Socio-Cultural Effects of Tourism on Jamaica
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The socio-cultural impacts of conventional tourism described here, are the effects on host communities of direct and indirect relations with tourists and of interaction with the tourism industry. For a variety of reasons, host communities often are the weaker party in interactions with their guests and service providers. The impacts arise when tourism brings about changes in value systems and behaviour, thereby threatening indigenous identity. Furthermore, changes often occur in community structure, family relationships, collective traditional life styles, ceremonies and morality.
Change of local identity and values
Conventional tourism can cause change or loss of local identity and values and brings about by several closely related influences as explained below:
Commercialization of local culture
Tourism can turn local culture into commodities when religious traditions, local customs and festivals are reduced to conform to tourist expectations and resulting in what has been called "reconstructed ethnicity"
Standardization
Destinations risk standardization in the process of satisfying tourists desires: while landscape, accommodation, food and drinks, etc., must meet the tourists desire for the new and unfamiliar, they must at the same time not be too new or strange because few tourists are actually looking for completely new things
Adaptation to tourist demands
Tourists want souvenirs, arts, crafts, cultural manifestations. In many tourist destinations, craftsmen have responded to the growing demand and have made changes in the design of their products to make them more in line with the new customers tastes. The interest shown by tourists can contribute to the sense of self-worth of the artists and help conserve a cultural tradition. Cultural erosion may occur in the process of commercializing cultural goods
Culture clashes
Because tourism involves movement of people to different
The socio-cultural impacts of conventional tourism described here, are the effects on host communities of direct and indirect relations with tourists and of interaction with the tourism industry. For a variety of reasons, host communities often are the weaker party in interactions with their guests and service providers. The impacts arise when tourism brings about changes in value systems and behaviour, thereby threatening indigenous identity. Furthermore, changes often occur in community structure, family relationships, collective traditional life styles, ceremonies and morality.
Change of local identity and values
Conventional tourism can cause change or loss of local identity and values and brings about by several closely related influences as explained below:
Commercialization of local culture
Tourism can turn local culture into commodities when religious traditions, local customs and festivals are reduced to conform to tourist expectations and resulting in what has been called "reconstructed ethnicity"
Standardization
Destinations risk standardization in the process of satisfying tourists desires: while landscape, accommodation, food and drinks, etc., must meet the tourists desire for the new and unfamiliar, they must at the same time not be too new or strange because few tourists are actually looking for completely new things
Adaptation to tourist demands
Tourists want souvenirs, arts, crafts, cultural manifestations. In many tourist destinations, craftsmen have responded to the growing demand and have made changes in the design of their products to make them more in line with the new customers tastes. The interest shown by tourists can contribute to the sense of self-worth of the artists and help conserve a cultural tradition. Cultural erosion may occur in the process of commercializing cultural goods
Culture clashes
Because tourism involves movement of people to different