Tourism and Socio-cultural Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 220

turn questions the validity and reliability of existing, traditional socio-
economic development indices used in tourism studies.
The next two sections will look at the positive and negative socio-
cultural changes brought about by tourism development. Most of the socio-
cultural issues discussed in the study of tourism development are not
quantifiable in nature. Examples will be used below to examine the most
frequently contested topics related to the socio-cultural impact of tourism
and how these changes either have the ability to improve on, or detract from,
existing quality of life.
Positive socio-cultural impacts of tourism development
As mentioned earlier, the relationship between tourism development and
socio-cultural change is complex and it has led to a variety of stereotypical
notions concerning the impact of tourism; these notions are often quite mis-
leading. For example, issues of commoditisation (or commercialisation) of
culture, changing value systems and family structure changes are often dis-
cussed as negative impacts of tourism development. However, if managed
carefully, tourism development can bring about positive changes in the above
areas as well. How a host community responds to the introduction of tour-
ism will vary from destination to destination and, if planned correctly, may
increase the well-being of the host population.
Tourism development should be a means of socio-economic development
and, thus, successful tourism development should bring reasonable economic
profit to the involved parties. This, in turn, should improve quality of life for
the local population by providing a modern lifestyle and amenities. As Wall
(1995) has suggested, indigenous communities are not only impacted by
tourism, they respond to it through entrepreneurial activity as well. There
are numerous success stories of local individuals who have an entrepreneurial
mindset, and have made a fortune in the tourism business. Tour guides who
can speak a few different European languages frequently profit sufficiently
to live comfortably, with modern conveniences (a new car, stereo, satellite
dish, etc.) and a fashionable Western lifestyle (McCarthy, 1994). A young
farmer who grew vegetables and herbs to cater to tourists at an international
hotel on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, had one of the most luxurious
houses in his village (Telfer & Wall, 1996). Young men in Kenya (Peake, 1989,
cited in Kinnaird et al. , 1994) and in The Gambia (Brown, 1992, cited in
Kinnaird et al. , 1994) found lucrative formal and informal jobs in the tourism
industry and gained economic benefits.
If not acting as an agent of commoditisation, tourism development can
contribute to the protection and enhancement of traditions, customs and
heritage, which would otherwise disappear in the waves of modernisation.
Modernisation and globalisation tends to standardise the world's economic
culture by encouraging the adoption of a universal model, and implicitly