Travel and Culture

The movie discusses the long term impacts of tourism on cultures, economies, and on the environment. It uses dramatic examples from several beach parties such as Thailand’s Koh Pha Ngan Island. With large amounts of litter lining the shore, the film suggests that the financial benefits of tourism will not work without a proper development plan. The story starts and ends in Bolivia focusing on the impact of the autobiographical book “Lost in the Jungle”. In 1981, Ghinsberg gets lost in the Bolivian jungles. He miraculously survives despite near death experiences. His tale of survival has lured many other adventure travelers to Bolivia, creating pressure to the country’s tourism industry. From the jungles of Bolivia, to the deserts of Timbuktu, Mali, we see breathtaking views of how tourism has affected society. The film follows the well-worn gringo trail travel route in Latin America and beyond, revealing a complex web of relationships between that cultures which collide yet require one another. Finally, the movie reveals certain sustainable alternatives to tourism.

Kincaid gives an example of this in the novel,” you make a leap from being that nice blob just sitting like a boob in your amniotic sac of the modern experience to being a person visiting heaps of death and ruin and feeling alive and inspired at the sight of it…” (Kincaid 16). The quote basically is suggesting that when people become tourist they do not consider the poverty or infrastructure of the place they are going to. Kincaid implies that when they tourist see the poverty, and the dilapidated infrastructure they feel good about themselves. The tourist feels like they have it better than the people living on the island of Antigua. This quote relates to tourism being a new form of colonialism because it relates to how the colonizers felt that the natives were beneath them. During colonialism and slavery, the natives lived in dilapidated housing, they had the minimum resources to survive. Tourism also exploits the native culture in m any other ways

In “The Ugly Tourist” by Jamaica Kincaid, tourism is thought as a disgusting and an extremely harmful industry. In her perspective, it allows first world citizens to escape and marvel at the simplest and most ordinary things. Although there is some truth in what Jamaica Kincaid describes to the reader, I believe there is a prejudiced view towards the tourist themselves. Kincaid’s essay about the ugliness and affects of being a tourist contrasts everything I’ve experienced being a tourist in Italy and Greece.

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 nature of the pattern of a travelogue is determined by the personality of the writer. V.S. Naipaul is a zealous traveller, like Hakluyt, Marco Polo, Darwin, Defoe and so many other sailors and sojourners; he has travelled far and wide. His travel writing exhibits various aspects in the light of history, ethnography, sociology, aggression, concern for weak, sympathy for sufferers and his grand evaluation of men, manners, objects and development of a country. He has been one of the greatest Caribbean writers of Indian origin, writing in English. As a novelist he is an international figure and exceptional.

Elaine Potter Richardson a.k.a. Jamaica Kincaid, was one of the staff writers for the New Yorker who mostly wrote for the magazine that often-chronicled Caribbean culture. One of her work was “The Ugly Tourist” which was included in the opening chapter of “A Small Place,” and appeared in Harper’s in 1988. Kincaid’s essay talks about how it feels to be a tourist which she refers “the ugliest thing in the world.” The piece was rejected by the editor of the New Yorker because of being “too angry.” Within the composition, it’s obvious that Kincaid’s largest target is the economic structure of the dysfunctional tourism or in other words, she speaks directly to “you,” the reader. She even criticizes tourists in a resentful and ferociously pitched way that is somewhat troubling for some readers, and not obviously what she intends. Overall, Kincaid’s work doesn’t succeed to persuade his readers by failing to construct her ethos, pathos and logos.

The progression of technology and its presence in society has strongly molded the way people live their lives today, and the way they will continue to live their lives years from now. But with this advancement of science and increased order, there is a consequence that seems to be a heavy price to pay: the loss of human emotion and freewill, and the submission to organization and commands. The tourist industry is one such manufactured machine, so to speak, that influences people's views in certain aspects. One of these aspects, culture, is a main focus of post-modernist writer Bryan Turner, who believes that "tourism invents and demands empathy...makes cultures

This chapter reinforces schwartz argument that tourism has a tremendous impact on society. She writes of how citizens were coming up with ways that made them seemed more exotic, in order to attract more tourists. One example Schwartz writes about is the Siboney Sun Worshipers. These people claimed to be aboriginal Siboney Indians, and would performed a sun ritual that tourists highly enjoyed. Schwartz explains, that Cuba’s original Indians had been completely wiped out by diseases brought by the Spanish, and the island’s Indians never had a ritual of the sun. Her main point in this chapter is to demonstrate that when tourism becomes an important aspect of a country, everything changes. Residents along with the government soon adapt cultural aspects, trying to promote uniqness and exotism that will make them look more attractive to

Jamaica Kincaid addresses the reader as a tourist in her book A Small Place. Throughout the book her sarcasm and resentment towards the postcolonial state of the country cannot be missed. She exposes the “ugliness” of tourism, she writes, “The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being” (14). Kincaid points to the fact that the tourists (European and American) and the tourism industry are morally ugly. The first section of her book displays how tourism uses the natives and the country as sources of pleasure for the tourists as they make their way to their hotel, they watch in awe at the condition of the country. Kincaid writes, “They [Antiguans] are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go—they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself” (19). The tourists do not see, and perhaps do not want to see the reality of this picturesque island they are vacationing on. Kincaid writes, “[Y]ou needn’t let that slightly funny feeling you have from time to time about exploitation, oppression, domination develop into full-fledged unease, discomfort; you could ruin your holiday” (10). This mirrors the mindset of not only tourists, but of the past and current exploiters who do not see the suffering and damage they cause, but

The author Jamaica Kincaid talks about her hatred for tourist and how they take breaks from their world to come relax in another. These tourists only expect to see the beauty in the places they visit but they do not take in account all the hard work that locals do in their everyday life. As a result, locals have begun to feel hatred towards the tourists. They envy the fact that tourists are lucky enough to visit these types of places yet the locals will not have the chance to explore these other worlds and be tourists.

While many problems are associated with International tourism, it can still offer some advantages. For one thing, International tourism can open job opportunities for the native citizens. To demonstrate, when tourists visit an area, the vast majority of them don’t have a clue on

Travel started to develop as a business many years ago. This industry began, when the ancient and rich inhabitants of Phoenicia, Rome, Egypt, Greece, and China; out of curiosity and a sense of adventure, about their surroundings, began to travel. Today tourism is a billionaire industry that serves the needs and wants of millions of domestic and international tourists. There is no doubt, that capitalism has played an active role in the developing of this powerful enterprise. However, when this business began, only the rich populations were able to enjoy their summers on the coasts and countryside. As these powerful people continue traveling, their servants have to cater for their patrons travel and accommodations needs and wants. As the Roman Empire decline, this business endured a backlash. In Central America the Incas had to travel to trade with the different racial groups, which were part of their empires to trade and collect taxes from their peasants.

The current research paper covers the main effects of global tourism, both positive and negative. International tourism is a significant sector of business. For some countries it is one of the main sources of national income. The most important positive economic effects of tourism are as follows: increase in budget revenues, production expansion, stimulation of investments, and improvement in the population’s welfare. Tourism influences social and cultural lives of people in a positive way by stimulating the development and revival of local cultures and encouraging intercultural exchange.

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

In this essay I will be going over the basic theories of tourism and travel. Hot topics of this essay range from tourist behaviors to my love for trains. As you read through the text, you will find me reflecting myself on the theories every now and then. Take everything I say with a grain of salt though, I have been studying this field for merely 2 months.