This essay will look at two academic approaches and discuss there similarities and differences. The two approaches chosen for this assignment are the socio-cultural approach and the economic approach. While discussing these two approaches the assignment will refer to specific types of tourists and it will analyse the contribution the tourist makes to the understanding of their characteristics and behaviours. Firstly the assignment will look at the socio-cultural approach.
Socio-cultural impacts of tourism include both positive and negative outcomes.Socio-cultural problems include: overcrowding, loss of traditional and crafts, distortion of local customs, alteration of religious practices, loss of languages and loss of authenticity. On the positive side, tourism can contribute to the revitalisation of neglected regions and customs, the rebirth of local arts and crafts, and greater understanding between different cultures. Many people consider that the negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism are far more harmful than harmful environmental impacts, since they take generations to eradicate.When looking at this academic approach one of the first things that is found is Plog's 1997 approach to a typology of tourists. Plog devised his classification in terms of psychographic analysis, and is this way attempted to explain why resort destinations appear to follow patterns that cause them to rise through a period of development and then fall into a period of decline.
Plog suggested that the tourist segments can be divided into various psychographic traits: allocentrics, near allocentrics, mid-centrics, near psychocentrics and psychocentrics.An allocentric tourist can be described as a tourist who enjoys travel and cultural exploration, are in an above average income group, independent in mind and body and adventurous. Mid-centrics make up the bulk of tourists to a particular destination. The mid-centric tourists tend to move in after resorts have been discovered by the more adventurous allocentrics who are then forced into another area. A psychocentric tourist can be described as someone who tended to be mainstream in their behaviour, rather unadventurous when it came to travelling, preferred familiar surroundings and have a below average income levels.
Unlike other tourist typologies, Plog goes on to link different types of tourist with different destinations which they are most likely to visit. He suggests that American psychocentrics go to resorts such as Coney Island near to New York, whereas allocentrics are to be found travelling in Africa. Mid centrics, the most numerous categories, take their holidays in places such as Europe and Hawaii, destinations which offer the experience of a new, yet sufficiently similar, culture. Similarly, the destination choices of tourists of other nationalities could also be predicted according to his model.For some nations, tourism is seen as an easy way of generating income, particularly foreign exchange.
In some cases, little capital expenditure is required by the host society as external investment is available. The economic spin-offs are viewed as the most important aspect of tourism development. As the economic impacts of tourism are more measurable, other types of impact tend to remain more hidden; in particular, the social and cultural effects. However, insidious social and cultural change may incur more significant costs than economic benefits in the long term.
Socio-cultural impacts relate to changes in societal value systems, individual behaviour, social relationships, lifestyles, modes of expression and community structures. The focus of socio-cultural impacts tends to be on the host community, i. e the people who stay in tourist destinations, rather than the tourist generating region. Mathieson and Wall (1982) state that socio-cultural impacts are 'about the effects on the people of host communities, of their direct and indirect associations with tourists'.
