Is Tourism the Culprit?

In my opinion, tourism is and is not the culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions.

I said yes because I feel that with tourism, it brings about globalisation. Globalisation is supposed to be the growth to a global or worldwide scale. But globalisation has brought harm to many countries as well as a lot of them are constantly upgrading themselves, then what is going to happen to the culture, the traditions from long ago? It forces the locals to change their own lifestyle, to one that would suit the tourist's perception, to one that is more westernised, one that is more comfortable with the tourist. Their own personal identity would be gone, and their cultures would be commodified.

Then again, it is not because it creates awareness of the culture. Foreigners get to know about their culture and would want to travel down to help with the preserving of it. Also with the help of tourism, better infrastructure can be built in the country. If the country is a third-world country for example, tourism would force the government to pump some money in to build roads, transportation system, hotels etc. Which would also, improve the standard of living in the country. Responsible travellers can then come too, and help out with the preserving of the culture and traditions.

In conclusion, I choose to remain a neutral stand because tourism has its advantages and disadvantages. It is only to how far it will go, the extent of tourism impacts on different countries.