities such as economic gains for the local community are missed as a result and awareness of real-life culture is unknowingly ignored (Weaver and Lawton, 2008).

It appears that tourism is able to accelerate cultural changes but the effects are not specific to tourism, and some of the modifications may reflect a series of changes not the least of which are inexorable forces of modernisation (Wall and Mathieson, 2006).

Governments are not putting enough pressure on companies to manage responsibly (Spenceley, 2008). For example, in a number of Southeast Asian countries, prostitution and some for sex tourism have been in existence for a long time. So much so that it has even become institutionalised in countries such as Thailand (Page and Connell, 2009). Although prostitution is not necessarily legal in such countries, laws are not always enforced by the government (Page and Connell, 2009).

Key references

Lomine, L. and Edmunds, J. (2007) Key concepts in tourism. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Novelli, M. (2005) Niche tourism: contemporary issues, trends and cases. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann

Spenceley, A. (2008) Responsible tourism: Critical issues for conservation and development. London: Earthscan

The author of this discussion paper provides an in-depth discussion of whether tourists are actually to blame for the negative impacts on destinations. The author outlines the possible negative and positive impacts that tourists can potentially have upon the culture of the locals that reside in the destination. The author then goes on to state that in actual fact, the negative impacts on a culture is not just as a consequence of tourists but of other factors too.

This paper raises the age-old issue of the tourists versus the locals, and whether the positive impacts that tourists bring can ever really outweigh the negative impacts that they cause.

Like the author has discussed, an increase of tourists provides many positive results, such as economic benefits, however they also cause many negative impacts such as acculturation with the locals therefore losing some of their traditions and cultures.
The paper also raises the debate of whether tourists should ever really be allowed to integrate or associate with locals for fear of 'contaminating them with westernisation'. An association between the two can have negative effects such as the loss of tradition or in some cases, the locals may put on a 'show' for the tourists, which can be exploitive of the locals. Also it is feared that if the locals are 'performing' their culture for tourists to see, for example traditional dances, that the said traditional dance will no longer be traditional but merely an act performed purely for the entertainment of tourists.

The author points out the argument that tourists are the not the only ones to blame for negative impacts on a cultural, but also that other factors can have an influence. Some of the blame is laid on to the powerful influence of the media. In this day and age the media is a powerful influence and influences us all, whether we are aware of it or not. The influence of the media can have a negative influence due to the fact that we can be told what to believe by the media even if what they are saying is totally false. A considerable amount of blame is also assigned to the government, with the paper stating that the government is guilty of not always enforcing their laws. To reiterate this point, the author has used the effective example of Sex Tourism in different countries where the government does not reinforce the laws.

There are very few limitations to this paper as the author has obviously conducted a lot of research and therefore used a wide range of theory to explore this subject thoroughly. The argument is laid out in a clear manner with both sides of the argument being explored and debated.