Queen Margaret University

EDINNURGH

Submitted To Queen Margaret University

QMU Matriculation NO: 17009711

Subject: Tourism and Developing Countries

Module Code: B3141

Word Count: 2500

Date of Submission: 16th April, 2018

Developing countries are generally known as the countries where there is a low living standard,
low Human Development Index (HDI) and low Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (Telfer, D.J.
and Sharpley, R 2008) These developing countries more often struggles to provide the basic
biological needs like food, water, shelter, electricity, and education to the citizens. Since these
countries are still in the development process most of the industries are operated without the
proper infrastructures in unmanaged way. Though they’re facing various challenges they are
slowly modernizing themselves. And this particular essay illustrates that the challenges faced by
developing countries while trying to sustain the tourism.

Tourism has been one of the blessings for the developing countries as it has provided the
opportunities to participate and generate the income through tourism for all levels of people and
communities. (Mowforth, M and Munt, I 2016) Even though tourism is the platform for the
developing countries it has become nightmare for some of the countries as tourism has polluted
the resources, cultural values and norms.

Lately sex tourism has boomed around the world. Because of which more and more tourist are
travelling in order to seek the pleasure form the sexual activities. But as lately this tourism has
turned into nightmare for some of the developing countries as the children of those nations are
victimized for sex activities. (Robertson, L 2013)

Brazil is located in the South America and lately has been one of the attractive sex activities
destinations for tourists. Brazil is popular for its natural resources, carnival festival and favelas
tourism but as lately Brazil has built its reputation as sex tourism destination and the market of
sex tourism in Brazil has boomed in short span of time. The child sex tourism is more active in
the region of north-east of Brazil. As BBC’s survey approximately around 250,000 children are
victimized for sexual activities as their parents are trading them for prostitution to their escape
poverty. Children aged 7 are more in demand for sexual intercourse by tourist travelling Brazil
for their vacations. (BBC 2010) When Brazil was selected as the host nation for World Cup in

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2014 it created a huge buzz and in some aspects it promoted the sex tourism. The sex labors were
more interested to learn English so they can get more clients. (Darlington, S 2014) Even though
sex tourism in Brazil is legal for 18 or more, lately this industry has hunted the under-aged
children for sexual activities in the name of so called sex tourism.

Thailand is a Southeast Asian nation. Thailand has built its reputation as the hub for the sex
tourism destination over the years. Even though prostitution is illegal in Thailand it has become
one of the biggest economic contributors for the country as it contributes worth $ 6.4 billion.
(Draper, J and Kamnuanisilpa, P 2017) Sex tourism in Thailand has provided employment for
more than 120,000 sex labors. As it has marketed itself as one of the sex tourism destination to
the world, the tourist travels Thailand to fulfill their sexual desire and look for the young kids to
satisfy their hunger. As a result of which children are seen as a sex tool for the sex offenders and
are often trafficked. As per Glover around 800,000 children are being trafficked in Thailand for
the sex. (Carolin, L, Lindsay, A and Victor, W 2015) The children who are victimized for sex are
mainly trafficked from the Myanmar and Lao. (Draper, J and Kamnuanisilpa, P 2017) So
Thailand needs to control and manage its sex tourism in order to protect its brand image. 

Cambodia is also a Southeast Asian. And like in Thailand tourism for Cambodia has turned into
nightmare. It has become popular for child sex tourism because of which everyday many child
are victimized for sex. And unlike other countries Cambodia is the place where mothers trade
their own daughters to child traffickers. In Cambodia child are more often forced and victimized
sexually for their virginity. The auctioning of virginity has become more as of tradition for the
sex offenders in Cambodia. Most of the victims in Cambodia are children aged just 8, 9 and 10
years old. They are exploited in this industry by traffickers because of their poverty. (Cohen, L
2015) Most of the victims are from the countryside and some are trafficked from the
neighboring nation Vietnam. As per the estimation of UN’s children’s committee one third of
victims are below 18 and UNICEF says that out of 100%, 37% are the children who are victims.
As street children are more venerable and easy to exploit they’re targeted. APLE states that
tourists are more interested in young boys, as a result of which the number of boy victims are

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higher than girls. (Dombrowski, K 2015) Even though prostitution in Cambodia is illegal it is
being carried out illegally by involving underage girls. This is taking place because of
Cambodia’s weak law, corruption and poverty.

There are certain things like natural disasters which are unavoidable. As these things are
unpredictable it creates huge hazard and brings countless loss to the mankind and particular
place.

Nepali has been seen as one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world, as it offers all
kinds of tourism under one roof to the visitors. But on 25th of April 2015 Nepal was hit by the
devastating earthquake. Due to this shocking earthquake more than 8,000 people died. (Jones, S
2015) Historical monuments like Dharahara and Durbar Squares were destroyed. Because of
earthquake not only Nepalese lost their lives but foreigners also died. Due to quake about 80% of
the tourist who were planning to visit Nepal canceled their visits, those who were in Nepal also
reduced their vacation and returned. (Prasain, S 2015) The tourist destination like Pokhara was
not directly affected by the quake, but the tourist chose not to stay and return their country.
(Thapaliya, R 2015) The earthquake also caused avalanche in the Everest and killed 22 people at
base camp which stopped the climbing and hampered the period of climbing. Due to the
earthquake 90% of the tourism dropped. (Bennett, J 2016) Even though earthquake paused the
tourism industry for about a year, Nepal is slowly recovering from bad dream as in 2016 around
753,000 tourists visited Nepal. Though there was an avalanche in Everest the trekking sector was
able to bounced back quickly as it remained the popular trekking destinations among the
trekkers. (Carswell, H 2017)

Haiti is a Caribbean country with amusing cultures and fabulous sceneries. In late 50s and 60s
with intoxicating mix of music and colorful arts it attracted the crowds including star from
Hollywood. (Dodd, C 2017) But as of late it has struggled to attract the tourists. The 2010
earthquake was major upset as they were trying to restore the Haiti’s tourism industry. The
earthquake took place just when the Haiti was showing a sign of improvement in political,
criminal and natural issues Due to earthquake many well-known hotels like Hotel Oloffson,
Hotel Montana and Haitian National Palace were destroyed. Delta Air Lines and American

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Airlines cancelled their flights. Haitian cruise were not affected by quake so they were waiting
for the government’s authorization to restart their service. (Curley, R 2017) As most of the
infrastructures were destroyed, it brought terror and anxiety to the tourist to choose Haiti as their
vacation destination which was a big blow for the Haiti’s tourism industry. Despite of these
struggles and earthquake destructions Haiti has shown the sign of recovery as there has been a
development of hotels like Marriot. They also have lunched their TV campaigns and they
successfully raised the awareness about the Haiti and were able to attract the tourist from U.S.
(Myers, GN 2015)

Mexico is a South American country. Mexico was able to create its brand image as one of the
most desired tourist destination in the world as it was listed in the top 10 travel destination.
Tourism has acted as one of the major source of economy for Mexico as in 2016 it contributed
the 16% of GDP. However when the earthquake hit Mexico the tourism of Mexico crumbled
down. Even though Mexican Tourism Board declared tourist destinations are not affected, many
tourists got scared to travel and US embassy in Mexico also instructed their citizens not to visit.
(Dorsey, B 2017) Earthquake of 7th September caused many tourists to cancel their visit while
earthquake of 19th September totally annihilated the Mexican tourism market. (TourismReview,
2017) Due to the earthquake many international chain hotels like Marriott International’s Le
Meridien Mexico City, Holiday Inn’s Mexico Coyoacan and Hotel & Suits Mexico Medica Sur
were damaged and had to close down for the repairs. (King, D 2017) Prior to the quake the
occupancy of hotel was 65% in Mexico City but after the quake the occupancy percentage
decreased to 25% and it was predicted that the percentage will go below 10 due to the
insufficient infrastructure and safety concern. (Moor, R 2017) However after the earthquake
Mexico lunched the new tourism promotion campaign called “Mexico, a World of Its own” in
the process to revive the tourism industry. (Weissmann, A 2017) The airport was also resumed
within an hour as Airlines like American, United, Delta and Southwest offered travellers to
rebook their travel free of charge. (Dorsey, B 2017) The Mexican Tourism Board was also quick
to let people know Mexico is safe and they can travel without any fear to ensure that tourism
does not get much affected as it was one of the major sources of income for many Mexicans.
(Mchugh, J 2017)

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Tourism has been seen as the medium to uplift the economic situations and living standard of the
people of particular destinations. Terrorism has wrecked the tourism market around the world.
But in some destination become cursed more than blessing because terrorist are targeting and
ambushing the tourists and tourist destinations to fulfill their purpose.

Egypt is an African country with rich ancient heritages and beautiful beaches. Tourism is one of
the main sources of economy for Egypt. But tourism of Egypt has been hampered by the
terrorism and they are strolling to restore the industry. The tourism industry was in jeopardy
when the terrorist attacked Sinai Peninsula where more than 305 were killed and 128 got injured,
244 passengers died in Russian airplane blast and more than 20 Egyptians were killed in Rafah
by Islamic State. (Regev, D 2017) The Mexican tourist having lunch were also killed mistaken
for militants. As Egypt is terrorized by terrorism travel cautions were issued to the visitors.
German Foreign Ministry warned their citizens not to visit Egypt due to safety concern. This
directly affected the tourism industry as it was dropped by 95%. (Hutchinson, J 2014) The
tourism of Egypt was declining as during 2016 only 5.3 million tourists visited compared to 9.7
million in 2015 and it was a huge reduction by 45%. (Cull, A 2017) However to revive their
tourism industry Egyptian government did offered different schemes like charging low tax to the
airlines and tour operators to get more visitors. They have also invested huge amount of money
to improve and provide high security. They also lunched the tourism campaign called “We have
missed you” to attract more visitors. (Dhair, A.L. 2017)

Tunisia is located in northern part of African. Tunisia has always attracted the tourists with its
ancient arts and attractive beaches. Tunisia was growing as one of the sizzling tourist desertion
until 2015 where in terrorist attack 38 were killed and out 38, 30 were Brits and 3 were Irish.
Because of this incident UK foreign and Commonwealth Office advised tourist not to visit
Tunisia by issuing a state of emergency. (Johnson, M 2017) Because of these terrorist attacks the
tourism industry of Tunisia was left vulnerable destination. Before the 2015 massacre Tunisia
used to get 440,000 Brits annually. But after that massacre the number of Brits dropped by 90%

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and that was a blow for Tunisia. (Wintour, P 2016)  In overall the 25% of the traveller dropped,
which resulted their economy dip by 35% to $1.1 billion in 2015. (Monks, K 2017) The
transaction of tourism industry will not be easy for Tunisia especially after that 2015 massacre.
In order to restore their tourism industry once again they tightened their security and did receive
1.5 million tourists in 2017. Even though they are slowly showing the sign of recovery, their
tourism industry will not hit back top gear until Brits return. (Dennis, J 2017)

Turkey is located on the half of the Eastern Europe and half of the Western Asia. Even though
Turkey is regarded as one of the most attractive and popular tourist destination lately it has
become the victim of terrorism. The market of Turkish tourism has hit low due to terrorism. In
recent years Turkey has been hit with a multiple series of bomb attacks. After 2015 about 400
people have been killed in multiple series of terrorist attacks. (The New York Times, 2017)
These terrorists are mostly targeting tourists and civilians. During the suicide bombing in
Istanbul in 2016 about 10 people were killed and maximum of them were Germans travellers
because of which German foreign Ministry warned their citizens not to visit Turkey. (Yackley,
A.J. 2016) In 2014 Turkish tourism industry generated around $35 billion and was listed as the
6th most attractive tourist destination in the world after receiving 34.8 million tourists.
(Euromonitor International, 2016) Turkish tourism contributed their GDP by 3.7% and generated
employment by 2.3%. After 2015 the fall of tourist decreased by 30% as the terrorist attacks
continued to took place frequently. (IMF, 2017) Even though Turkey is having serious problems,
their tourism industry showed the sign of recovery by welcoming 30.7 million visitors in 2017.
(Daily News, 2018)

Tourism has been regarded as one of the major commerce in the world. In developing countries
tourism is the only platform which can raise the living standard of the people as it generates
income and employment opportunities to all level of people. It helps to develop the infrastructure
of the country. But to succeed various challenges must be overcome. One of the challenges in the
today’s world is sex tourism. In the name of sex tourism children are victimized and are often
trafficked illegally for sex. So to protect children government must implement strong law. A

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natural calamity is another challenge which is always unpredictable and unavoidable. One
devastating tragedy can completely shatter the whole mankind and place. Since it is the
generation of technology, technologies must be used predict and avoid the disasters and while
developing the infrastructure there also needs to be a proper planning and it should be
sustainable and eco-friendly. Terrorism has acted as the medium for terrorist to make their
statements known and fulfill it by attacking tourists. Because of terrorism many tourist
destination are endangered and are abandoned. So to eliminate terrorism government must
improve and upgrade their security and enforce law against weapons. These problems and
challenges must be overcome. To sustain tourism socially, economically and environmentally
there needs to be a proper panning, good law and stable government.

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