 TOURISM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 

Define in your own words what is tourism and how can it

impact a country's development?

 DEFINITION OF TOURISM:-

There have been many attempts to define tourism. One of

the most enduring definitions is that used by the Tourism Society:
"the temporary short term movement of people to destinations
outside places where they normally live and work, and their
activities during their stay at these destinations."

Tourism refers to all travel that results in one or more nights

being spent away from home. The travel is, in essence, actually a
massive flow of people of diverse backgrounds, languages,
cultures and religion interacting under the collective description of
being tourists.

The purpose of travel follows the 1993 UN Statistical

Commission's definition, which encompasses leisure, business and
other reasons. The tourist can be a domestic tourist (eg. a resident

Tourism In Developing Countries

of one country, India, travelling within the country), a regional
tourist (a visitor from Nigeria spending one or more nights in
Benin). The visitor can also be overseas or international tourist (a
resident of the UK staying one or more nights in Singapore).

Tourism is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure

purposes or the provision of services to support this leisure travel.
The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who
"travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for
not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other
purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated
from within the place visited".

Tourism is vital for many countries, due to the income

generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists,
the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, and the
opportunity for employment in the service industries associated
with tourism. These service industries include transportation
services such as cruise ships and taxis, accommodation such as
hotels, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and other
hospitality industry services such as spas and resorts.

Tourism impacts a country's development in various ways.

This can be easily explained through the PEST or the STEP model. It
stands for - Political, Economic, Social and Technological. The
impacts may be described as follows.

Tourism In Developing Countries

  PEST/STEP MODEL 

POLITICAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

 Due to the benefits tourism gives to the economy,

governments promote tourism in a big way.
 As the government promotes foreign tourists coming into the
country, they try and bring improvement in the home country
as well.
 Campaigns are launched internationally to bring in more
tourists.
 Tourism is a way in which the reputation of a country can be
built on a global level.
 It creates good relations with other countries, when tourists
come in.
 Earlier any person could travel to different places (foreign
people) without any passport or documents, but now due to
stringent rules and regulations people cannot just go into
other countries without a passport.

Tourism In Developing Countries

  It was not safe for people to travel by sea or road easily, a lot
of robberies or unwanted things took place, but now the
different governments have made it much safer to travel. The
waters as well as land are guarded well.
 The government makes sure that there are consumer
protection laws and safety regulations all in place.

 ECONOMICAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

The Positive Economical Impacts of Tourism are as follows

 Tourism expenditures generate income to the host economy

and can stimulate the investment necessary to finance
growth in other economic sectors.
 When tourists come into the country and spend their money
– it causes the multiplier effect – and boosts the economy,
apart from increasing foreign exchange.
 Multiplier effect - A visitor staying in a small guest house
pays his/her host who then goes out and spends some of
that money in local shops, so the local shop owners and
workers indirectly benefit from the visitor even if they never
see them. This is the multiplier effect.

Tourism In Developing Countries

  The tourism industry is "decentralized". This means that there
is little dependence on urban centres and imports to sustain
tourism activity. Sustainable/community based tourism relies
on small, locally operated business, local features and
products and thrives on entrepreneurial activity from
individuals.
 Tourism provides opportunities for regional development
particularly areas undergoing structural change. Being a
labour intensive industry, with the right encouragement
tourism can deliver great employment and training
opportunities particularly for young people.

Tourism contributes to government revenue

 Direct contributions are generated by taxes on income from

tourism employment and tourism businesses, and by direct
levies on tourists such as departure taxes.
 Indirect contributions come from taxes and duties levied on
goods and services supplied to tourists.

Tourism In Developing Countries

More Job Opportunities

 Tourism can generate jobs directly through hotels,

restaurants, nightclubs, taxis, and souvenir sales, and
indirectly through the supply of goods and services needed
by tourism related businesses.
 A study has shown that tourism supports about 7% of the
world’s population.

Infrastructure Development

 Due to tourism, the government may be induced to make

infrastructural improvements such as better water and
sewage systems, roads, electricity, telephone and public
transport networks.
 This improves the quality of life of the host community and
facilitates tourism as well.

The Negative Economical Impacts of Tourism are as follows

 There are many hidden costs to tourism, which can have

unfavourable economic effects on the host community.
 Often rich countries are able to profit from tourism than poor
ones.
 Whereas the least developed countries have the most urgent
need for income, employment and general rise of the

Tourism In Developing Countries

 standard of living by means of tourism, they are least able to
recognize these benefits.
 Among the reasons for these are the large scale transfer of
tourism revenues out of the host country and exclusion of
local businesses and products.

Leakage

 The direct income for an area is the amount of tourist

expenditure that remains locally after taxes, profits and
wages are paid outside the area and after imports are
purchased; these subtracted amounts are called leakage.
 In most all-inclusive package tours, about 80% of traveller’s
expenditures go to the airlines, hotels and other international
companies, and not to local businesses or workers.
 In addition, significant amounts of income actually retained at
destination level can leave again through leakage.
 A study of tourism ‘leakage’ in Thailand estimated that
70% of all money spent by tourists ended up leaving
Thailand.

Infrastructure Cost

 Tourism development can cost the local government and

local taxpayers a great deal of money.
 Developers may want the government to improve airports,
roads and other infrastructure, and possibly to provide tax

Tourism In Developing Countries

 breaks and other financial advantages, which are costly
activities for the government.
 Public resources spent on subsidized infrastructure or tax
breaks may reduce government investment in other critical
areas such as education and health.

Increase in Prices

 Increasing demand for basic services and goods from tourists

cause price hikes that negatively affect local residents whose
income does not increase proportionately.

Dependence of the local community on tourism

 Many developing countries with little ability to explore other

resources have embraced tourism as a way to boost the
economy and are dependent on it.
 In the Maldives 83% of the workforce depends directly or
indirectly on tourism.
 Over reliance on tourism carries risks to tourism dependent
economies. Economic recession, the impacts of natural
disasters such as tropical storms and changing tourism
patterns can all have devastating effects.

Tourism In Developing Countries

Seasonal Employment

 During peak periods, a lot of jobs are available but as soon as

the tourists go back, the jobs disappear as well.
For Example: Goa – India, the locals get their income only
during the peak season (December – February, April – July)
afterwhich they have no jobs and no income.
 There is no guarantee of employment from one season to the
next.

 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

The Positive Social Impacts of Tourism are as follows

 Tourism helps to foster a sense of community pride as visitors

choose to visit a location for a reason.
 However, community pride is often related to economic
prosperity with affluent communities more likely to take pride
in their district. Well-presented and well maintained facilities
help visitors to feel welcome and can contribute to
community pride.

Tourism In Developing Countries

  Tourism facilitates the interaction between communities and
visitors (domestic and international). Economic benefits aside,
outside contact draws attention to the host community.
 Tourism can be used as a tool for raising awareness. Branding
of local product and achievements creates regional identity
both nationally and internationally. Tourism can also raise
awareness of local issues and needs.
 Attraction to natural and heritage icons often helps fund
conservation efforts and provides opportunities for effective
management of sensitive and significant areas.
 Cultural events assert cultural identity and help preserve local
traditions in younger generations while influencing visitors
firsthand.
 Tourism allows for local crafts, foods and personalities to be
kept alive while raising funds for the community.
 Many local customs have been revitalized due to tourism. In
many places, there has been a reappearance of traditional
customs that had been forgotten: “folklore”, crafts,
festivals, gastronomy, etc.
 One of the more important positive social aspects is the
improvement in the facilities and services: sanitary attention,
means of transport, parks, etc.
 Tourism can boost the preservation and transmission of
cultural and historic traditions. This often contributes to the

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Tourism In Developing Countries

 conservation and sustainable management of natural
resources, the protection of local heritage, and a revival of
indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts.

The Negative Social Impacts of Tourism are as follows

 The first remarkable negative aspect is the social differences

between local population and visitors. In certain places,
mainly in those of the most underprivileged countries, the
residents tend to become servants of the tourists. This
creates resentment towards the visitors and areas of social
tension appear.
 Thus, tourism establishes the basis of a new form of
colonialism based on the foreign currency dependency.
 Tourism causes an increase in crime rate. With the increase in
tourists, crimes like smuggling, hustling, pick-pocketing and
so on increase as well. It also causes an increase in drugs,
prostitution and promiscuous behaviour.
 The local youth tend to look at the tourists and try and follow
them. They sometimes are embarrassed of their own culture
and want to adopt the foreigner’s ways. At times, tourism
causes a loss of cultural pride and values.

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Tourism In Developing Countries

 TECHNOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:-

 Due to Globalization, the whole world can be considered as

competition.
 Since one wants to attract as many tourists as possible; the
tourism industry constantly needs to improve and upgrade its
technology.
 Information technology is being used for a variety of
functions in the tourism industry, ranging from an internal
organization role to external communication between
different parts of the industry. The continuous development
of information technology has profound implications for the
whole tourism industry.
 The most important role of information technology is the
development of competitive advantages by both reducing
cost and enhancing differentiation.
 As the tourism industry also includes various types of
technologies, the public also get educated about the same.
 Schemes where online bookings are cheaper, provide an
incentive for people to become more tech savy.
 With air travel and various other modes of transport, now it
has become very easy for people from various parts of the
world to go to any destination of their choice.

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Tourism In Developing Countries

  Due to technology changes, every country has atleast one
airport, train stations, bus stops and so forth.
 Earlier it used to take travellers from Asian countries a week
or even more to travel to Europe, but now, due to Airlines,
that distance can be covered within a few hours itself.

 CONCLUSION:-

 At the first level, tourism fosters economic growth through

foreign exchange earnings and increases in state revenue
and, at a second level, improves the people's well being in
the areas of job creation, revenue/income distribution and
balanced regional development.
 Although tourism causes facilities and services to be
provided, there are possibilities of these facilities not being
accessible to local residents. In addition, tourism has been
criticised for exacerbating the problems of societies: the
destruction of social patterns, neo-colonialist relationships of
exploitation and dependence, inflationary pressure among
others.

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Tourism In Developing Countries

  Tourism does generate revenue and valuable foreign
exchange, marked dependence on tourism can also create
problems of an economic or socio-cultural nature, particularly
for a small country.
 Heavy reliance on revenue from tourism can result in sharp
revenue fluctuations since the industry is very seasonal, as
well as being subject to changes in taste or fashion, fears of
political instability, allegations of health hazards etc. A high
degree of seasonality not only causes large fluctuations in
earnings from tourism but also implies considerable social
costs in terms of underutilization of productive capacity, and
in particular, high levels of seasonal unemployment.

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