Tourism; a Blessing or Curse

Tourism has become a commercial business, which has obvious benefits to the said economy, the environment and society. Often, the positive economic impacts persuade governments, companies and individuals to get involved with the development of tourism. Tourism creates jobs, both

Tourism has always been apart of us in different ways, shapes, and forms. It has greatly evolved due to technology and transportation advances, which have made traveling efficient and quick and given us the proper resources to be prepared prior to “adventuring” away from home.

The Travel and Tourism economy is one of the fastest growing activities in most countries around the world [1]. For many developing countries it is one of the main sources of foreign exchange income and the number one export category, creating such needed employment and opportunities for development [2]. According to World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTO), the Travel and Tourism industry have generated US$7.6 trillion (10% of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product)) and 277 million jobs (1 in 11 jobs) for the global economy in 2014. In Malaysia, for 2014 alone, a total of RM72.0 billion receipts and 27.22 million arrivals were registered [3].

Tourism plays a significant role in sustainable development and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) wish to encourage all countries to make sure that their policies and actions for its development and management fully embrace the principles of sustainability. Likewise, policies to promote sustainable development should take full account of the opportunities offered by tourism. Various international conventions and declarations have put forward principles and guidelines for sustainable tourism and the importance of tourism and its sustainability was underlined at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many countries declare that they are pursuing, or wish to pursue, policies for ‘sustainable tourism’. Despite this interest, there remains a degree of uncertainty over the scope and priorities for making tourism more sustainable and only partial appreciation of how to put this into practice (Making Tourism More Sustainable, 2005).

Income is one of the most important factors affecting on residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism. It is viewed as positive in many studies. For example, one study found that respondents earning yearly

Over the last 60 years, tourism has benefited from continuous growth and diversification, becoming one of the largest as well as the fastest growing world’s economic sectors. Tourism becomes one of the major categories of global trade in services. Nowadays, 7% of global goods and services exports are contributed by international tourism, and for the last four years, it has grown faster than the general global trade.[ Exports from international tourism rise 4% in 2015, (2016, May 6). Retrieved from http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2016-05-03/exports-international-tourism-rise-4-2015]

As mentioned by Rimmington & Morrison (2009), the assistance from different parts of the world presents a new and diverse outlook for future research including theoretical innovations and revelations, cultural and environmental aspects, tourist destination and other ecotourism and recreational aspects of tourism and hospitality industry (Brotherton,

Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).

Another aspect of impact of tourism on a country’s economy is that it facilitates the expansion of the market of goods and services. Foreigners come to a country willing to spend money on different goods and services, thus increasing the amounts of sales. This is a great chance for producers and service providers to receive larger profits. This concerns not only hoteliers, tour operators, and souvenir shops owners. Public transportation, retail stores of different kind, restaurants, and cafes benefit from international tourism. Obviously, if these industries are in demand, businesses will be expanding. On the one hand, it means that more money is paid to the budget. On the other hand, profits generated by the owners are spent inside the country, affecting almost all the fields of the

Tourism is one of the most exciting and progressive industries in the world. Tourism today is a leisure activity of the masses. People travel to international destinations to break the regular monotony of life. They are mainly attracted by either the scenic beauty of its nature or by fascinating leisure, sports and adventure activities offered by the destination. However, every destination has some internal strengths and weaknesses that either enhance its capacity to attract foreign visitors or diminish it. Similarly the external environment can create various opportunities or exposed to threats as well.

Since the beginning of human civilization in the world, travelling has been an ongoing event. The early humans travelled for hunting and food gathering. Later, as society evolved, travelling became more prominent but became limited to trade, pilgrimage, studies, migration, royal affairs and exploration, rather than for pleasure and entertainment. From this knowledge it is evident that travelling is part of human nature but tourism is a process and activities of a new and moderately recent phenomenon. The evolution of tourism can be divided into three phases.

In economic aspect, tourism can boost the economy of the developing countries by receiving tourist spending, the money received can further drive the income of different industries and sectors inside the economy, which can be explained by the Tourism Multiplier Effect (Leuterio, 2007). In fact, not only can tourism create employment in the tertiary sector, but also stimulate growth of the primary and secondary industries. To be precise, tourism in an area encourage the employment related to business supply services and building of hotels. Then, the employees of the tourism industry spend their income on other services in the local area, with increase in tax revenue at the same time. Therefore, improving the earnings of other

Tourism is an important job creator, employing millions of people around the world. The vast majority of tourism jobs are in small or medium-sized, family-owned enterprises, especially in developing countries. Through tourism, locals within host destination are given the opportunity to remain in their local region and have incentives to better improve their

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Allows government to have money to do road works, school construction and all other governmental works.