💼 Jobs
Hotels, restaurants, transport, guides and shops all need staff. Tourism can give work to people with few other choices, such as young people in rural areas.
Tourism » Benefits and Problems of Tourism
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 9.3.3
- The main benefits tourism brings to places and people
- The main problems tourism can cause
- How impacts differ at local, regional, national and global scales
- Short examples of benefits and problems from different countries
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Unlock This CourseTourism: good news and bad news
Tourism can transform a place. A quiet village can gain shops, jobs and roads. But the same visitors can also crowd the streets, damage nature and push up prices. Geographers say tourism has benefits and problems, and that both depend on how the tourism is managed.
Key terms:
- Foreign exchange: money from other countries that a country earns, for example when visitors spend their own currency there.
- Leakage: money earned from tourism that leaves the local area or country, for example profits sent to foreign-owned companies.
- Overtourism: when there are so many visitors that local people and the environment suffer.
- Seasonal job: a job that only exists at busy times of year, such as summer.
The benefits of tourism
💰 Income and foreign exchange
Visitors spend money, and the government gains tax. In the Maldives, tourism is the biggest part of the economy and brings in much of the country's foreign exchange.
🔄 Multiplier effect
Remember the multiplier effect from earlier. In tourism, a tourist pays a hotel, the hotel buys food from local farmers, and the farmers spend their money in local shops.
🛣 Infrastructure
To serve visitors, places build airports, roads, clean water supplies and electricity. Local people can use these too.
🌿 Protecting heritage and wildlife
Entry fees can pay for the upkeep of old buildings and national parks. Costa Rica uses tourism income to help protect its rainforests and wildlife, and high-priced gorilla permits in Rwanda help pay for gorilla conservation.
🤝 Cultural exchange
Visitors and local people learn about each other's food, music and ways of life. This can build understanding and pride in local culture.
The problems caused by tourism
| Problem | What happens |
|---|---|
| Seasonal and low-paid jobs | Many jobs are only for the busy season and pay low wages, so people have no income in the off season. Many jobs need few skills and many people want them, so wages stay low. |
| Leakage | Foreign-owned hotels and airlines send profits abroad, and imported food and goods are paid for with tourist money. Little may stay in the local economy. |
| Overcrowding and congestion | Streets, beaches and roads become packed, so local people struggle to use their own town. |
| Pollution and litter | Traffic, boats and aircraft cause air and noise pollution. Visitors may leave litter, and sewage can pollute the sea. |
| Damage to fragile environments | Footpaths erode, wildlife is disturbed and coral is broken by boats and divers. |
| Water use | Hotels, pools and golf courses can use far more water than local people, which can cause shortages in dry places such as parts of Bali. |
| Rising prices | Land, houses and food cost more, so local people can no longer afford to live there. |
| Loss of culture | Traditions may be changed or turned into shows for visitors, and young people may copy visitors' habits. |
| Overtourism | So many visitors arrive that residents feel their home has been taken over. |
Examples from around the world
Thailand
Maya Bay is a famous beach that was made even more popular by a film. Huge numbers of boats and visitors damaged its coral, so the bay was closed in 2018 to let it recover. It reopened in 2022 with limits on visitor numbers.
Venice, Italy
The city is visited by millions of people, and many are day visitors who spend little. The crowds make life hard for residents, and the city has introduced an entry fee for day visitors to help manage numbers.
Peru
Machu Picchu is a World Heritage Site. Tourism earns Peru income, but large numbers of walkers cause wear and erosion, so daily visitor numbers are now limited to protect it.
Reef tourism, from Coral Reefs: Importance, Threats and Protection, is another example of both benefits and problems.
Impacts at different scales
The same tourism can affect people differently depending on the scale.
| Scale | Benefit | Problem |
|---|---|---|
| Local (a village or resort) | Jobs for local families, new shops and a better water supply. | Crowding, litter, noise and house prices rising. |
| Regional (a coast or island group) | A busy region may get new roads, an airport and many businesses. | Money may be spent in the tourist region while other regions of the same country are left behind. |
| National (a country) | Foreign exchange, tax income and many jobs across the country. | The country may rely too much on tourism, so a pandemic, war or storm can cause a sudden loss of income. Leakage can reduce the gain. |
| Global | Cultural exchange and shared understanding between countries. | Flights add to climate change, and popular places may lose their unique character. |
Who benefits and who loses?
Impacts can also be sorted into economic (money and jobs), social (people and culture) and environmental (the natural world). A hotel owner may gain, while a farmer who loses water to hotels may lose out. Tourism's impacts are rarely equal for everyone, so a strong answer says who is affected.
Common mistakes
Do not write a list of benefits with no explanation. For each point say what happens and why. Do not say tourism is "good" or "bad" without balance. Do not forget to name the scale. Do not confuse the multiplier effect, which is a benefit, with leakage, which is a problem.
Exam-style question
Table 1 shows made-up figures for the island of Palma Verde.
| Feature | Figure |
|---|---|
| Tourist arrivals a year (thousands) | 900 |
| Share of hotel profits that leaves the country | 70% |
| Share of tourist jobs that are seasonal | 60% |
(a) Define the term leakage. [1 mark]
(b) Describe two benefits tourism may bring to a local community. [2 marks]
(c) Explain why many tourist jobs are described as low paid and seasonal. [3 marks]
(d) To what extent do the benefits of tourism outweigh the problems for Palma Verde? [6 marks]
Model answer
(a) Money earned from tourism that leaves the local area or country, for example to foreign-owned companies (1).
(b) Any two from: jobs for local people (1), income for local businesses (1), better infrastructure such as roads (1), protection of heritage and wildlife (1).
(c) Many jobs are seasonal because visitors come mainly in the warm or dry season (1), so hotels and restaurants only need staff at those times (1). Wages are low because the jobs, such as cleaning or serving food, need few skills and there are many people looking for work (1).
(d) Level 3 (5-6 marks) answer: There are real benefits. With 900,000 visitors a year, tourism brings income and foreign exchange, and the multiplier effect helps shops, farmers and taxi drivers. Roads and airports built for visitors can also help local people. However, the problems are large. Table 1 shows that 70% of hotel profits leave the country, so much of the money does not stay on the island. Also 60% of tourist jobs are seasonal, so many workers have no income for part of the year. Tourism can also cause crowding, pollution and rising prices for residents. Overall, the benefits are real but the problems currently outweigh them, because so much money leaves and so many jobs are seasonal. Tourism would help the island much more if more money stayed there.
Exam tip
In a "To what extent" question, use the figures in Table 1 as evidence and finish with a clear judgement.