First, let us look at the economic impacts.
According to the statistics from Cambodia's Tourism Board, there has been an increase of visitors to Cambodia. The percentages are not a lot, but it has been a steady increase. From 2008 to 2009, there has been a slight increase in the visitor arrivals to Cambodia - 1.7%. It is not a lot, but there is an increase. And from 2004 to 2008, visitor arrivals did increase by a lot - about 50.35%. There is always a positive increase in visitor arrivals, which would help boost the country's economy. Cambodia is not a country that is doing well with the economy, so a slight increase is always a positive sign.
Next, we look at the social-cultural impacts of tourism on Cambodia.
Looking at the article called Poverty and Social Impacts of Cambodia's Proposed Social Land Concession Programme, I feel that tourism has indeed brought about a huge change in the social impacts of Cambodia. Because of tourism, the government have to be aware of their own people, they have to treat them well. Therefore, tourism has indirectly affected these people as they now have more land to live on. Land given to the locals are given in proportion.
Also, with tourism, foreigners can go over to help with Cambodia. The people there are still poor and do not have a lot of money. With the help of tourism, foreigners gain more knowledge about Cambodia and would want to invest to see a change in their society.
Not to mention, there will be a raised awareness of the country's culture. More travellers would be willing to preserve their culture and would want to retain their way of life and traditions. There will be more responsible travellers around too.
Lastly, we look into the environmental impacts.
Before we look at the environmental impacts, let us first look at this video entitled "Green Alert in Cambodia".
The green alert focuses on the fact that more and more trees are being cut down to make way for buildings, especially in the capital city. The government does not seem to care and the act of cutting down trees might eventually affect the lifestyles of some locals.
Negative impacts on the environment would slowly contribute to global warming. And even though we are not aware how fast the Earth is warming up, it is definitely close approaching. If we continue to cut trees to make way for infrastructure, then collapse of the Earth might come sooner than expected.
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