In "Mass tourism is at a tipping point – but we’re all part of the problem", Martin Kettle (2017) says: "human beings across the world make more than a billion foreign trips a year". Mass tourism now is gradually becoming a serious problem of humanity. The quantity of travelling increases every year. Now the most popular tourist places (for example, Europe) are overloaded with the number of travelers. Local people aren't satisfied with this situation, the number of tourists is becoming critical. Tourist places simply can’t cope with the huge flow of people who want to visit it. This problem can be solved at the government level. But, also, the author suggests that we can begin the change with ourselves, and think about how we can travel more consciously.
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My response
Almost for one week I have checked a few news sources every evening, in Sunday I spent around five hours trying to find something good in news feeds. But there is nothing good in latest news, only Trump, Putin, riots, murders and robberies. I'm a little tired of this (maybe you too), so, let's talk about tourism.
Mass tourism. How often do you travel? What places for travelling do you choose? Would you like to visit Paris or Venice? For me travelling is not only the best hobby in my life, but the job. I don't like to plan my trip and prefer to decide on spot already that I'm interested in new country. I always try to avoid popular tourist places, or visit it in off-season. But every year it becomes more and more difficult. For instance, the beautiful Angkor Wat in Cambodia: 5 years ago in rainy season this place was almost empty, but now there is no way to see this temple without people. Or, I can talk about Koh Chang island, where I spent four years in my life. A few years ago it was a beautiful, quiet place, but now the number of tourists is changing the island. More and more people come here to work, prices are constantly growing, the quality of services is getting lower. Locals think how they can make more money, and I'll be honest, how to deceive tourists. But what do tourists do? Only a few travelers really respect the culture and religion of the country. On Koh Chang people come for perfect sea and white beaches, and for cheap alcohol, food and a pleasure. Why do they go to the famous Buddhist monastery? Ok, someone goes because they are interested in Buddhism. But most modern tourists do it to make hundreds photos for social networks. Is it normal? I think no.
So, should we limit the number of tourists in the country? Now I want to talk about Thailand, because all of us live and work here. I know many Thai people who don't want their country to be visited by many tourists. But it seems to me very selfish, because many people can live only on tourists' money. Many Thai people on the contrary want to attract even more travelers to the country. But tourists don't care about the nature, about the environment, about relics, about the history of the country. For instance, the Similan islands, where due to tourism the reef was destroyed. So, where is the "golden mean"? I know only one good example of a tourism regulation, and I really like this example. This is Bhutan, the Kingdom of happiness. All tourists (group or individual) must travel only on package tour, and they have to pay around 250$ per day per person. The number of tourists is determined by the number of rooms in hotels. Not bad, is it? Unfortunately, this way of tourism development is not suitable for Thailand and for many other tourist countries. So, what can we do? I have worked in tourism for four years, I visited more than 20 countries, and I don’t know how we can solve this problem. Starting with yourself is probably the best idea.
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My question for readers
Do you think that mass tourism is a real problem in the world? What do you think about tourism in Thailand? Do you like tourist in your city? Do you think tourism is a problem in Thailand or not?
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- Kettle, M. (2017, August 11). Mass tourism is at a tipping point – but we’re all part of the problem. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/11/tourism-tipping-point-travel-less-damage-destruction
It is true that mass tourist is a big problem in many countries because they do not respect the place there are going to. In some countries, archaeological sites are damaged by these people. In contrast, not everyone does a bad thing. Many tourists respect local people and try to follow the country rules.
ReplyDeleteIn Thailand, tourists also cause many problems to local people, such as Chinese tourists. Thai people do not like them because of their habits. However, not all the Chinese do bad things, lot of them are very good people but we already have a negative opinion about them and try to reject them. Moreover, some of tourists just do not understand about our culture. If we tell them, they will try to follow it.
I do not have an opinion that I hate tourists because our country earn a lot of money every year from them. If we reject the tourist to come to travel in Thailand, we might have to face with the financial crisis again. In addition, some of Thai people do bad things more than foreigner. We also cause many problems when we go to travel in our homeland. So, the problems do not only come from the tourists, they also come from Thai people too. The best way to solve this problem is local people need to change their mind about the tourists. If they still think that tourists cause problems to every place they visit, they should to stop to travel too because they will make problems in the place they visit too.
Your example of Bhutan has attracted me, so let me talk about it first. I agree with you, that tourism regulation is not suitable Thailand, where the rules work quite bad. Another thing is what I just realize that Thailand is now very famous among tourists all around the world. People spend a ton of money here and I think that it is a big plus for government and our economy, so it is impossible to stop tourists entering to Thailand.
ReplyDeleteEven though being a good tourist is tough, I think people should learn about a culture and how to behave nicely in the place they go. For your questions, I do not hate tourists I think most of them are very kind, and they know how to behave. What I concern are Thai tourists who behave inappropriately in other countries. I had seen video clip shows Thai tourists behave very bad in The U.S. It shames me to say that I am Thai.
I'm innocent. I almost never travel, except to visit family and friends in Australia once a year. I used to travel more decades ago, but soon learned that I don't like it: it's stressful, and wasn't worth the hassle for me.
ReplyDeleteBhutan interests me. I kind of wonder whether they are as happy as their government claims they are. It sounds to me like a nationalistic myth, so I would only believe it if the official claims of happiness were supported by independent research. I don't know a lot about Bhutan, but it sounds as though a despotic government seeks to control all aspects of people's lives, and it's hard to believe that that could be a good thing, however noble the motives might sincerely be.
Finally, I think most tourists are respectful, but the ones who are not are the ones that get the most attention from the media. Millions of tourists visit Thailand every year, but how many behave badly? I'm sure there are some, but is the number higher than locals who behave badly? In my own country, I see far more Aussies behaving badly than I do tourists.
I don't know if this become a problem in the world, but in Thailand, yes, it does. The mass tourist problem reminds of Amphawa Floating Market. Around ten years ago before it becomes popular, many local people lived their slow life in this quiet and peaceful place nearby Mae Klong River. most of the shop owners are local people, you could buy a coconut in 10 baht, but since it becomes an attractive place for tourism, the price of food and souvenirs increase higher and higher. The shop owners are not from the local anymore because the outsiders took over most of the shops. Amphawa Floating Market is not as beautiful as it used to be and I feel so sad about it.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised at you said the problem of Amphawa Floating Market because I went there few weeks ago and I think that is a beautiful place but actually there are too many tourists to move(indeed, I am also one of tourists) and I also bought a coconut which cost me 90 baht ! It is really shocked me as I originally think this place is a famous tourist attraction from past to present and always crowded with tourists. I never think it is a peaceful before!
DeleteI'm happy that you start to talk about Amphawa. I really love this place, and It looks like it's the best spot for close to Bangkok. But, I saw there a lot of Thai tourist, a bit Chinese, and just few of foreigners. I think this place not popular between foreigners tourist - it'f quite far from the city, and almost all hotels are expensive. But I heard that many people from Bangkok prefer to spend holiday in Amphawa (with good bear and cheap seafood). What I want to say, I think this is a good example, but it shows us domestic tourism.
DeleteTo Celia: I was shocked when you told that you paid 90 baht for 1 coconut! The price was much more expensive than I thought.
DeleteTo Kate: When I wrote the comment, I just thought about a place that was affected from mass tourism without thinking of the tourist nationality.
What you pointed out is right, the majority of tourists in Amphawa is Thai. So when we talk about mass tourism cause problems to the country, we should not define them as only foreigners.
I think of traditional villages in Japan where local people manage their own town to be a place for cultural tourism. They develop their business by valuing their culture, environment and natural resources first, therefore, they choose to limit the number of tourists to travel in their villages.
For me, it's a really weird news I've ever heard. I heard many news that many countries lose their tourist, and that made their economy drop surprisingly. And I never thought that a lot of tourist could make a problem. So this news is completely different from those I've read.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read your summary, I realized that many tourism places are being degraded - for example, the sea water got polluted - while many tourists are coming to boom the economy. I really hate the way our sea isn't fresh like when was young. So I think this is really a problem of mass tourism.
The tourism in my country, I think here is one of the most place tourist choose to come. Every time I spend my holiday at the sea or many other tourism places, I never see no foreigner. And that's good, I like them. I never think that it's disgusting for receiving many foreigner.
To consider that mass tourism in Thailand is useful or is a problem, I would say it can be both depending on how government arrange them - to preserve the nature and also in the same time plenty of tourist. But what is recently happening, I think, brings the problem - pollute the sea water - rather than booms economy.
I, for sure, can't arrange with this problem. But if I could, I would draw some regulation to preserve the nature of the mountain and the sea and others in order to keep it more valuable and not destroy it. For example, I could strict the law and charge the one who throw the rubbish out of the bin, or I could make an organization to campaign everyone to be more obliged with the nature. And limiting tourist, as you mention, might be a good idea.
I have never thought of letting tourists causes a lot of problem, but as we see from the news it does.
DeleteIn some countries terrorists make use of being a tourist to attack the city such as recently news in Spain. I did not know about the detail, but we can see that letting people from other countries to you country can make a lot of problems.
I think it is like you let people from other countries, as a tourist they come very easy because government want to get money from their travelling. So, some terrorists use this way to come to their targeted countries and make problems.