Impact of Tourism Development in Wales - Essay Example

Impact of Tourism Development in Wales By Tourism remains an important aspect of the life of human beings. As opposed to work, tourism is all about leisure and exploration, even as people get away from the hustle and bustle of their daily life. However, tourism, including the places of destination, is highly influenced by the economic capacity of an individual. There are a variety of tourist destinations in the world, as various world countries possess beautiful sceneries and magnificent places that are attractive to people from other countries. However, although tourism is important today due to its contribution to the economy and its promotion of human diversity and globalization, it has an array of other impacts, both positive and negative, on the country of destination. Apart from the economy, tourism also impacts on the environment and culture of the people of the host country. This essay describes the economic, cultural, and environmental impacts that have resulted from tourism development in Wales. Many countries that are tourist destinations ensure to develop their tourism sector, in order to attract more tourists, including the local and international tourists, as this has a positive contribution to the economy of the country. Tourism development efforts involve the establishment of tour companies and good hotels, among other aspects that will ensure that the visiting tourists are comfortable. However, most countries today have concentrated more on the development of their tourism sector, and failed to ensure that they practise sustainable tourism. A lack of sustainable tourism in most countries has led to tourism having greater negative influence on the countries’ environment, culture, and economy. Although tourism has considerable negative influence on a country, when sustainable tourism is considered, this maximizes the positive influence and minimizes the negative influence. The country of Wales has diverse tourist attractions that are attractive to tourists. There are different mountains, coasts, valleys, and cliffs, which form beautiful scenery that is attractive. Wales is also known to have a rich country history. Other attractions include the Brecon Beacons, Pembrokeshire’s heritage coastline, the modern city of Cardiff, and the mountains of Snowdonia. There are also a number of lakes, abbeys, rolling hills and moors, which also characterize the beautiful scenery. Additionally, Wales also has a strong cultural heritage that contributes to tourism in the country. This includes music and song, the Celtic language, and poetry. Additionally, there are museums that bear aspects of the ancient culture, as well as industrial heritage of Wales (Destinations-UK-Ireland 2014). All these together contribute to a peculiar combination of natural beauty and living heritage in Wales; which promotes tourism. Tourism has various impacts on a country’s economic, environmental, and cultural spheres. Therefore, although Wales is a great destination for tourists and benefits from tourism, this has different impacts on the country as a whole. With regard to the economy, tourism can be considered to have a greater impact on this aspect of a country. Tourism is known to make a tremendous contribution to the economy of Wales. This generates approximately 2 billion Euros in North Wales only, on an annual basis, yet North Wales accounts for only one third of the total tourism in Wales (Tourism Partnership North Wales n.d). In the wider Wales, tourism accounts for 3.7% of the economy (Lawson 2012). Tourism also remains an important source of employment in Wales, as this leads to the creation of 37,500 jobs in North Wales only (TPNW n.d). In the wider Wales, tourism generates approximately 100,000 jobs annually, and this represents 9% of the workforce in Wales (Lawson 2012). Therefore, without tourism, Wales would be poorer today. Apart from boosting the economy of Wales as a whole, tourism also has considerable severe effects on the economy of Wales. Tourism development in Wales can be considered to have increased the budget of the country, thus influencing the country’s economy in a negative manner. Tourism development in a country involves many costs, most of which are hidden. The cause of this impact is that tourism development leads to increased infrastructure costs. This therefore, costs the government and taxpayers’ additional money. This cost is evident through efforts in improving roads, airports, and other relevant infrastructure that will ensure an easy access of tourists to the attractions and their overall comfort in the country. In order to solve this problem of increased infrastructure cost, it is important for the country to adopt sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism refers to the kind of tourism that satisfies the needs of tourists in the present times while protecting the needs of future tourists (Harris, Williams and Griffin 2012). In this case therefore, the authorities that oversee the tourism industry in Wales should collaborate with the government to ensure that tourism is not the major source of income for the country; hence there is no overreliance on it. This way, the costs of tourism can be compensated using other financial gains from different income sources of the country. Thus the country will not experience gaps in its economy. High economic dependence on tourism makes a country to be vulnerable to different aspects that have negative impact on the local tourism industry. On the other hand, tourism has different effects on the environment of a country. This therefore contributes to the shaping of the environment and landscape. In Wales, local tourism has had an impact on the mountain areas. The most affected are those areas whose landscape is fragile and sensitive. For instance, the Snowdonia National Park has experienced traffic congestion as well as erosion of the footpaths (Ellul 2000). In order to ensure that tourism does not have a negative influence on the environment, it is important for the country to embrace sustainable tourism development. In this case, there is need for environmental impact assessment. This mainly involves the identification of the positive and negative effects of any proposed development in tourism before launching it (Glasson, Therivel and Chadwick 2013). This therefore, will help to prevent and reduce the negative effects of development proposals in tourism on the environment. Furthermore, tourism development has a significant influence on the culture of a country. This has mostly been known to affect culture in an adverse manner. In Wales, tourism has had a major adverse influence on the Welsh language, which is part of the Welsh culture. On 28 April 2001, an international conference that addressed the impact of tourism on the Welsh language in North-West Wales was launched in the Celtic Centre in Aberystwyth. The report from the conference showed that there is a close relationship between tourism, in-migration, and language decline (Phillips 2014). Although tourism is important to the economy of Wales, it also contributes highly to the decline of the Welsh language in Wales. Tourism continues to attract in-migrants in Wales mostly because of the quiet and peaceful natural and rural environment. Research by the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth in 2001 revealed that three-quarters of in-migrants in Wales born outside Wales had previously spent a holiday in the area (Phillips 2014). Most in-migrants in Wales also own holiday homes in the area. In-migration in Wales leads to more in-migration, as in-migrants invite their friends and families, thus occupy specific villages and communities in Wales. Therefore, the increased number of in-migrants in Wales has compelled the Welsh speakers to abandon Welsh and use English to communicate. In order to reduce the adverse impact tourism has on the culture in Wales, it is also paramount that sustainable tourism is adopted. In-migration in Wales as a result of tourism is the major cause of the decline of the Welsh language in Wales. Therefore, it is important that the government in Wales addresses the aspect of in-migration that results from tourism. For instance, the government could control the ownership of second homes through policy development. In addition, there should be control on the development of holiday villages, marinas, and static caravan sites, as these encourage in-migration in Wales. Furthermore, it is important for the authorities in Wales to adopt general public participation in planning in the tourism industry, as the destination communities are more affected by tourism development. Allowing public participation in planning will help to gain the attitudes and perceptions of people living in the destination communities on tourism development, environment, culture, and tourists. Most importantly, public participation is key as the local people are the most affected by policies in the tourism industry (Singh, Timothy and Dowling 2003). Nonetheless, with regard to culture, the government can integrate the views and perceptions of the locals in its policymaking in order to ensure that tourism development does not undermine the culture of the locals in Wales. In conclusion, tourism remains an important industry that can highly promote the economic growth of a country. However, apart from the benefits that tourism bestows on a nation, there are also adverse effects of tourism on a country. This paper has explained how tourism development in Wales affects the environment, economy, and culture of the country. Nonetheless, the adverse effects of tourism development can be reverted if a country embraces sustainable tourism. Therefore, sustainable tourism is the most important aspect that all tourism destination countries should adopt. Works Cited Destinations-UK-Ireland 2014, “Wales,” Accessed 12th May, 2014 < http://www.destinations-uk.com/wales.php> Ellul, A 2000, “Tourism and the Environment in European Countries, Issues 116-119,” Council of Europe, London. Glasson, J., Therivel, R. and Chadwick, A 2013, “Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment,” Routledge, London. Harris, R., Williams, P. and Griffin, T 2012, “Sustainable Tourism,” Routledge, London. Lawson, R 2012, “Tourism key to Wales’ economic future,” Walesbusiness.org, Accessed 12th May 2014 < http://www.walesbusiness.org/2012/12/tourism-key-to-wales-economic-future/> Phillips, D 2014, “Welcome to Wales?” University of Wales. Accessed 12th May 2014 < http://www.wales.ac.uk/en/CentreforAdvancedWelshCelticStudies/ResearchProjects/CompletedProjects/SocialHistoryoftheWelshLanguage/WelcometoWales.aspx> Singh, S. Timothy, D. and Dowling, R 2003, “Tourism in Destination Communities,” CABI, New York. Tourism Partnership North Wales (TPNW) n.d, “Tourism Strategy North Wales,” Accessed 12th May 2014. < http://www.tpnw.org/docs/strategies/STRATEGYenglish.pdf> Read More