Sociology and Tourism

“What are the impacts of tourism on society?”

Tourism is one of the leisure activities which operate in the public sector influencing society
and social behaviour. Tourism creates many benefits to the economy of a country, but it has a
large impact on society which often goes unseen. Tourism is a sector which generally
operates in the public field whereas society is a place of people living in a specific
community. Thus both generate cultures and traditions and have a great impact on each other.
There are many positive social impacts of tourism contributing to the local community and
tourists. However, there are also negative impacts of tourism on the present society. The
concept of tourism is concerned with society and is often termed a social phenomenon. It is
very important to understand the relationship between society and tourism as it promotes
culture, social behaviour and so on. In today's world tourism is one of the most matured and
growing industries providing employment and boosting the cash flow of the country. Tourism
is also considered a great tool for the development of a society and nation as a whole.
Tourism exposes society to different cultures, norms, values and beliefs.

As every society is committed to progress tourism, directly and indirectly, benefits or favours
its progress. Individuals from society are more likely to get employment in the tourism sector
which eventually enhances the society's growth even though it is indirectly involved. Hence
Tourism and society are two essential factors for the development of each other. Having said
this, the following essay discusses the relationship between tourism and society. It also
provides its impact on one another. The essay aims at providing positive and negative
impacts of tourism on society by giving a PESTLE analysis. It also provides a thorough
understanding of the future of tourism and society. Hence, the essay revolves around the
impacts of tourism on society by giving favourable and unfavourable impacts.

Since Travel and Tourism is the largest service across the world connecting different nations
and people. Travel and Tourism has a broad scope and has been consistently offering services
since its introduction. Since Tourism and industry have a strong position in the world it can
be truly said that it has a strong and stable future. It will continue to address the needs of the
customers, the future economy and the overall success of the brand. Tourism and travel can
be largely influenced by the ongoing wants and needs of the people and modernisation. Due
to the impact of modernization consumers tend to align with trends of services which make
the travel and tourism sector foster growth as well as can be a threat. Expectations of
consumers may differ and can be influenced by their perspectives. Consumers basically
expect new ways of ideas and services which influences the operation of the travel and
tourism industry. Tourism and society are the two phenomena which directly and indirectly
influence each other. Tourism and society are interdependent on each other. Having said this
it can be said that tourism, as well as society, depend on each other to boost its economy,
status and so on.

Since tourism is a product of human civilization and modernization it was first introduced in
the 17th century. Tourism enables people to move from one location to another getting
exposed to different cultures and languages. Historians believe that tourism was first
introduced or emerged when there was the trade of armed forces. Hence it can be also looked
at as fulfilling the basic necessities of the people travelling was an important factor which
resulted in giving way to tourism (Christou et al., 2022). . Tourism Life cycle model is a
model used to identify tourist destinations and also measures the evolution of tourism. This
theory is used to identify the success and growth of the tourism industry and its aspects. The
tourism life cycle model mainly consists of six stages which demonstrate tourist travelling
behaviour. Exploration, the first element of the model, states that tourists tend to look out for
destinations which are adventurous as well as linked to their culture, and social behaviour.
This makes the consumers of tourism explore destinations on their own view which
eventually creates opportunities for the tourism sector. The involvement stage marks the
initial development of tourism. Development of tourism is carried out by the government
facilitating tourism infrastructure such as airports, roadways and so on. The development of
Tourism boosts the economy of the industry as well as its nation. In the model consolidation
is a stage where the visitors are more in number than the existing visitors. The local economy
is mainly influenced by this stage which involves the development of society as well as
tourism. The stagnation stage in tourism is a stage where there is a decline in the tourism
industry. Unlike the consolidation stage, the tourism industry gets affected by the decline in
revenue and resources. The last stage of the Tourism life cycle model represents the
extraction of funds and other resources to boost one`s tourism sector and attract consumers as
much as possible. Hence the Tourism life cycle brings out the different stages of Tourism
right from its development to its decline. London can be looked at as the best destination
where tourism has been favoured largely by boosting its nation's economy (Singh et al.,
2021).

Political factors include open borders, government policies, frameworks, government

stability, and tax and legal menaces. Its impacts are Easier to travel with no political bounds,
Safe and secure destinations, Border Security and Proper rules and regulation. Economic
factors include foreign investments, expenditure expenses, GDP, foreign exchange earnings
and income level and so on. Its impacts are the Division of economies between different
countries and expensive services for the consumer. Social factors include Consumer
behaviour values, norms and beliefs, social change and seasonality. Its impact is an increase
in cultural behaviour Transformation of cultures and an increase in the travel network.
Technological factors include Transport through new technologies of travelling and its
impact are New and fast ways of travelling and comfortable and cheaper ways of travelling.
Legal factors include Tourism legislation Act and Policies, guidelines and frameworks and
its impact is Safeguard the interest of tourist better understanding of tourism and ensure
secure travelling. Lastly, Environmental factors include pollution, emission of harmful
gasses and overuse of natural resources and its impact is negative impressions and negative
feedbacks and lack of organizational growth and so on.

It can be said that the Tourism industry is largely favoured and favoured by external factors.
There are various positive impacts which include the tourism sector being free to any
territories but are also restricted to some points, access to new ways of transport and
technologies, exchange of cultural behaviours, languages, and currency and so on. The
tourism sector is also unfavoured by the limited networks, competition, government laws and
ethics and so on. Friendly borders give a way for tourism to operate in different countries.
This will make the tourism industry get exposed to new cultures and consumers. Political
stability ensures a favourable environment for tourism. Better economic models that are
consumer-friendly often make tourism more accessible in nature. This will create a way to
share economies between the countries. Tourists will gain knowledge about other currencies.
This will also foster communication between the two nations. The tourism sector is also
influenced by social factors such as tourist beliefs in which tourists tend to travel according to
their beliefs. Just to take an example, nowadays tourists have the fear of the transfer of
viruses due to the ongoing pandemic which hinders travel which is not safe and secure. Legal
and government policies of tourism enable tourists to travel to any destination without the
fear of any issues or risks. Various legal formalities make tourists aware of the government
rules and regulations of other countries which indirectly foster tourism development. The
biggest environmental factor having an impact on tourism is that the various transport
systems generate gases which are harmful to the environment. This will hinder tourism
operations in every way possible. Tourists who are irresponsible in terms of the environment
are likely to create and make the environment dirty which hinders tourism to operate.
Environmental factors like global warming affect tourism operations. Uncertainty of the
natural phenomenon hinders tourism executions. Seasonality in business fluctuates in
business operations in the tourism sector. Just like the seasons, the business environment gets
exposed to all sorts of challenges and obstacles which create benefits as well as negative
impacts on the business. Hence all these factors are interrelated with each other creating an
impact on society as well as the tourism sector (Madsen et al., 2022).

Tourist behaviour and its expectation of tourism and travel is an important factor to be
considered by the tourism industry as it influences its business growth. The emerging,
ongoing trends and customs largely contribute to having expectations in the minds of
consumers regarding new ways of ideas and services. Understanding the needs and
expectations of the customers makes tourism responsible and creates new ideas for services.
It influences the growth of the industry as well as consumer behaviour. The behaviour of the
tourist includes social norms, desired tourist destination and so on. These factors make the
consumers think and expect in a critical way and therefore lead to influencing the operations
of tourism (Bowen et al., 2022).

The rise of tourism or growth can be estimated from the methods of operations. The tourism
industry is one of the fastest growing industries due to its innovative, effective way of
operations. In today's world, people are most likely to spend money on leisure activities and
travel at expensive rates which eventually boost the tourism economy. Countries like the UK
have the most tourist visitations which foster the tourism sector of the country by generating
a huge economy. Hence this can be looked at as a rise in tourism. On the other hand, the fall
of tourism is when there are situations like inflation. Inflation causes a fall in tourism as there
will be no purchase of any services and goods. Due to high prices of materials, products and
services the tourism industry tends to decline. The revenue of the tourism industry is
decreasing. To take an example, During the pandemic, the tourism industry of large countries
like the UK went through many crises in terms tourism. However, the rise and fall of tourism
are unpredictable. The rise and fall of tourist destinations can be looked at by Tourist
typologies and behaviours. It is basically the study of tourism and its behaviours to increase
the understanding of consumer behaviours (Kucuk et al., 2021). Tourist behaviour is one of
the key factors for the development of tourism. Therefore, understanding and knowing tourist
behaviours will foster tourism growth. Travel motivation drives an individual to choose a
specific travel destination with the belief of getting the desired outcome. It is important for a
tourist to choose and have knowledge of a destination. For example, The British museum can
be taken as a travel motivation for the tourists as they develop a motive to travel and know
world history. It can be for various reasons such as experience, knowledge and so on.
Authenticity allows consumers to have a deeper understanding of destinations including
norms and cultures. Tourists search for natural destinations to find experience and gain
knowledge. For example, Loch Ness is a naturally formed lake located in the UK.
Destinations which are related to history are one of the top destinations nowadays which
makes tourists travel. Hence these factors have favourably influenced customer behaviour
(Keller et al., 2021).

From the above research, it can be said that tourism has a great impact on society creating
both positive and negative impacts on the economy. Talking about positive impact tourism
creates many opportunities, impacts society in an effective way, generates a rise in economy,
transfers cultures and so on. Countries with the most tourist destinations are most likely to
generate more economies which foster a country's economic state. It also creates many job
opportunities for the people of the country giving rise to employment. Societies are exposed
to different cultures by interacting with tourists from different parts of the world. Tourism
helps the country to create more travel destinations which foster national development,
attracting as many tourists as possible. Tourism also helps the society to preserve natural and
local heritage which strengthens the community internally and externally. Tourism also gives
ways to introduce new shops, and markets where the local people sell products to visitors.
Hence this will help the local communities to earn and live better lives. On the other hand,
tourism also delivers a negative impact on society. The negative impacts are looked into by
globalisation, westernisation and so on. Tourists tend to adapt to other countries' styles and
customers which makes them unaware of their natural customs. Even though tourism creates
many opportunities but also gives a way to overpopulation. The large and mass number of
people travelling to the same destinations may generate a population. This will further create
a great threat to the nation as well as give way to overpricing and so on. In my point of view,
the future of travel and tourism is safe and sound, generating many opportunities for the
citizens and the nations. Though it's unpredictable, I can say that future travel can be more
technologically improved.
References:

Abram, S. and Waldren, J., 2021. Introduction: Tourists and tourism—identifying with
people and places. In Tourists and Tourism (pp. 1-11). Routledge.

Bowen, D., 2022. Contemporary tourist behaviour: Yourself and others as tourists. Cabi.

Christou, P.A., 2022. The History and Evolution of Tourism. CABI.

Khan, A.M., Naseem, S. and Khan, U., 2021. TOURISM INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPACT
ON ECONOMIC GROWTH OF FIVE GCC COUNTRIES. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship, 25, pp.1-9.

KHARE, J., 2021. Advancement of New Values in Economy and Their Impacts on Tourism.
Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government| Vol, 27(3), p.1128.

Kucuk, H., Lenoel, C. and MacQueen, R., 2021. UK sectoral output. National Institute UK
Economic Outlook, (2$: Spr), pp.33-41.

Madsen, D.Ø. and Grønseth, B.O., 2022. PESTEL Analysis. In Encyclopedia of Tourism
Management and Marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing.

McKercher, B., Tolkach, D., Eka Mahadewi, N.M. and Byomantara, D.G.N., 2022. Choosing
the optimal segmentation technique to understand tourist behaviour. Journal of Vacation
Marketing, p.13567667221078240.

Nepal, S.K., 2022. Studies in tourism impacts: past trends and emerging trajectories. In
Handbook of Tourism Impacts (pp. 20-34). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Paul, B.D., 2021 the impacts of tourism on society. Annals of Faculty of Economics, 1(1),
pp.500-506.
Persson-Fischer, U. and Liu, S., 2021. The impact of a global crisis on areas and topics of
tourism research. Sustainability, 13(2), p.906.

Seraphin, H., Kennell, J., Smith, S., Mandić, A. and Kozak, M., 2022. Determining and
making sense of recruitment practices for tourism academics in the UK. International Journal
of Organizational Analysis, (ahead-of-print).

Singh, S., 2021. Time, tourism area ‘life cycle,’evolution and heritage. Journal of Heritage
Tourism, 16(2), pp.218-229.

Streimikiene, D., Svagzdiene, B., Jasinskas, E. and Simanavicius, A., 2021. Sustainable
tourism development and competitiveness: The systematic literature review. Sustainable
development, 29(1), pp.259-271.

Usui, R., Sheeran, L.K., Asbury, A.M. and Blackson, M., 2021. Impacts of the COVID ‐19
pandemic on mammals at tourism destinations: a systematic review. Mammal review, 51(4),
pp.492-507.

Vahabzadeh Dehkharghani, M., Ahmadzadeh, H., Manouchehri Miandoab, A. and Panahi,

A., 2021. Assessment and Analysis of the Sustainability Status of Tourism Indicators in
Tabriz Using Tourism Life Cycle Model. Journal of Urban Economics and Management,
9(36), pp.17-36.

Wen, X., 2022. The value transformation of tourism resources. Geographical Research
Bulletin, 1, pp.48-49.