Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[Paul]

TOURISM MODELS
There are different ways for you to travel around. Please consider the following 2 options from different ends of the scale and have a think about how you travel. Of course, nothing is right or wrong. And of course there is much in between and outside these two options. Of course travelling on your honeymoon is going to be different to the way you spend a weekend off and different to the way you back pack around the globe.
But I provide 2 options as a means to consider how you wish to travel and what impact you wish to have - they are based on what I have seen over many years travelling and working within the tourism industry as well as talking to local people and organisations who live in tourist impacted areas.


Option 1
Tourists stay in foreign owned hotels.
Eat foreign food.
Local people serve the tourists.
Tourists wear culturally inappropriate clothing.
Meet and talk to few locals.
Interaction with the locals is not based on an equal relationship.
There is no growth in knowledge about each other.
The tourists are in a position of power.
Locals have little control over the tourist industry and many gain little or no benefit.
This type of tourism often leads on to:
• Land loss by local people.
• Environmental destruction.
• Uneven wealth distribution.
• Cultural degradation.
• Prostitution.
• Begging.
• Stealing.
• Scams.
For the tourist this form of tourism is physically comfortable but; expensive, not educational and does not provide a good feeling in regards to human interaction in the host country.




Option 2
Tourists stay in local home stays or small local establishments.
Local ownership.
Traditional.
Experience local life.
Eat locally grown food.
Wear culturally appropriate clothing.
Learn some local language.
The tourist is a guest of the local people.
Exchange culture.
Make friends.
Interaction on both sides is based on an equal relationship.
Work together.
Tourism works to help strengthen the local culture.
Tourism works to help protect the environment.
Village life is enriched and enjoyed.
Villagers keep their land, lifestyle and culture.
Locals gain benefits from tourism.
For tourists the experience is less physically comfortable but; often cheap, educational, increases understanding, involves making new friends and leaves a good feeling in regards to the people from the host country.

[starlagurl]

Yeah, that's an interesting dichotomy...it's too bad that people don't take the time to travel in the second way usually. I think that it's getting easier as smaller local businesses harness the internet for their benefit.

I don't know if you can categorize people like that all the time though, I think there is room for straddling both ends of the spectrum. People approach traveling very differently, not just in two ways like that. But, I'm sure you've already thought of that.

[barsie]

Well giving 2 options doesn't really work- I think there's a happy medium in there as well.

[starlagurl]

For example...you could stay in a foreign owned hotel or eat at a chain restaurant and still have meaningful relationships with the people who work there or the other people who are eating there.

[starlagurl]

Hi vertis, why don't you visit the Australia forum?

http://www.travelpod.com/forums/index.php?showforum=9

[Paul]

Some of the reason why:

"Hame Tinkohyao, a 58-year-old fisherman, did not look at all excited when our boat glided past the stunningly beautiful rock caves and islands in the Andaman Sea. The well-weathered fisherman says he's seen this area hundreds and thousands of times.

"I can remember every beach and every rock cave here. I can clearly visualise them with my eyes closed," said Uncle Hame. And he was not bragging. As many tourists may consider the pristine Koh Yao Yai in Phangnga Bay of Phangnga province a paradise island, for Uncle Hame, it is his birthplace and source of livelihood.

"In the old days, the rock caves were adorned with orchids. Nowadays, much of the stalactites and stalagmites are broken because of tourists ... and many orchids have been stolen," the fisherman added, sighing.

In front of us was Koh Naka - a very beautiful island that will soon be the location for a six-star resort. Uncle Hame says the island just got a new local nickname. "The local fishermen here call it Koh Resort (Island of resorts)," he said, with a cynical laugh. He pointed to another famous island, Koh Raet, which too will become the location of an expensive residential resort and recreational yacht marinas - being developed by Jumeirah - a real-estate development group famous for its palm-shape island and sail-boat-like shape high-rise in Dubai.

"Almost every island outside the national park territory will become a Koh Resort," he said, with worry.

His remark reflects the concerns of local fishermen towards unchecked property development that have invaded in almost every nook and cranny of pristine beaches and islands in Phuket and in the Andaman Sea.

These developments obstruct local fisheries and deny the fishermen access to the beaches and rich ecology they so heavily depend on.

"We usually quarrel with deep sea fishing boats that use destructive fishing gear to catch fish and destroy the sea grass and coral reefs. But I can assure you ... dealing with big fishing boats is far easier than dealing with property developers. Because you can chase them [fishing boats] out of the three-kilometre fishing zone reserved by law for local fishermen. But we don't know how to deal with expensive developers," shared Uncle Hame. For him, the real threat comes from yacht marinas, which are popping up like mushrooms all over Phuket Island and other islands in the Andaman Sea.

...

Wasant put a big question mark on the benefit of marinas and high-end real-estate development to the "ordinary" people of Thailand.

"My simple question is where does the money go and who will walk away with the biggest slice of pie?"

Answers vary depending on who is answering the question.

In the economic spectrum, land investors in Phuket are no longer Thais, but expatriates based in Singapore and Hong Kong and international hospitality companies. The new wave of Phuket and Andaman island residents are a melting pot of nationalities, namely UK, Australian, Korean, Russian and Middle Eastern tycoons, according to the Collier report.

For ordinary folk like Uncle Hame, the answer about what matters to him is simple - the seas and their fishing boats.

"These resorts will not let my shabby boats get near their expensive yachts. They might fear that our Rua Thong (local dialect for small fishing boat) will damage these expensive barges.

"One day, these resorts may prevent us to pass their beaches or sail by the bay because of the sputtering noise from our boat engines, which might disturb their residents." "

From Bangkok Post article