Is Tourism Overrated?

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“The benefits of tourism are overrated”. Do you agree? “Does this boat go to Europe, France?” asked the Hollywood actress Anita Loos. Such ignorant remarks are hard to come by today, yet, the criticism remains: tourists are extremely uninformed about their destinations and this weighs heavily on the local community. In fact, there are some who argue that tourism itself is overrated as the expense to the host country is greater than the benefits that it brings about, and therefore the benefits of tourism may not be as glorious as they are made to sound. On the other hand, there are many tourist destinations that have benefitted greatly from tourism; one such classic success story being Mauritius. Within a short time, Mauritius was transformed from a poor country entirely dependent on agriculture to one of the wealthier African nations, solely due to the benefits derived from tourism. In this essay, I will argue that the benefits of tourism are not overrated as the benefits of tourism outweigh its costs by far. Critics of tourism often argue that tourism carries no economic benefits for the local community as many resorts and attractions are controlled by multi-national companies (MNCs) whose profits are remitted overseas. International chains like Holiday Inn and Club Med penetrate many tourist destinations and account for up to three quarters of what a tourist spends at the destination. The revenue that these chains earn does not stay within the borders of the country and therefore hardly contributes to the economic growth of the country. Hence the local community often does not directly benefit from tourism. What the critics fail to realise is that tourism provides many indirect economic benefits to the local community. First and foremost, tourism generates numerous employment benefits for the residents of the host country. Other than being employed

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