Tourism and Socio-cultural Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 231

culture (Kruhse-MountBurton, 1995) and other studies suggest that it is a
reflection of social values in the clients'/tourists' home culture that approves
of the commercialisation of personal relations (Hashimoto, 2000).
Sex-tourism does not only occur in tourist destination areas. Trafficking
of women often involves the import of women from foreign countries with
illegal entry visas (Skrobanek et al. , 1997; Seabrook, 1996) to destination
areas, with the intent that they will work in the sex industry. Sex-tourism
also involves exporting local prostitutes illegally, such that they enter clients'
home countries as eventual mistresses or sex slaves.
The above examples of the negative impact of tourism illustrate how
complicated the relationship between tourism and a host population can be;
standard socio-economic indicators cannot adequately measure these
changes. Tourism is a double-edged sword, as the industry may bring more
money to a local population and government and thereby raise living stan-
dards, but, at the same time, there can be socio-cultural costs associated with
this development.
Discussions and Conclusions
The issue of tourism as a form of socio-economic development and mod-
ernisation is full of contradictions. First of all, the theories of modernisation
and development mainly focus on the economic welfare of a nation as a
whole, assuming that better economic levels can provide better social welfare,
including lower unemployment rates, higher GNPs, and better health care
and, resultantly, longer life expectancy. However, the fundamental assump-
tion of these theories is that the Euro-American model of industrialisation is
the preferred model of development and that the rest of the world must follow
this model in order to improve economic levels and lifestyles. It has not been
questioned until recently whether or not this model can apply to different
cultures and socio-economic systems. Second, it has not been questioned as
to whether or not tourism should be a means of economic development or a
means of modernisation to improve living standards. According to socio-eco-
nomic development theories, economic development and modernisation of
living standards should go hand in hand, and lifestyles and living standards
are expected to follow Euro-American models. However, in tourism, indige-
nous lifestyles and customs of host communities are valuable commodities
and are not expected to be totally modernised. The question is whether or not
it is possible to attain modernisation of lifestyles and living standards without
changing the traditions and old customs of host communities.
Tourism development can be reviewed under the concepts of dependency
theory and economic neoliberalism, both of which reflect upon the domina-
tion of economically developed nations in the tourism business, the devalu-
ation of cultural and traditional values of weaker economies and unfair