Tourism As A Development Strategy In The — страница 4

due to its ability to provide hard currency and so expand foreign exchange earnings, in turn improving the balance of payments situation. Although tourism does produce an obvious increase in overseas earnings, financial resources for development and a substantial rise in incomes of people employed in the tourist industry directly and indirectly, there is also the increase in inflation and land values to consider. Tourism creates an incentive for improving or building infrastructure, airports, roads, sanitation facilities and social services for example. However, the cost of upgrading these facilities is very high for developing countries, and is not likely to be financed by developed countries without there being some kind of obligation to pay back the favour. This enhances the

view of neo-capitalist exploitation. As a labour-intensive service industry, tourism is a major generator of employment, providing opportunities in hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, entertainment facilities and in the building of this infrastructure. In developing countries, where there are high levels of semi-skilled and unskilled unemployed and underemployed people, the industry is important as it can utilize these labour resources from the traditional sector of the economy with little or no training. However, Gray (1974) sees tourism’s use of a large proportion of unskilled labour as only a temporary phase in the development of the industry – as tourism grows, it may become reliant on higher skilled labour, which will inherently mean training those available, or more

commonly importing them from elsewhere, which is detrimental to the destination. In addition, the few managerial and top level administrative jobs required will most likely be filled by people from the Developed World, in the case of international hotels, for example. In addition, the seasonal nature of tourist employment demands adequate earning and budgeting to ensure survival through low season. In general, however, there will be an overall encouragement of entrepreneurial activity, and gradual shift away from traditional to more advanced activity, thus enhancing economic development. All of the above factors, such as employment, income, output and the balance of payments have been caused by a change in the level of tourism expenditure and in turn, creating multiplier effects.

Tourist spending on accommodation, transport, food, souvenirs etc. generate income, part of which will leak out of the economy through imports, taxes and savings. The rest will become secondary spending in the economy, thus generating more income. This process of re-spending of incomes, thereby creating additional incomes, is known as the multiplier effect. Tourism is traditionally seen as a tool for regional development. In Myrdal’s Model of Circular and Cumulative Causation (1957), he saw economic development within a country as a natural process. He states that as an industry develops it experiences multiplier effects of improved linkages, communications, infrastructure and services, causing the developing zone to prosper. Its backwash effects being detrimental to the

surrounding area, causing imbalances in the region. In time, Myrdal describes the Equalisation Stage where a downward movement of wealth and technology enables the economy to expand in surrounding areas, gradually closing the gap between the two areas. Although Myrdal’s Model was not strictly created for the tourist industry, it can be applied, as with any other industry. The reasons for tourist growth in one specific area, its initial advantage, vary immensely from area to area, from `sunlust’ to `wanderlust’ destinations. As the area increases in popularity, its infrastructure, services and linkages are improved and the industry grows and prospers to the detriment of the surrounding area. In time, when the growth spreads from core to periphery, this outer region develops,

either by expanding its own tourist industry or by becoming supplier of raw materials, goods, arts and crafts, in the case of tourism, to the core, (although this may have been happening all the time during the growth of the core). So, the impact of a growth in tourism in an area not only affects the area immediately concerned, it also has different implications for the surrounding area. Finally, a major cost to a region of the Developing World is the danger of overdependence – firstly, on one product – ie. tourism and the increased pressure to import, and secondly, overdependence on external powers. In the Third World, tourism is an industry that is dominated by foreign capital and so any decisions made by non-nationals and non-residents may clash or conflict with national