Sustainable Mountain Development - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 614

FIGURE 12.8 In Grindelwald, farming and tourism benefit from each other. Tourism is the mainstay of
the local economy, generating over 90 percent of the local gross domestic product, much of which
is reinvested in agriculture. On the other hand, farming largely dominates land use and is thus an
asset for tourism. (From Wiesmann 1999.)
While the specific economic benefits and negative impacts of tourism are often hard
to predict and assess (Fig 12.8), this is even more difficult for the inevitable cultur-
al changes (Price 1992). Although the costumes and traditions of indigenous people
are often among the reasons that tourists visit, these are often changed as “Western”
clothing and footwear are adopted—often as status symbols, especially among young
people—and cultural activities are adapted to the demands of tourists. Dances and
singing traditionally performed at festivals can become mere performances, repeated
often or taking place at an inappropriate time. To avoid such impacts, some communit-
ies, such as the Zuni of New Mexico (Mallari and Enote 1996), have decided that the
disadvantages of tourists outweigh any potential benefits and have excluded them from
festivals.
Tourists also expect to take home souvenirs. This can lead to the revitalization of loc-
al skills; yet souvenirs may be imported from far away for sale to tourists, and priceless
cultural artifacts are stolen and sold. The physical changes resulting from tourism can
also extend to the construction of buildings. Both the design and the ornamentation of
traditional buildings are usually highly characteristic of a particular settlement, valley,
or region; they are among the potential attractions for tourists. Tourism typically leads
to homogenization and the construction of new buildings that are often not particularly
well adapted to the rigors of the mountain climate. Yet while many mountain tourists,
especially those most interested in sports activities, may not expect or particularly care
about authentic food, buildings, or cultural activities, an increasing number do; within
the growing ecotourism market, the value of diversity is explicitly recognized (Nepal
2002). Thus, while tourism can have many negative cultural impacts, it can also lead to
the rejuvenation of traditional skills (Creighton 1995; Pilgrim et al. 2010), providing em-
ployment, especially in the off-season, and also leading to the strengthening of cultural
identity, as noted for the Sherpas of Nepal (Stevens 1993) and in the Rhodope Moun-
tains of Greece (Valaoras et al. 2002).
Tourism can also bring many negative environmental impacts, both locally (e.g.,
Geneletti and Dawa 2009) and over a broader region, as shown for the Indian Himalay-
an resort of Manali (Cole and Sinclair 2002). Local environmental impacts mainly oc-