Critically evaluate the impact of tourism on local host Essay

Critically evaluate the impact of tourism on local host communities,refer to the texts in your sources booklet as well as to cas - Essay Example Goodwin notes that a number of countries in Africa like Gambia and Tanzania have benefited from tourism foreign exchange. In contrast, according to Goodwin (2008) tourism may not provide a good source of foreign exchange earnings for countries with little or no international trade. Such countries cannot take tourism as the major source of foreign exchange. Although† The biggest beneficiaries of foreign exchange are the low income ones in which tourism play a role in poverty reduction† (Archer et all, 2005:10) earnings may be affected. When there disasters and terrorism strikes, foreign exchange earnings dwindle in for example the case of Hurricane Gilbert in 1995 in Jamaica, Tsunami in Japan in 2011 and Terrorism in the United States in 2001. However, the countries may also benefit even in disasters and terrorism activities. Some people are very eager to go to witness the events and activities. In this case, they play a role in tourism though their reasons may not be well understood. After Tsunami in 2011, many journalists and other people went to Japan to witness and report on the happenings there. This may not be taken as tourism but to some extent it is. Tourism may play an important role in the development of various places, according to (Archer et all, 2005) local communities near tourist attraction sites find it their responsibility to make the region better through infrastructure development and provision of important facilities. Although tourists spend some money in the host countries, economic experts argue that most of the tourist expenditures do not directly benefit the country being visited. According to Goodwin, this could be the reason why countries like Gambia, Tanzania and Caribbean countries have not recorded growth and development as it would have been expected. This is refutable according to (Goodwin, 2008), who claims there are still no good enough examples of initiatives with clear demonstrable impacts from tourism. There are no case studies which demonstrate the mainstreaming of tourism and poverty reduction strategies. According to (Scheyvens, 2003), It is estimated that more than 80% of the tourist expenditures, are on provision of services in other countries other than the host countries. For example, according to (Archer et all, 2005) when individuals are traveling to other countries, they are likely to use airline companies that are in their home countries, the money paid goes to the home country rather than the host country. Some tourists may also make purchases in their home countries before they go to the host countries. However, tourism creates employment for community in different countries; local people are employed in the hotels and resorts while others sell local products to the tourist. This is experienced in the Gambia, Tanzania and other African countries that rely on tourism a lot. This has played a role in improving the lives of the society and modernization. At the same time, there are some jurisdictions that depend on tourism a lot. â€Å"Some countries in Africa and the Caribbean region depend a lot on tourism, which may contribute up to a third of the