Final essay----Nero

In present-day society, increasing countries or cities pay more attention on tourism. In the mean time, whether the benefits of tourism outweigh the costs has sparked much debate. Some people assert that tourism brings many benefits, it deserves taking more actions. However, others feel that developing tourism has plenty of disadvantages. This essay will describe both the benefits and the costs of tourism, and discuss which one is more important.




Convincing arguments can be made that there are a vast number of benefits of tourism for the host destination. In the first place, tourism can promotes the development of local economy. Tourists cost plenty of money on diet, accommodation, transportation, souvenirs and the others. They bring great income to local area. For example, in Rwanda, the total tourism income 0f 2008 is 214 million dollars,comparing with 2007, it increased by 55%. Instead of their traditional coffee and tea exports, tourism industry became Rwanda's biggest foreign exchange earnings(Wang, 2008). Furthermore, tourist can reduce unemployment. As the increasing tourists, local people have more and more job opportunities(Holderfield, 1999), because more staffs are needed in the souvenir shops, hotels, restaurants, and much more.In the third place, tourism can improve the local traffic system. Local government have to spend more sources to improve the traffic system. If the transportation is convenient, more and more tourist will come. Lately, tourism can help the countries or the cities earn a good reputation. This means they can be known by more and more people and companies. Some companies could be interested in investing in the local economy.





Having looked at a number of benefits, we should now consider the disadvantage of tourism. Firstly, tourism influences local environment. The pollution which is caused by tourists comes from things such as dropping litter, car exhaust, oil leaks, commercial planes and the others(McLaren,1998). Secondly, vandalism of tourists damaged the monuments. For example, some tourists enjoy using hard objects(such as knives) to write their name on the monuments,and enjoy picking some flowers or branches from some endangered plants.Lastly, tourism also influences local culture. In order to meet the needs of a growing number of tourists, local government have to build some international hotel and restaurants. Some traditional building could be destroyed to build those hotel and restaurants.

Figure1.1. McDonald's is a good representation. Yet another goes up here in Guam (Mclaren,1998).

Having compared the benefits and the costs, we need to ask which one is more important. In my opinion, tourism is a double-edged sword. It can bring many benefits, but in the same time, it can also bring lots of losing. We should make a balance between them. At the same time of developing the tourism, the government should also focus on solving the environmental and culture problems, to limit the amount of tourists and opening time of the monuments to have enough time to solve pollution and repair damage, to promote traditional food or drink to more and more tourists.

In conclusion, I think this is not an either/or question. Undenibly,there are lots of advantage in tourism, and also tourism brings some disadvantages. The government should take more action on both of them. If we want a more long-term tourism development, the shortage of tourism must be undertood correctly.

Reference:
McLaren, D. 1998.Rethinking tourism and Eco travel;The PAVING of Paradise and What You Can Do to Stop It. West Hartford, CT:Kumarian Press. 16-85.

Lindsey Holderfield 1999. GEOG 504: Geography of Environmental Management,Fall 1999

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