Tourism development
The tourist industry has grown rapidly over the last 50 years thanks to things like the cheaper air travel, increased leisure time and increased disposable income. It is now one of the largest industries in the world.
The following powerpoints have all the class information about why tourism has increased:
Lesson 1
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Lesson 2
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The growth in tourism has brought many benefits, but also has caused problems. Popular resorts and areas have grown rapidly, only to find that they are almost being over-run by tourism. Other areas that have relied on a natural resource to bring in tourists are suddenly finding that the huge numbers are beginning to threaten the very environment that attracted them there in the first place.
What is the Butler resort Cycle model?
Lesson6 thebutlertouristresortcyclelifemodel
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This section has three examples of places which have definitely benefited from increased tourism, but also have found that the numbers of people going there have caused problems and conflicts.
A British National Park - The Lake District
Tourism in an LEDC - Game Parks in Kenya, Africa (Mass Tourism)
Case study 2.1 tourism
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In many developing countries tourism is seen to be the answer to their economic problems. The development of air travel has meant that many more people now have the opportunity to go to places such as Kenya and Tanzania. They have encouraged tourists to see their beautiful natural areas, in particular the big game parks.
However, as increasing numbers of people flood into places like Kenya, they are finding that tourism brings with it a range of environmental, cultural and social problems.
Kenya is attractive to foreign travellers as it provides them with an opportunity to experience different cultures and natural surroundings. Many people have grown tired of the overcrowded Mediterranean resorts, instead favouring a more exotic holiday that, until a few years ago, would have been out of most peoples budgets.
The attractions that Kenya offers include:
The safari parks, with the chance to see animals such as lion, leopard and elephant.
The chance to experience the culture of the tribes of Kenya, such as the Masai.
The Indian Ocean coast offers fabulous beaches, a tropical climate, and some of the best scuba diving in the world.
A relatively safe place for tourists to travel.
The increase in tourism has led to economic growth and the creation of many jobs for local people. The influx of foreign money has helped to pay for much-needed developments throughout the country (although primarily in the main tourist areas). These have included improving roads, the airports and the water supply.
As most people travelling to Kenya go there to look at the animals on safari,the Government were forced to protect the natural environment by designating many areas as National Parks. Despite this there are still many problems caused by the massive numbers of tourists:
The huge numbers of visitors is damaging the coral reefs and safari parks. Vehicles in the parks are causing soil erosion, whilst boats and divers themselves can damage the fragile coral very easily.
The wildlife of the National Parks is constantly being disturbed by the throngs of tourists descending upon them to take their photos before heading off again.
The Masai and other farmers have found that their land is now part of a National Park and therefore cannot be farmed. This has caused them great problems, and pushed them into joining the tourist industry. Many people feel that by putting on "cultural shows" for the tourists they are actually destroying their own culture, as the visitors look upon it as some kind of freak show.
The massive tourist developments on the Indian Ocean coastline have caused an increase in house prices in the area, meaning that the locals are priced out of the market.
Much of the new infrastructure developments have been completed primarily for the tourists, and do not really benefit the local community as much as some other projects might have done.
A large percentage of the money earned by tourism in the country goes back to the tour operators and large hotel chains, which are based in countries like the United States and Great Britain.
RECAP:
Kenya is located in East Africa, its capital city is Nairobi and it has a population of approximately 30 million people.
Why visit Kenya?
- it has an attractive climate (tropical) with sunshine all year round, hot and humid at the coast; temperate inland and dry in the NE (rainy season - April-June and Oct-Dec, heavy rainfall in the afternoon and early evening)
- Safari holidays are popular - e.g. in the Maasai Mara / Nakuru National Park - Kenya has spectacular wildlife - including the big 5 - Lion, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Leopard and Buffalo
- Cultural experience - many tourists visit local tribes such as the Maasai to find out more about their lifestyle and traditions
- Coastal Holidays - SE of Kenya has fine sands and coral reefs with spectacular marine life - e.g. Mombassa
Why have numbers of tourists visiting Kenya increased?
- Kenya was one of the first LEDC countries to acheive mass tourism and in the 1970s and 1980s there was a rapid increase in the numbers of tourists, particularly following the release of the films Born Free and Out of Africa.
- Tourist numbers have also increased as larger aircraft in the 1980s brought prices of air travel down.
Advantages of Tourism to Kenya:
- Tourism encourages the building of new roads and better communications
- Jobs in tourism have helped develop people's business skills
- Tourism has created all year round jobs for Kenyans
- Tourism is Kenya's biggest earner of foreign exchange
-Tourism has stimulated farming, by creating a demand for local food from farmers
- National Parks have been created - encouraging people to protect the environment.
Disadvantages of Tourism for Kenya:
- there is leakage of income - with a lot of the money paid for holidays never actually reaching Kenya (travel companies and foreign owned hotels get it instead)
- Safari minibuses disturb animals - often getting too close (e.g. can be 30-40 buses around a single animal in the Maasai Mara), they also cause soil erosion as the wheels churn up the grass
- many Maasai are traditionally nomadic, but many have been forced out of the National Parks - losing their land and also losing their traditional lifestyles.
- Hot air balloons in parks disturb animals - by casting shadows and from the noise of the burners.
- Coastal Environments such as those in Mombassa have been damaged - e.g. destruction of coral reefs as tourists step on the coral and also take souvenirs.
- Drugs and crime has increased and AIDS is a major problem
Working towards sustainable tourism in Kenya - KIGO CONSERVANCY - An example of ECOTOURISM.
Kigio Conservancy was set up in 1997 on an old beef / dairy ranch with the aim of providing a wildlife sanctuary and a sustainable eco-tourism destination.
The accommodation at Kigio is in "cottages" built of mud, timber and thatch, using local and reclaimed materials and methods. The furniture is built from re-claimed timber from the ground and there is no electricity, oil lamps are instead used.
Kigio has a number of ecotourism activities it is involved in:
- partnerships with local communities - helping to fund and work on community projects
- provides links with local schools with schools in the UK, raising money for new classrooms and other projects (e.g. water tanks)
- partnerships with conservation organisations such as the Tusk Trust - which has involved setting up conservation centre for use by local schools and providing sustainable development education for local communities
- employees local people - e.g. guides and other workers
- conservation activities - e.g. looking after orphaned wildlife - e.g. 2003 relocation of giraffe into the area - including a baby giraffe from the Karen Blixen Giraffe Orphange in Nairobi.
Links:
Kigio Conservancy Centre - External Link
Tourism in Kenya - Kenya Web - External Link
The impacts of tourism
Tourism has both positive and negative impacts for an area. In both the United Kingdom and in countries in the developing world tourism has been the catalyst for economic growth. Some LEDC's rely on tourism as their principle industry so much that when a problem occurs they have to work very quickly to rectify it. For instance when a hurricane hit Fiji in 1998, the tourist industry, their main source of income, was badly hit. The first thing that money was used to repair was all the hotels and their tourist facilities so that business did not lose out too much. Some locals even produced T-shirts the next day saying how they had survived the hurricane.
This section looks at some of the positive and negative impacts of tourism,both in the developed and developing world.
Advantages of tourism
Tourism brings much needed investment into an area. If it is an LEDC, the foreign currency is very important to the local people.
Tourism provides employment for many local people, ranging from working in the hotels to selling trinkets on the beach. Without the tourist industry some less developed countries would have a much greater unemployment problem.
The money that tourism brings in can be used to improve the infrastructure of the area. New roads, airports and facilities can be built, which cater for the increasing number of tourists, but also benefit the local residents.
Income from tourism may be used to help conserve the natural environment that is the reason why visitors come in the first place.
The country can benefit from overseas investment, primarily in the tourist industry, but also in other related industries.
Tourism may help to preserve local cultures and communities, as they become a tourist attraction. This is certainly the case with some Masai tribes in Kenya and Maori's in New Zealand. Both use the visitor's interest and curiosity in their culture to become a tourist attraction.
Disadvantages of tourism
In many resorts in LEDC's very little of the money paid for the holiday actually reaches the country. The holiday company, travel agents, airlines and hotel companies swallow most of it.
The jobs for the locals are often badly paid, with very poor working conditions.
The huge number of tourists coming to see it could easily damage the environment. It is very easy for a country to see the short-term economic gains of mass tourism without really taking heed of the long-term environmental damage going on.
Increasing numbers of tourists brings problems such as littering, pollution and footpath erosion. All of these take time and money to clear up.
Overseas investment, in things like luxury hotels, can mean that the money goes back to the country of origin. These hotels may also take trade away from local guesthouses and hotels.
Local cultures could be devalued by tourism. They may almost become a freak show, where the visitors begin to look down on the locals as different.
TOURISM IN AN EXTREME ENVIRONMENT - Antarctica
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