Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and contributes a great deal to economies

around the world. However, the damage tourism can cause to local cultures and the environment
is often ignored.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

The global economy is increasingly being benefited by the rapidly developed tourism industries,
however, the potential impact to the local traditions and the environment seem to be often
neglected. This essay agrees that tourism accelerate the destruction to the local traditions and the
ecosystem, due to establishment of customer focussed infrastructures and increased level of
pollution damaging the environment.

There are an increase number of constructions of buildings and other developments to facilitate
the customers in order to satisfy their expectations. These activities shade the local traditions
with an increase use of advanced technologies and encourage the adaptation of new culture. For
instance, building star hotels in the areas of tourist attraction and making food available as
customer choice rather than local cuisine lowers the value of local cultural beliefs.

Furthermore, the environment is being damaged by an increasing number of visitors due to

increasing demand of food as well as other facilities such as hotels, shops, roads, cars and so on.
This leads to more constructive and developmental works, which leads to excessive use of
natural resources. As a result, pollution and then destruction to the environment occurs, leading
to imbalance ecosystem. For example, water sources such as lakes, rivers in most tourist
attractions are greatly polluted and that threatens the water creatures including fish and other
amphibians.

In conclusion, in spite of consequences on traditions and environment, the tourism industry is

becoming increasingly popular with relatively high economic growth. However, I believe, such
practices can only make money but fails to preserve the local cultural value and may lead to
extinction of cultures. Hence, the negligence on its substantial impact may further aggravate
damage to environment and cultures, and potentially threaten the lives of mankind.