Contribution to socio cultural development

Tourism has the potential to promote social development through employment creation, income redistribution and poverty alleviation. Other potential positive impacts of tourism include.

• Tourism as a force for peace: Travelling brings people into contact with each other and, as tourism has an educational element, it can foster understanding between individuals and cultures and provide cultural exchange between hosts and guests. Because of this, the chances increase for people to develop mutual sympathy and understanding and to reduce their prejudices.
• Strengthening communities: Tourism can add to the vitality of communities in many ways. For example events and festivals, of which local residents have been the primary participants and spectators, are often rejuvenated and developed in response to tourist interest. The jobs created by tourism can act as a vital incentive to reduce emigration from rural areas. Local people can also increase their influence on tourism development, as well as improve their job and earnings prospects, through tourism- related professional training and development of business and organisational skills.
• Facilities developed for tourism can benefit residents: As tourism supports the creation of community facilities and services that otherwise might not have been developed, it can bring higher living standards to a destination. Benefits can include upgraded infrastructure, health and transport improvements, new sport and recreational facilities, restaurants, and public spaces as well as an influx of better quality commodities and food.
• Revaluation of culture and traditions: Tourism can boost the preservation and transmission of cultural and historical traditions, which often contributes to the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, the protection of local heritage, and a renaissance of indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts. For example, in Bali, the presence of visitors who continually praise Balinese art and culture has given locals a type of confidence and pride in their art removing any possibility in the people's mind that their art was in any way inferior to the art of advanced nations. This plays an important role in conserving and developing the art in general.
• Tourism encourages civic involvement and pride: Tourism helps raise local awareness of the financial value of natural and cultural sites and can stimulate a feeling of pride in local and national heritage and thus interest in its conservation. More broadly, the involvement of local communities in tourism development and operation appears to be an important condition for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

However, the listed positive consequences of tourism can arise only if and when tourism is practised and developed in a sustainable way. Involving the local population is essential. A community involved in planning and implementation of tourism has a more positive attitude, is more supportive and has a better chance to make a profit from tourism than a population passively ruled (or overrun) by tourism. One of the core elements of sustainable tourism development is community development, which is a process and a capacity to make decisions that consider the long-term economy, ecology and equity of all communities.

Based on UNEP Production and Consumption Unit Tourism Programme