“Invisible” tourism
Kilde: Kulturturisme. Lofoten som
reiselivsattraksjon. Hovedfag.PDF,
www.nhh.no/geo/prosjekt/kbl/r200rapport.pdf
The figure shows 4 types of economic impacts of tourism,
based on the coming incomes and the use of resources. No community would want
tourism that uses a lot of resources in the area but leaves little money to the
local population. Such tourism can be called undesirable. Communities can put
up with tourism that gives tem a lot of incomes but also uses a lot of
resources. It is the so-called acceptable tourism. In case when the use of
resources is little and the incomes to the region are also little, the effect
of tourism is almost not seen. This is the so-called “invisible” tourism. So the
economic impact will be considered as positive even if the resources are used
to great extent, in case if tourism gives large incomes to the local people as
a result. Hovland (source unknown) divided economic impacts of tourism into
direct and indirect. Direct effects are most visible and easy to measure. These
are contacts between a visitor and local actors, such as the tourist industry,
other industries, municipality and other local actors. Indirect effects of
tourism appear when local businesses, population, municipalities and other
actors are influenced by tourism through other actors. I shall now discuss
these relations between tourism and fishery industry on the Lofoten Islands. As I have emphasised Lofoten is an international destination with coast life
culture as a primary tourism resource. From1960 there have been problems in
fishing industry and the number of employees has decreased. So increasing
development of tourism compensates decreasing development of fishery industry.
If we take direct impacts of tourism, they are following here: people have a
possibility to get jobs in tourism industry and tourists spend lots of money in
local-owned restaurants, hotels, museums. Tourism industry uses some resources
that are not used by fishermen today. Old fishing houses-rorbuer[1]-
may have disappeared from the local landscapes if they were not used today as
hotels. Here are some numbers to show the development of tourism in the region.
In 1964 there were just 200 beds in local hotels and guesthouses and 150 beds
in rorbuer in the whole Lofoten. In 1997 there were about 1360 beds just in
Vågan district. The total amount of overnight stays in Lofoten has
increased from 25000 in 1965 to 230000 in 1997. (Puijk 1996, SSB 1997) As we
can see there is a flow of incomes to the region and this is a direct economic
impact of tourism.
Still there are negative economic impacts of tourism as
well caused by common resources for tourism and fishery industries on the
Lofoten islands. That’s why in spite of co-existing side by side these two
industries compete with each other. Many fishermen in Lofoten think that
tourists prevent successful development of the fishing industry as before.
First of all, the problem is common area. The number of quays in the fishing
villages is limited. And what was used by fishing boats is now to be shared
with tourists. Fishermen are afraid that tourism organisations will take over a
lot of fishing bays, buildings, even boats. Here is an opinion of a local
fisherman written in a local newspaper “Lofotposten” (9/2-98) “Svolvær
bay is reserved for guestboats. There is almost no harbour left for local
people to place their boats or build a warehouse.” This effect can be
considered as indirect. Tourism organisations in Lofoten trying to get more
benefits from tourists, interfere into the fishing industry and force them some
changes.
The same concerns the fish itself. Many tourists come
to Lofoten to fish. And at this moment there are no fishing quotes for
tourists. So what happens is that “people come, fish freely and actively, make
fish filets, freeze them, take them with them to Europe without any permission
that are required from the local fishermen. Tourists can in fact take with them
up to 200 kg fish in the fridge, sell it later, come back and fish again.” (www.nhh.no/geo/prosjekt)
Thus, tourists decrease the fishermen’s incomes in a direct way. So we see how
the tourism can ehave direct negative effects on the fishing industry, decreasing
their resources. Although tourists leave money in the region as well, this
effect becomes less visible because the local people see first of all decrease
of their main incomes.
Here is another example of indirect economic impact. Tourism
organisations often want to change the traditional way of fishing by the local
fishermen so that coming tourists would consider their work to be more
esthetical. For example, fishing wastes have always been thrown back into the
sea. Now suddenly there are tourists to think about, and they find the fishing
wastes smell bad. That’s why some tourist organisations ask the fishermen to
install dump systems in order to clean the harbours. This brings extra costs
for the community.
The tourism industry on the Lofoten Islands makes use of the resources to a great extent. The incomes the local community gets are
big enough but they come partly at the cost of fishing incomes. There is a
certain lack of regulations about the use of common resources. Obviously, to
escape conflicts the tourism industry should not take over the most important
for the fishermen areas. There are surely lots of areas not suitable for the
fishing industry (due to low amount of fish or small capacity of the harbour)
but which would suit tourists. Still, the problem lies deeper because of social
conflicts in the area.
3. Social
and environmental impacts of tourism.
Socially tourism has a great influence on the host
societies. Tourism can be both a source of international amity, peace and
understanding and a destroyer and corrupter of indigenous cultures, a source of
ecological destruction, an assault of people’s privacy, dignity and
authenticity. (L.van den Berghe, source unknown)
Here are possible positive effects of tourism, according
to Reisinger (source unknown)
- Developing positive attitudes towards each other
- Learning about each other’s culture and customs
- Reducing negative perceptions and stereotypes
- Developing friendships
- Developing pride, appreciation, understanding,
respect and tolerance for each other’s culture
- Increasing self-esteem of hosts and tourists
- Psychological satisfaction with interaction
So, social contacts between tourists and local people may
result in mutual appreciation, understanding, tolerance, awareness, learning,
family bonding respect, and liking. Residents are educated about the outside
world without leaving their homes, while their visitors significantly learn
about a distinctive culture. Besides, if local culture is the base for
attracting tourists to the region, it helps to preserve the local tradition,
handicrafts which maybe were on the link of the extinction. Benefits include
also reciprocity, community pride, and a stronger sense of ethnic identity.
On the other side tourism can increase tension,
hostility, suspicion. Claims of tourism as a vital force for peace are
exaggerated. Indeed there is little evidence that tourism is drawing the world
together (Robinson,1999:22). While the tourist is engaged in leisure, the host
is engaged in work. While the tourists arrive with loads of expectations, many
of the local stakeholders have no idea of what to expect.
Negative effects can be the following, according to Reisinger
(source unknown)
- Developing negative attitudes towards each other
- Tension, hostility, suspicion and misunderstanding
- Clashes of values
- Difficulties in forming friendships
- Feeling of inferiority and superiority
- Communication problems
- Ethnocentrism
- Culture shock
- Dissatisfaction with mutual interaction.
Tourism has the power to affect cultural change. Successful
development of a resource can lead to numerous negative impacts. Among these
are over-development, assimilation, conflict and artificial reconstruction.
While presenting a culture to tourists may help preserve the culture, it can
also dilute or even destroy it. Tourism often leads to non-authentic forms of
cultural traditions, an example being festivals or dances staged entirely for
tourists, or production of handicraft clearly distinctive from traditional
ones. We can take example of saami culture. Saami duodji is sold both with and
without a quality mark. A lot of things known and promoted as saami things is
just a “trash”, produced far from saami regions. Some tourist organisations
present saami people as drunkards, out of their mind, dirty and uneducated. The
point is to promote a region so that it would both give incomes and create
respect for the local culture (Gustavsen, 1998).
When it comes to ecology, it is again easier to see
negative impact than positive. Tourism often grows into masstourism. It leads
to the over-consumption, pollution and lack of resources. But in some regions
alternative industries are even more harmful to the environment than tourism
industry. Nature will manage fine without tourists, but in many places tourism
is the only source of income or the friendliest to the environment. It is at
least better than chopping down the forests or destroying the corral reefs.
(Munch-Petersen,1998 (from lecturenotes))
On the Lofoten Islands the conflict between the host
community and the tourists is more of cultural origin, e.g. in Svolvær or
Vågan. The fishermen can see that one harbour after another is being
reconstructed for a café, a rorbucamp, a quay hotel. For the fishermen
it is an expression that their traditional industry is getting less and less
important. Even if it does not happen at the cost of the fishery industry it
is mostly a psychological problem. The local people want to behold their
identity, their traditional way of work. Here are some opinions (www.nhh.no/geo/prosjekt):
“I am a fisherman and I don’t wish to become any guide
or anything like that”, “I am a fisherman, and I appreciate the freedom this
way of life means.” Tourists seek some exotic experiences when they come to
Lofoten; the fishermen get perplexed and confused thinking about it. “There is
so much blood and fishing wastes here that tourists can’t bear. Ladies in fine
clothes come here and watch how we cut the head of the fish. They think we are
some barbarians!” These are cultural conflicts that can be observed on Lofoten.
Though some people insist there are no conflicts. They mean the tourism
industry uses resources that the fishermen don’t get use of. Tourism employs
mostly women when fishery involves men.
Non-authentic forms of the local cultural monuments can
be found here as well. On the one side tourism helps to preserve old rorbuer.
On the other side they become modernised inside, furnished with modern
furniture, supplied with electricity, water, TV etc. Thus they lose their
authenticity.
In spite of all the negative changes in the local
communities tourism has positive social and cultural impact as well. Changes
are inevitable; it is a very complicated matter to preserve things as they used
to be. In Lofoten tourists help to preserve the harbours, rorbuer, old boats. If
not tourism the coastal landscape could include only modern buildings and
boats. Many museums have been opened showing the local traditions of fishing.
Growing interest in this culture makes the local people proud of their way of
life.
If we take ecological impacts of tourism in the Lofoten
region, we should bare in mind that the fishing industry is no 100 percent
environmentally friendly either. So it is a question which industry brings more
negative effects to the environment. Tourists coming to Lofoten are not
satisfied with just enjoying the nature; there are many visitors who want to
fish as well. The difference is maybe that tourists stay in the region for
short periods and their welfare does not depend on the amount of fish they catch.
They fish for pleasure and often let the fish go. Still, as I have mentioned
above there are no regulations or fishing quotes for tourists and if
masstourism will develop on the Lofoten Islands it will become a threaten to
the fish.
From ecological point of view tourism is often more
acceptable and preferable than traditional production, as it is environmentally
friendlier. The problem is that it is not easy to change traditional way of
life of the local communities. It often creates pseudo conflicts.
4.
Conclusion.
We have shown that the impact of tourism on local
communities can be both positive and negative, whether it comes to economic,
social or environmental effects. All depends on to which extent tourism is
developed in a particular region. Every region has its bearing capacity, that
is to say the limit of the outcoming influence that does not harm the host
community. If we overcome that limit negative impacts of tourism will follow.
Fig.2 The ecotourism paradigm. Source: Page and Dowling (2002:27)
Integrated sustainable
resource use
Environmental advocacy
Economic
Education;
Benefits;
Inter-cultural
Values;
appreciation
revenues
for
protection
All the three elements in this model are in
co-interaction. Local communities use the natural resources but they also
protect them. Tourists come to enjoy the nature and get knowledge about it, but
they also can pollute and destroy it, or on the other side help to protect it
by drawing attention to unique natural resources in the area. Local communities
affect tourists by giving them knowledge of their culture and way of life.
Tourists’ impact on the local populations can be economic (giving incomes,
using resources etc) and sociocultural (e.g.changing traditions) When
developing a new tourist destination we should always bare in mind this
co-interaction.
In any case local communities should be empowered to say”no” to
undesirable tourism. In order to decrease negative effects on local societies
we can check the following moments when arranging tourism activity in a region
or taking part in it: (Fennell,1999(from lecture notes))
- Are local people involved in tourism industry as employees?
- Does the organisation cooperate with the local businesses?
- Is it respectful attitude to the local culture?
- Is there respect to the nature and how is it protected?
- How much economic benefit the local population get from
tourism?
- Are tour operators concerned about ecological hotels,
transport, restaurants?
We can see it is a great challenge to make profitable business
running tourism in an area without affecting negatively the local communities.
It is possible for tourism industry to co-operate with other industries and
bring benefits to both the tourism organisations and local businesses. The
first step to achieve it is to understand needs and desires of both the host
community and the tourists.
[1] Rorbu (Norwegian) – fisherman’s shack
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