Impact of tourism on Thailand

How has tourism shaped Thailand

Tourism is a positive and sweet sounding word, but behind it there are lots of negative consequences too. The positive impact is money and revenue for both the government and locals

Many developing countries perceive tourism as a fast track to economic growth. They assume that tourism development requires less investment than other industries; and they believe tourism to be an effective means of creating job opportunities and increasing local income.

Yes, it is true that the tourism industry is by far the best way a country could go into to boost is economy but there are both good and bad impacts. The good is that it brings in income for the many low-income Thais. it is one of the top money earner for the economy. In a way, to attract visitors, Thailand has to upgrade its standard of living, so this is good.

The negative aspect is that the younger Thais are slowly losing their culture, as many are embracing the modern technology and western culture along the way. This is the result of globalization and this has eroded some of their traditional way of life.

The other point is that the tourists bring with them the social ills from their country, contributing to the spread of AIDS in the 80's due to the Thai's tolerant nature and did not realise the harm these tourists bring. Also the because of the lax laws, visitors bring in substance abuse. Making easy money, this spread fast.

The sticking point is that the country get labelled as a sex haven even though this is happening in a few cities, and not even province. So this give rise to the connotation that Thai girls are easy for sex, while the fact is that there are prostitutes in many countries and it is sad that these visitors labelled the whole country so.

In summary, I will not pick a side saying whether tourism is good or bad for Thailand, but i would only say that in any situation, tourism will bring both good and bad impacts to the society. Not only Thailand but other countries as well. Especially towards the indigenous people. As mentioned in one of the post above, Thailand consist of indigenous groups and by far they are opened to tourist by showing tourist their cultures and lifestyle. But this has caused an indirect impact on the indigenous group whereby the young generations of these indigenous groups are exposed to westerners at a young age and this possess risk of a loss in culture.

Hence i would say that tourism has shaped Thailand into a better country with a boost in economic growth but at the same time, there are people who are suffering due to tourism such as little girls who are being exploited for sex tourism.

Is tourism the culprit for co-modifying cultures and traditions

Tourism is definitely the culprit when co-modification of culture and traditions comes into concern. Lets look at an example of what co-modification is.

Imagine going to Paris for a holiday and throughout your trip you went to various places and even the Eiffel Tower. You bought a mini Eiffel Tower key-chain as a souvenir. When you return home, you started showing your friends and relatives the key-chain you have bought from Paris and claiming that you have been to Paris.

In this case you are reducing Paris to simply a key-chain making it seems that it means nothing much other than a key-chain.

In the tourism industry, when travel agencies and tour operators package tours and sell them to customers, they are focusing on probably the attractions, cultural and tradition aspects of the destination. For instance, when packaging a tour for Thailand, what most tour brochures would do is to draw our attentions to places of interest such as temples like Wat Khao Nor and The Grand Palace of Bangkok.

in the long-run tourist will associate these places with the country. And when they are asked about this specific country, they will instinctively be reminded of these places of interest instead of other aspects like lifestyles, development and food culture.