Essay On Social Impact Of Tourism

Social Impact of Events

A survey of the host community in Dublin.

Introduction

These events occupy spaces where cultures meet, ‘the space of colonial encounters’, as Clifford (1997, 6)

In recent decades, articles have been written and surveys have been conducted examining residents’ impression and viewpoints on the impacts of tourism and to a lesser extent, events. Through this work, reasonable insight, of potential impacts of tourism along with the positive and negative reactions, has been gathered. However, not all tourism is equal; tourism is an amorphous concept that demonstrates its impact differently across communities. Within the heap of case studies that have been conducted, the impacts of different forms of tourism have been investigated.

Tourism has been encouraged by public planners and decision makers as it brings benefits to the community. With suitable information about benefits and the relative cost, they promote the type of tourism that increases positive impacts and reduces negative impacts. From an economic perspective, the research body investigating economic impact assessment of tourism, identifies the “best” type of tourism or formulates methods to make the best of the tourism

The other impacts can include reinvigorating existing facilities and creating an image for the tourist destination, as well as promoting tourism sustainability (Getz, 1991). While there is a considerable amount of literature on the social impacts of tourism, particularly through the sustainable tourism literature, less research has been conducted on the social impacts of events and festivals. Issues such as safety, trust and “a sense of personal and collective efficacy” (Onyx & Bullen, 2000) form a fraction of the social capital concept and would resemble to have importance in an investigation of the social impacts of events and community