Video #15 Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourism (12 narrated slides, 8:56)
Channel: Stan McGahey
Date: 2015-04-03

Link: https://youtu.be/SLMGHRRrABk
Script – V-15 Socio-Cultural Impacts of Tourism (12)
Link: https://youtu.be/SLMGHRRrABk Slide #1: Welcome to video #. I’m Dr. Stan McGahey, the creator and narrator of the videos. Their content is based on my experiences as a professor, consultant, writer, manager, and tourist in more than 80 countries on 6 continents. Slide #2: Society is: “a group of people who share a distinct way of life by virtue of their common traditions, interests, ideals, norms, and institutions.” Culture is: “the mentality, practices, customs, folkways, and values of a society, that have developed over generations, and define them as a people.” Slide #3: Cultural distance is: “the degree, that shared values and norms in one society, differs from those, in another”. Culture gap is: “the difference between two cultures, that creates a problem, such as preventing them from understanding each other, or getting along well with each other.” Some tourists attempt to stay within their own comfort zone. Others seek cultural experiences and enjoy destinations with the widest possible cultural distance. Slide #4: Tourism keeps culture and traditions alive by supporting festivals, the arts, and handicrafts, and by preserving monuments, shrines, and other historic sites. Slide #5: Tourism provides the opportunity for visitors to sample the local way of life.  It helps raise awareness of issues, such as poverty and human rights abuses. At its least, tourism is a medium for personal understanding and social exchange, and at its best, it serves as an agent for world  peace and universal brotherhood. Slide #6: Sociologists spend most of their time looking for problems to solve. They find them everywhere, and tourism also takes place everywhere. Tourism tends to get blamed for creating many endemic socio-cultural problems when it just provides more victims or more people with the time and money to participate in unsavory activities available. Slide #7: Villages and old towns often suffer from visual clutter, and tacky tourists traps. Another ailment is “Disneyfication”, which transforms destinations into something staged solely for tourists consumption. Slide #8: Tourist behavior can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life in the community. For example, crowding and congestion, and the decline of morality, with drug and alcohol problems, prostitution and promiscuity, and increased crime levels, such as pickpockets and petty thieves. Locals who imitate the consumption patterns of tourists fall into bad habits that lead to erosion of their culture and values. This is known as the demonstration effect. Slide #9: The most hideous negative socio-cultural impact associated with tourism, is sex slavery, and the human trafficking, that turns people into commodities. Many of its victims are very young girls and boys, kidnapped, or bought from their parents, and forced into performing sexual acts in brothels, massage parlors, and strip clubs. Corrupt politicians and police, accept payoffs to turn a blind eye. Not long ago, tour companies advertised sex tours. Pressure from NGOs, such as ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), and tourism industry associations, such as The Code (which is short for the Code of Conduct of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism) have worked to combat these evil practices. Slide #10: The culture gap, the sense of superiority of some tourists, and disrespect for local traditions, offend residents and create resentment towards them. The Irridex was developed by Doxey to explain these feelings as they develop in four stages.  First is euphoria among locals, as tourists discover their community and are welcomed.  Second is apathy, as contacts with visitors become more formal. Third is annoyance, as too many visitors detract from the quality of life. Fourth is antagonism, as locals blame tourists for problems, and begin to treat them with verbal and physical, abuse. Slide #11: Even as tourism overwhelms a destination, the tourism industry want more. When too many tourists, controlled by too many outsiders, overwhelm a destination, it begins to lose its identity, even its language. The degree this happens depends on how well tourists adhere to local norms.  Tourism creates demand for labor, which encourages urbanization and emigration, as well as begging and touting.  Seasonality can allow a destination to regain its true character. Slide #12: Tourism exposes local people to a variety of new mentalities, behaviors, and social norms. Cultures are not stagnant.  But when outside agents cause them to change abruptly, traditional societies can be harmed. Now I invite you to watch Video #16: Environmental Impacts of Tourism.  Thank you!