What this lesson teaches
I can explain the positive and negative social effects of tourism on a place.
Syllabus K335, Topic 2.2, Key Question 3. How does tourism affect society of places?
Make a guess
A village dance that used to last three hours is cut to 20 minutes to fit a tour bus timetable. What is the main concern?
- There is no concern, because tourists enjoy it.
- Tourism is the reason cultures change in the first place.
- Its meaning, and who controls it, may change.
- A paid performance is fake, so the dance is lost.
Show the answer
Its meaning, and who controls it, may change.
Shaping culture to suit visitors is commodification. Being paid is not the problem; the risk is that the community loses control of what the dance means.
Tourism income can keep traditions alive, but selling culture to visitors can change its meaning and who controls it.
Tourism can help keep cultural practices alive. Visitor interest brings income and pride to artists and performers. This can pay to teach young people, keep up heritage sites and continue performances.
Protecting landscapes also protects cultural ecosystem services. These are non-material benefits, such as recreation, spiritual meaning and attachment to a place.
Commodification means turning culture into a product to sell. A ceremony might be shortened or moved to fit a tour schedule. Being paid does not destroy its value. But pressure to please visitors can change its meaning, reduce the community's control and cause local disagreements.
Residents may disagree. Ask who decides how culture is shown, who earns the money and whether people can say no. Culture also changes for reasons that have nothing to do with tourism, so do not blame every change on visitors.
- Cultural preservation
- Tourism income can support traditions.
- Commodification
- Turning culture into a product for sale.
- Key question
- Who controls how culture is presented?
Step by step
Find the value
What does the practice mean to the people involved?
Trace tourism's role
Does it support the practice or change it?
Examine control
Who decides, and who benefits?
Real examples to use
Kecak, Bali (from the 1930s)
Kecak grew out of sanghyang, a Balinese trance ritual. In the 1930s, dancer Wayan Limbak and the German painter Walter Spies helped shape it into a Ramayana show with a chanting chorus, staged for Western visitors. Today villages perform it nightly for tourists. It shows a tradition reshaped for sale that is still run and valued by Balinese performers.
The Alarde, Hondarribia, Spain (late 1960s)
The Alarde is a yearly parade remembering the town's survival of a siege in 1638. The anthropologist Davydd Greenwood reported that when the town council ordered it to be staged twice in one day for visitors, many residents stopped wanting to take part. A shared ritual had been turned into a show for others, and its meaning to locals fell.
Worked example: A living heritage landscape
UNESCO describes Angkor as a heritage landscape where people still live and practise their traditions. It is their home, not just a tourist site. Planning must respect this.
Watch out for this
Any paid cultural performance is fake.
Income can keep culture alive. Judge by who controls it, what it means and whether people agree to changes.
Check your understanding
Which question best judges the cultural effect of a tourist performance?
- Does it earn money, since money damages culture?
- Who controls it, and how do performers view the changes?
- Do residents agree about it, so the community speaks with one voice?
Show the answer
Who controls it, and how do performers view the changes?
Yes. Control and meaning matter most.