Tourism Life Cycle

All cities and countries see a tourism life cycle which includes the original exploration of an environment. This is when a small number of tourists discover a new and exciting destination. Often times the discovery of this site may come from a movie destination or it could just be from the spread of word-of-mouth. The types of people who visit a place within the exploration stage of the life cycle are initial seekers and wanting to explore completely new and undiscovered places.

This site will then move on to the involvement life cycle stage. This happens when community members help to increase small businesses and visitation. Community support is a crucial role in order for a place to become a tourist destination properly. This proper development of a tourist destination is important to maintain the integrity of the ecosystems in these destinations. As the tourist site begins to expand, more facilities will develop, extensive construction and a significant amount of tourists will begin to arrive. This can be a hesitant step in many communities eyes as they view "outsiders" as a possible exploitation of their resources. Many community members fear that they will not be able to control against the tourism growth.

Eventually this influx of tourists will level off as the idea of a "new tourist destination" begins to wear off. This is a time when communities are able to realize the impacts that tourism may have on their ecosystems, both negatively and positively. From this stage, tourist destinations have the opportunity to go three ways, either rejuvenating the accommodations of new tourists, remaining in a stagnate place or decline in the number of tourists that visit the destination. This graphical representation is a great way to visualize the growth and development of a tourist destination.

This is important to keep in mind when discussing topics within Ecotourism because the affect this life cycle can have on natural ecosystems that need to be preserved.

Consumerism Culture

The comedian George Carlin has an entire 5 minute skit on his opinion of the consumption of "stuff." I think he makes extremely valid arguments throughout this entire performance on how people consume entirely way too much stuff.

Growing up I was never one of the kids who had the most updated technology, but I can remember always wanting it! For 8th grade graduation I asked for my first cell phone and high school graduation I finally got my first Ipod. And of course, these types of things were only the beginning of everything that I wanted. I would like to say I was different from everyone else, but I always wanted the newest clothes and shoes that I could get, wanted the new updated cell phone or even the biggest box of crayons possible when I was in elementary school. Though splurging to get the box of 120 crayons instead of the box of 24 colors was not the end of the world, this only paved the way for my future consumption habits.

And I am not in the minority of people like this in the world. Everything from microwaves to computers to even shoes are meant to wear out eventually so that people can buy them again. The pricing of these items are determined so that simply throwing away and buying the new version is more reasonable than getting that thing fixed and reused. This type of consumption has led to an overabundance of garbage and filling of our landfills. It is this constant consumption with little regards to the mess we are making and the waste that we are leaving behind that lead to the devastating effects to the environment and the other organisms that are living in it. And each time that over consumption affects the environment, so too will it affect the places and opportunities to travel abroad. Without any regard to the consumption choices we are making, natural and beautiful places will become obsolete. 

"Tourism vs. Eco-Tourism"

This is a cool video that I found on youtube about Eco-tourism. Though the music may be slightly cheesy, the message that the owner of this video comes across clear and to-the-point. The video may be used as a very BEGINNING step towards learning about Eco-tourism. Just copy and paste the URL into another window

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsFG2_Zn4SY

The Tourism industry

The leisure service industry is a highly elastic industry that greatly depends on the concept of supply and demand. While the demand is high, industries such as sports and tourism can greatly benefit. Yet when times are tough, these industries are usually one of the firsts to suffer. This is because these are not necessary items and, though ideal and luxurious, can be cut out of an ordinary budget. Vacations are a nice way for families to relax or take a break from every day life, but are a commodity that not everyone can participate in. According to the U.S. Travel Association, however, tourism is still one of America's largest industry. According to this data from 2010, the industry generated $118 billion in tax revenue for local, state and federal governments. Tourism supported over 7.4 million jobs directly in the industry and covered another 6.7 million in other related industries. The industry continues to be one of the top 10 in the US.

This information shows that the travel industry is important to the way Americans live their lives. But throughout this blog, I will hopefully show a great deal of fault in the way Americans live their lives and the way they think about the environment. Having a background in environmental sciences, I constantly learn that large amounts of tourism can have detrimental affects on the environment. With the continued popularity of the idea of "green consumption" and the popular green movements, could the travel industry eventually become less popular? I have long been torn between the contradiction of my interest in the tourism industry as well as my interest with environmental sciences. In this blog I hope to point out the benefits and drawbacks of the tourism industry, and how the term "ecotourism" has gained a lot of popularity. I want to be able to consider where an equilibrium point is between exploring and conserving a touristic destination. The following article is a good way to start thinking about the general attitude most people have towards living a "green" life: Buying into the Green Movement