Theory: Tourism Impacts and Challenges

However, tourism has also contributed to a wide range of issues that damage local residents’ culture. Tourism places pressure on social configurations, cultural traditions and values which leads to impacts that tend to be intangible and typically permanent in the destination (Hashimoto, 2002; Oriade & Evans, 2011). The destination and its communities are affected by the social and cultural values that can be imposed by tourism structures. Tourism effects local society and culture because, like other forms of economic development, it raises incomes and has a modernising effect on the society in which it takes place. Negative impacts on culture, resulting from tourism, include:

• The demonstration effect occurs when residents, particularly young people, observe and then try to copy the behaviour, dress and attitudes of tourists. This may lead to frustration in poor countries when locals realise they are unlikely to ever obtain the wealth and possessions that tourists have. This may become a problem as it can motivate locals to turn to crime in order to obtain such goods.
• Cultural change brought about by tourism may occur very slowly through a process described as acculturation. This is thought to occur when two cultures interact over time and the attitudes of the stronger culture are gradually transferred to the weaker culture. In this way tourism is thought to have particularly pronounced effect on the culture of less developed countries.
• The process of cultural commodification can occur when traditional items, such as dances, ceremonies and handicrafts, are over-commercialised and turned into tourist products. This raises the issue of authenticity where tribal people may dress up for tourists who think that they are witnessing authentic traditional lifestyle. Zooification may also occur in the case of tribal people or distinct ethnic groups which can become tourist curiosities and attractions and tourists simply observe and stare at these groups.
• Language may be influenced by an influx of immigrant or expatriate workers, either through the demonstration effect as locals aspire to tourist behaviour or through direct social contact and commercial dealings in shops and bars.
• Heritage sites that possess significant cultural or religious value can become degraded due to the excessive pressure placed on them by heavy visitation, destructive behavior by tourists, and lack of preservation activities.