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Tourism can be defined as the temporary movement of people to places outside their normal work and residence locations, along with the activities and associated facilities in which these people engage and use while in these new locations.
Tourism development is generally considered by the leaders of communities attempting to impact their economic base. A critical step in this evaluation should be obtaining an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of tourism to a community. The purpose of these notes is to present information on these important aspects of a potential development opportunity.
ADVANTAGES
Economic Advantages
The development of increased tourism activity has been shown to delivr a variety of benefits. Economic benefits of travel and tourism can be both direct and of secondary nature. Perhaps one of the most notable direct advantages of tourism is that of public and private employment.(1) Mathieson and Wall note that the generation of employment is an important factor associated with the industry. Not only does tourism create jobs and business opportunities directly related to travel, such as hotels and attraction establishments, but it also helps diversify and stabilize the local economy.(2) Tourism creates new employment opportunities in the host community and therefore influences migration pattems in two chief directions. It helps the area retain citizens who would migrate away, particularly unemployed or underemployed youths in economically marginal areas. Secondly, it also attracts outsiders who are seeking employment or economic opportunity and who often originate from other divisions of the economy, particularly agriculture.(3) Tourism may also help attract additional industry to the community, thus creating new and more numbered economic opportunities and jobs.(4) Cohen agrees by stating that tourism,"...encourages new economic activities in ancillary and [SIC] services and thus indirectly creates new opportunities for economic mobility among the locals."(5) One of the most noted effects of tourism on employment opportunities is the creation of the new division of labor between the sexes and within the household. Young women now can find jobs in tourist services such as hotels or in the production of crafts and souvenirs for the market.(6)
Tourism brings "new" money into the local community from the outside and also contributes to the state and local tax bases.(7) The new money contributes income to the proprietor...