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By Mink Sasiwan, on November 25th, 2011
This literature review is written by Mink Sasiwan as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Bhutan is a small land-locked kingdom situating in the Himalayan Mountains between India and China. This tiny country has enjoyed the reputation as one of the most pristine and exclusive travel destinations in the world – the “last Shangri-La”. The number of inbound tourists has increased each year despite its controlled tourism policy imposing an over-priced daily tariff of US$ 200 on each tourist. This daily tariff is a result of the high-value, low-volume strategy based on the “Gross National Happiness” (GNH) philosophy – a formula to measure the country’s progress considering equitable economic development, environmental conservation, cultural promotion and good governance rather than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Tourism Council of Bhutan, 2011). The objectives of this high-value, low-volume policy are to earn the foreign currency and to limit the number of arrivals in order to prevent the negative impacts of tourism on its cultural heritage and natural environment (Department of Tourism, 2005). However, a growing number of tourists could jeopardize the intended objective of safeguarding Bhutan’s culture and nature which it is known for.
Many studies agree that the “High Value, Low Volume policy had been successful. The tourism had the potential to both stimulate private sector growth and transform the rural economy, without having a negative impact on its culture and environment (Brunet, Bauer, Lacy, & Tshering, 2001; Gurung & Seeland, 2008; Reinfeld, 2003; Rinzin, Vermeulen & Glasbergen 2007).
However, there are some arguments against this policy especially in regard of tourism causing the environmental issues (Dorji, 2001). The increasing number of uncontrolled Indian tourists who don’t have to pay the daily tariff which according to Nyaupane & Timothy (2010), threatening the policy and country’s cultural and natural resources.
The goal of this literature review is to provide insight in the positive as well as the negative impacts of Bhutan’s controlled tourism policy on its economy, culture and environment. The research question will therefore be:
What are the positive and negative impacts of Bhutan’s controlled tourism policy on its economy, culture and environment?
The research question will be answered by a synthesis of relevant articles and journals related to Bhutan’s tourism policy and its impacts. Using a thematic approach, both the published and unpublished government documents focusing on this topic will also be analyzed.
The first part of this literature review will explain a theory of tourism impacts, a concept of Bhutan’s controlled tourism policy and why it has been chosen. The second part will emphasize on positive impacts of the policy while the third part will discuss the negative impacts. Finally the conclusion will be drawn.
Continue reading Impacts of Bhutan’s controlled tourism policy
By Jessica Peelen, on November 25th, 2011
This literature review is written by Jessica Peelen as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Diving is becoming more popular. It started as a recreational activity and diving is now developing into a booming sector of travel industry all over the world. The Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) measure the increasing participation in diving activity, from 2.5 million certified divers in 1988 to 17.5 million in 2008 (PADI Diver Statistics, 2008). One the world’s most popular diving destination is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Actually it’s not possible to leave Australia without diving here, or at least snorkel. But also new diving destinations as Myanmar and Mozambique will be developed and this stimulates the development of diving tourism worldwide. More new tour operators and travel agencies specialized in diving holidays are started the last years (T.F. Ong and G. Musa, 2011).
It’s useful to find out what influence diving has on the environment and if divers’ attitude can make a difference.
Diving is often related with damaging and fracturing of coral. This will be examined from different perspectives with case studies of three dive destinations as Malaysia Sipadan, Cayman Island in the Caribbean and a Marine National Park inThailand, called Surin.
Continue reading Impacts of diving: To dive or not to dive?
By Irena Iankova, on November 25th, 2011
This literature review is written by Irena Iankova as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Due to an increase of the movement of goods and services from one country to another, globalization became increasingly important term in today’s business environment, the tourism sector in particular. This term raises interesting questions about tourism and its development in 21st century and this literature review is focused on giving a proper answer if globalization is bringing positive effects to tourism or exactly the opposite.
The way of understanding globalization can be a very complicated one as still there is not a common definition. According to Wood (2000), globalization means at least 3 different things. It is a well organized and designed on purpose tool which assists countries in the promotion of ‘fully-integrated global capitalism’ vision (McMichael 1996). Second, it is a set of social practices that are bringing all the countries in the world somehow ‘together’. And third, globalization can be described as a mixture of discourses for success creation in both the project and the processes (Robertson and Khondker 1998). Although definitions of globalization vary to a great extent, I will put the light of this literature review on the dual core processes identified by Robertson (1992) in his broad analysis of globalization: the global density of time and space and the boost in a reflexive global awareness, two processes that have evidently been essential to the development of tourism on an international level (Wood, 2000). Nowadays, the question of whether globalization is a positive tool for the field of tourism is still controversial, mainly because policies related to globalization are regularly examined with no concern of the relations with important economic sectors, particularly tourism (Sugiyarto, Blake and Sinclair, 2003). In this paper I am going to examine the effects of globalization on tourism growth.
Continue reading Tourism within the Limits of a Global Village – Is globalization a positive tool for the tourism industry?
By Mariska Kleintjens, on November 25th, 2011
This literature review is written by Mariska Kleintjes as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Volunteer tourism is a sector that can benefit both tourists and host communities (e.g. Wearing, 2001, 2002; Broad, 2003, Brown and Morrison, 2003, McGehee and Santos, 2005). However, existing research has primarily focused on the positive effects of volunteer tourism and the motivations of volunteers. Volunteer tourism is in general recognized as a form of alternative tourism (e.g. Wearing, 2001; Brown, 2005; Callanan and Thomas, 2005; McIntosh and Zahra, 2008; Matthews, 2008).
According to McGehee and Santos (2005, p. 760) volunteer tourism is “utilizing discretionary time and income to travel out of the sphere of regular activity to assist other in need.” Volunteer tourism is growing rapidly (Callanan & Thomas, 2005). However, it is not transparent what the effects of volunteer tourism are. According to Wearing (2001, p. 1) volunteer tourist are involved in “aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into aspects of society or environment.” In this way it is possible that volunteer tourists, take over the jobs and income of local people. This outcome has not been researched.
Continue reading Give me a Job and I will Volunteer!
By Wendy Yang, on November 25th, 2011
This literature review is written by Wendy Yang as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Urban tourism has become one of main stream in tourism research since more and more urban areas promoted themselves as the most “charming”, ”sparkling” or ”touching” place on earth. In Asia, since so-called ‘tiger’ cities rose, city promotion combined with urban tourism has been view as a stage on which the state exhibits the success of economic success and modernized (Ward, 2005).Southeast Asia became a popular tourism destination to international visitors around 1970.From the beginning, tourism in Asia which consists of beach, sex, drugs, food and shopping has been based on urban. After two decades of development, in 1990s, East Asia pacific region received 16 percent of international tourists and 46 percent of them travelled to Southeast Asia (Mullins, 1999). According to UNWTO (2011), the average annual growth of international tourist arrivals in Southeast from 1995 to 2010 is 6.8 percent, second to Middle East.Hong Kong and Singapore, with spectacular growth, has been the best model for other Asian city states to imitate.In addition, Bangkok is also a good example to explain how being as a tourist gateway bring rapid growth to a city.The instant and obvious economic benefits and glory of “modern” have already driven more and more city authorities in Asia to develop tourism enthusiastically as the priority of policy. However, what if every city tries to attract tourists by using similar strategies and elements, like shopping, food and Skyscrapers (Leiper& Park, 2010). Furthermore these cities are all located in Asia, possibly modernized to different degree, but move to the same direction which early successful tourism Asian cities once went on.How do these cities make themselves to be more recognized? And do their efforts work? Is there any stakeholder without or within power but in urgency due to fast growth of urban tourism? Environmental issues about tourism in rural area have been discussed a lot, how about urban tourism? What kind of environmental impact could urban tourism cause?The ignored danger of urban tourism is the core of this literature review concerns about. Continue reading Danger of Urban Tourism in Asia
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