Long-Term Effects of Global Tourism on Economy

Long-term effects of global tourism on economy Tourism is the travel tour activities which provides travelers leisure facilities and service industry. And it is also a kind of leisure entertainment that has complex social phenomenon, involves the politics, economy, culture, history, geography, law, and other social fields. Generally speaking, tourism has a profound impact for the country. Tourism gradually has become a prevalent activity all over the world. Compared to 2009, there were 1002 million international tourists in 2010, which increased 6. 6% over the last year. UNWTO, 2011) And then, according to the the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) report, in the first two months of 2011, the number of International tourists arrivals rose by 5 per cent from 2010. (ibid) Furthermore, the benefits brought by the whole International tourist arrivals reached 442 million in 2010, which the annual average growth is 5. 6% from start of this century. (ibid) Overall, tourism has shown the rapid growth and development in the past 10 years, which become one of the main sources of the world economy. There are several reasons led to the development of tourism.

So this article will discuss the reason that cause the rise of worldwide tourism and the impact on the emerging economies. In fact, the tourism industry is developing rapidly in the 20th century. There are several reasons for this increase. First of all, is the improvement of the travel transportation technology. There are many ways to travel and these methods are widely used, it is possible to drive a car, take a ship or even ride on a bicycle. In addition, many cities have been connected up by the highway, which means that travel is more convenient, at the same time the ticket for air also decreases.

Secondly, now people have more income for their own use, this is because part of the rising wages and part of the fall in goods’ prices. Meanwhile, there are a lot of families have a car and Dink family which has no children, it also saves a lot of money for them. Long-term effects of global tourism on economy These factors significantly increased possibility of them to be the tourists. Then, the increase of the holiday makes a great number of tourists choose mass tourism or join the tours, and the ecological tourism also became prevalent.

Last but not least, the media, which have two types of media to attract visitors. On one hand, there are a lot of travel information is published in the newspapers, magazines and television programs. The ‘Island of Contrasts’ which is the largest island in the Canaries published a new web page on Facebook in January last year. After 4 weeks, the pages had more than 10,000 fans. Subsequently, the Tenerife Tourism Corporation has launched a Twitter and YouTube channel in order to attract more visitors’ attention. I Want Sun, 2011) With the development of the media and technology, the tourism company can takes full advantage of the convenience of the network to achieve the purpose to attract people’s attentions and allow the island became one of the hottest tourist destinations. In addition, the science and technology also can be used during a tour. According to Jaiswal’s white-paper, there are 5 technologies that are improving the quality of the tourism, which are “Mobile devices, Social Media, Location Based Services, Personalized Marketing (Behavioral Marketing) and Near Field Communications. (Jaiswal, 2012) These techniques provide a convenience to the passengers who are on their journey, some of them might achieve through the smart phones. Mobile communication technology has almost become an indispensable part of the tourism industry. The new mobile devices, smart phones like Blackberry, iphone, HTC or Samsung and tablet PCs like ipad are the most appropriate facilities to interact with tourists. (Jaiswal, 2012) For instance, people can use the mobile phones or computers to check-in or buy some duty-free goods when they at the airport.

Then, tourists can plan their trip, entertain or explore on the plane with the Wi-Fi connection which a few airlines provide. Moreover, surfing the Internet or connect the Facebook share some news on the road, getting Wi-Fi and wired networks in the hotel. Nowadays, many tourists have spent their entire adult life in the digital Long-term effects of global tourism on economy products, they want their travel be information-based and personalized, in order to realize “any time, anywhere” travel.

In recent years the tourism industry has become a prosperous industry all over the world, the economic benefit it brought greatly help those developing countries, and also made a great contribution to the emerging economies. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) latest Economic Impact Research shows that World Travel and Tourism continues to grow, despite the sustained economic challenges(WTTC(2), 2012). There are several main aspects. The first main benefit is the contribution to the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) by the Travel and Tourism.

According to the “Economic Impact of Travel & Tourism 2012 Summary” by WTTC, the direct GDP in 2011 reached US $1,972. 8 billion by the tourism industry, which account 2. 8% of the whole GDP. In addition, WTTC estimated that GDP would rise and reach US $2082. 2billion in 2012(WTTC(1), 2012). This shows that the money came from the tourism activities like hotels, restaurants, transportation and so on. At the same time, this also showed the improvement of people’s living standard and the money can be used to develop the infrastructures as well.

Another benefit is increased employment, there is no doubt that the main point is to provide jobs to local people in the area of the tourist attractions. The report said that there were 98 million people were employed directly in 2011 because of the tourism industry all around the world(WTTC(2), 2012). This might be the biggest benefit for the tourism industry and the local citizens. Furthermore, being employed means there will have the opportunity to make money, not only for the industry but also for the people.

In consequence, this will be a win-win situation, tourism helps local establish the foundation of the economy, and the local government helps the tourism industry to win interest and prestige. Long-term effects of global tourism on economy However, there are some negative points of tourism. One of them is the seasonal employment in some places, and this will lead to the many people facing the problem of unemployment outside of the peak tourist season. For example, this will occur in tourist attractions and resort towns, if an attraction opens to the visitors, like skiing in Swiss in the winter.

The skiing coaches will teach people how to go skiing, but once the snow melted, they will lose their jobs and the staff as well. Furthermore, the impact of tourism on the environment is a significant issue as the climate change is most troublesome problem. Over the years, the environmental pollution caused by tourism was almost out of control, such as deforestation and CO2 emissions from increased air travel, has already caused the green house effect. It could lead to the loss of the destinations that depends on their natural environment.

For example, the case of emissions of greenhouse gases in China. the case of emissions of greenhouse gases in china. “China is the world’s largest aggregate emitter of greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, though the U. S. is the largest per capita emitter. “(World Savvy 2008) China should be responsible for a large proportion of the emission of dangerous gases, including sulfur dioxide (the main ingredient of smoke) and mercury (the main cause stunting and birth defects of children).

All of these phenomena will continue, it is impossible to save the environment completely, human beings only have to try to protect it, reduce the damage to the ecosystem. Although there has the negative points, the WTTC still make the prediction for the worldwide tourism industry in the next 10 years. Experts estimate that the world GDP will continuing increase 4. 2% pre year. (WTTC(2), 2012) This means that there are going to have a plenty of work for tourism services in the next few years, including direct and indirect employment.

Obviously, this will help to ease the unemployment rate all over the world to reduce poverty in the low economic area. Without a doubt, China is one of the fastest developing countries now, which occupied the third position in world international arrivals top ten in 2010. Long-term effects of global tourism on economy (UNWTO, 2011) For Europe, current forecast shows that economic growth will be back on track in 2014, the travel and tourism directly GDP of 2. 6% pre year until 2022 for the long-term growth. (WTTC(2), 2012)

In conclusion, despite the negative factors, the long-term prospects of the tourism industry is still a positive side, it will continue to promoting the strong growth in emerging markets and prosperity. Now there is a way to deal with the harm caused by the tourism industry in the environment, that is eco-tourism which is defined as the “protection of tourism” and “sustainable development of tourism. ”. At present, the demand for ecological tourism help to open the tourism markets and also can play a role in the protecting of the natural environment.

Overall, the tourism industry is a double-edged sword, if not handled it properly not only will affect human, but the more will have a huge impact on the world. Long-term effects of global tourism on economy Bibliography 1? I Want Sun 3 March 2011 “Use of social media to attract visitors to Tenerife” http://www. iwantsun. co. uk/beach-holidays/2011/03/03/use-ofsocial-media-to-attract-visitors-to-tenerife 2? Jaiswal S. “Advances in Travel Technology” February 2012 3? UNWTO Tourism Highlights June 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2012. UNWTO World Tourism Highlights (UNWTO). http://mkt. nwto. org/ sites/all/files/docpdf/unwtohighlights11enlr. pdf 4? World Savvy 2008 “The Natural Environment” http://worldsavvy. org/ monitor/index. php? option=com_content=article=120=183 5? World Travel & Tourism Council (1) “Travel & Tourism Economic impact 2012” 2012 http://www. wttc. org/site_media/uploads/downloads/ world2012. pdf 6? World Travel & Tourism Council (2) “Economic Impact of Travel & Tourism 2012 Summary” 2012 http://www. wttc. org/site_media/uploads/ downloads/Economic_impact_reports_Summary_v3. pdf Long-term effects of global tourism on economy