Tourism Sexual Exploitation
DEVELOPING TOURISM: WAYS TO MINIMISE THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS
Abstract
Tourism has been regarded as one of the most important industries. Recently, some countries have benefited from the development of tourism like the United Arab Emirates, but some people have concerns about the side effects brought by tourism, such as sexual exploitation, the destruction of environment, the terrorism related to tourism, and the dissatisfactions from locals. Those facts will bring bad effects to tourism in the end. However, after we think about those side effects in another way, the ideas which can minimise or replace those side effects will be found, such as educations for sexual exploitation in schools, ecotourism for environmental problem, electronic passport and investigating terrorism with civilians for strengthening the security, and community tourism for minimising dissatisfactions from locals. This paper gives new positive ideas for the future of tourism.
Developing tourism: Ways to Minimize the Negative Effects
Tourism is one of the most important industries overall, and it has been developed significantly since the beginning of the history of it. Moreover, it seems that it is developed faster than in the past. According to the World Tourist Organisation (WTO)'s Tourism 2020 vision report, there were 703 million tourists during 2002, and that number will reach to 1.6 billion tourists in 2020 (Wells, 2004). Recently, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Macau, Macau Special Administrative Region, have been developing rapidly after tourism started being promoted, and focused from many mass media, tourism organisations, and so on. However, some people are concerned that tourism brings side effects, such as the destruction of environment, security problems related to terror, and sexual exploitation related to travel, and those will eventually lead the tourism environment to declination. In my opinion, the tourism industry will be developed for a long time even if it has sometimes declination, because the side effects by the tourism industry can be minimised with some alternative ways. Educations for sexual exploitation in schools, ecotourism for environmental problem can be good examples for alternative ways. In addition, electronic passport and investigating terrorism with civilians are good alternative ways for strengthening the security, and community tourism is good for minimising dissatisfactions from locals.
The Cases of Tourism Development
Many countries have tried to promote the tourism industry for a long time, because the tourism industry is one of the highest value-added businesses and brings enormous amount of income. Nowadays, there are many famous countries for tourism, such as the United Arab Emirates, Macau Special Administrative Region, the United States, and so on. Among them, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Macau, Macau Special Administrative Region have recently been attracting many people include tourists, economists, and so on. Moreover, many other countries have been trying to take them as the representative models for the development of their tourism industry in the future.
Dubai, the United Arab Emirates
Recently, many people have heard about the tourism industries in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, countless times. Some of them can think about it sceptically because many countries in the Middle East are strongly related to petroleum industries. However, far from the general thought, Dubai's gross domestic product from petroleum is just about three percent. Instead, 33 percent of Dubai's gross domestic product is from the tourism industry (Dunbar, 2008). In the present, Dubai is in endless development, and many people are coming into Dubai over and over. For one thing, Dubai International Airport has handled about 35 million passengers in 2007 (Golden, 2008), and it was an increase which is more than 300% from the passenger movement in 1997 (2007 Department of Civil Aviation, 2007). At the same time, many hotels in Dubai are busy to attract customers. Rhys Jones (2006) says that, “Dubai has 383 hotels with a total room capacity of 35,396. With a further 140 hotels and resorts containing some 34,000 rooms set to cone on-line by 2009.” It sounds that Dubai has a big capacity for tourists with that statement, but it does not seem really enough for Dubai. In 2004, the hotel occupancy stakes in Dubai topped the world in 2005, with an average rate of 86% (Jones, 2006). In actuality, Dubai is in the process of completing several projects. For one thing, the project of Dubai World Central International Airport, which can handle up to 120 million passengers a year, and that of Dubai Land, the theme park which is going to be two times bigger than the size of Disney World are in progress. Besides, about more than 50,000 hotel rooms and a massive new indoor ski centre will be newly built in the near future (Dunbar, 2008).
Macau, Macau Special Administrative Region
Beside the Dubai, Macau has been developing significantly in terms of tourism, and it is regarded as the Las Vegas in Far East Asia. In 2006, Macau took the title of the biggest gaming city in the world, from Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States. In the past, Macau used to be regarded as an optional trip destination from Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, for one day or two days because it is located just 40 miles away from Hong Kong (Hobbs, 2007). However, nowadays, it is no longer true. After new Vegas style hotels have been in service, and central Macau is attracting many tourists from all around the world. In the early 1990's, visitor arrival to Macau was around 7 millions, but those numbers are significantly increased to more than 20 millions in the middle of 2000's. In 2007, visitor arrival of Macau was about 26 millions, which was increased by 23% from that of 2006. At the same time, hotel occupancy rates in Macau have been increasing as time goes on. In the 1990's, it was around about 60 percents overall, but it went up to around 75 percent in the middle of 2000's (Direccao Dos Servicos De Estatistica E Censos, 2008).
According to Shanghai Daily News, thanks to those increases, the investment in Macau in 2007 has boosted about 23 percent in comparison to that of the previous year (Shanghai Daily Publishing House, 2007). Needless to say, those facts are enough to make people surprised, but those are nothing in comparison to the gambling industry, which is the most profitable for the tourism in Macau. Many people have talked about the economic growth of China, which is around 10 percent per year since the 1980's, but the economy of Macau has been growing 20 percent per year since the late 1990's. Moreover, Macau earned 7 billion dollars from the gambling industry in 2006 (Fallows, 2007).
The Side Effects of Tourism Development
The cases of Dubai and Macau show that the development of the tourism industry is in progress, and many people are delighted about it. However, some other people have concerns about the development of tourism industry due to the side effects related to tourism. For example, infringements of personal rights like sexual exploitation of international travel and the destruction of environment have been brought in at the same time the tourism has developed. Moreover, terrorism activities related to tourism and the dissatisfactions from locals seem to be increasing recently.
Sexual Exploitation in International Travel
For one thing, the sexual abuse in developing countries like Philippine, Thailand has been considered as the typical side effect of the tourism industry. Some countries like Thailand and the Philippines have a sexual entertainment industry and have earned lots of money from foreign travellers, mainly from Europe, Australasia, and other Asian countries. Unfortunately, that has made many children to be exploited as sexual slaves. For one thing, trafficking of children for sexual entertaining industry has been spread over and over with just a little money. Some of them have sent to other nearby countries without their own decision, and any legal permission. Moreover, in Thailand, there are so many people who are working for the sexual entertainment industry illegally that the Thai government cannot effectively deal with that problem related to sexual abuse. For sexual related entertainers themselves, even if some of them get sex-related disease or being abused by some vicious travellers, they cannot get any help from the government because they are afraid of being punished. In short, Thailand is caught in a vicious cycle nowadays, at the same time they earn lots of money from the tourism industry (Wiley, 1993).
Destruction of Environment by Tourism
Environmentally, the environments of some notable landscapes have been being threatened. In those areas, they have been in uncontrolled travel expansion, and that have led the depletion of natural resources and environmental destruction, including water pollution, noise, rubbishes, and so many other things (te Kloeze & Morales, C. E. J., n.d.). In the worst case, tourism would be harmful on local economies when the balance between the development and the environment is destroyed, rather than beneficial if the travel expansions are in an uncontrollable way. For example, if a travel site which was previously farm is destructed and travellers no longer go there, both previous farmers, employers and employees related to travel industry will lose their job (Eagar, 2005). In other words, everybody will lose everything if they develop with uncontrollable way.
In the case of the Sonoran Desert, between the border of southern Arizona and north western Mexico, it has been under siege by visitors since it has got famous for tourists. After the environment has started changing rapidly, many species of plants and animals have had a hard time adjusting to that situation. In the worst case, some of them are in the danger of extinction (Tammemagi, 2007).
Terrorism Related To Tourism
On October 12th, 2002, a series of bombing occurred on the Indonesian island of Bali. Three bombs exploded, two of them were from a remote control, and one of them was from suicide operative. In total, 202 people were killed, and more than 200 people were injured in the horrible disaster. After the suspects were caught, they were sentenced to death, but it could not compensate the victims and the countries which have the victims, especially for Australia (Australian Federal Police, 2006).
However, after about three years, the bombing-related terrorism occurred again on the Indonesian island of Bali. The 26 people lost their lives, and more than 100 people were injured. In comparison to the Bali bombing in 2002, the number of fatalities and injuries were a lot smaller, but it was very shocking that such similar terror related disaster occurred in almost the same place. Moreover, what was surprising was that the supporting organization of the disaster in 2005 was the same as that of 2002 (Qujiano, Hiscook ,& Aglionby, Ressa, 2005).
Both of the activities above are related to certain extremist organisations who want to deliver their messages to their enemies by doing terrorist activities. For that kind of organisations, tourists are good to victimise for the organisations.
The Dissatisfactions from Local People
In some areas, local people complain about the side effects brought by tourism. In the case of Zhouzhuang, People's Republic of China, it has been being developed for tourism. Zhouzhaung had remained as one of many rural towns in mainland China until the Chinese government started promoting the tourism industry in the late 80s. Since the opportunities for developing the tourism industry started being given throughout China, Zhouzhaung has utilized it very well without missing, by advertising their traditions in the town and that of the life style, and the result was successful. However, the local people in Zhouzhuang complain about the benefits for the locals. It includes that some attractions are mainly reserved for the locals, living environments for residents has been getting worse, and the price of the houses in that area has been increasing (Xu, 2001).
Possible Solutions for the Side Effects of the Tourism Industry
It is very true that the development of tourism industry has brought many side effects, including sexual exploitation, environmental destruction, the terrorism targeting tourists, and the dissatisfactions from local people. However, if we think about them at least for a moment, we can definitely find the ways to minimise those problems. For example, the ways to help reducing sexual exploitation for international travel can be the education about sexual exploitation. For other things, the possible way to minimise the environmental destruction by the tourism can be eco-tourism, and terrorism related to the travel industry will be reduced after Biometric passports replace the current passports, and the new way to investigate terrorism activities is introduced. Moreover, the dissatisfactions for the local people of tourist areas can be altered by developing tourism with new way like community-based tourism.
The way to reduce sexual exploitation
To minimise this problem, the participation of schools will be very helpful. In one statistic, about 80% of sexual abuse cases are one adult, one child situations (Dove&Miller, 2007). If schools educate about sexual exploitation to the students, including what is sexual exploitation, how to cope with it, it will be definitely helpful to reduce the rate. In addition to educating children in school, most experts of sexual abuse state that school personnel should work with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies actively. Even if children are educated about sexual exploitation very well, some of them will face the situation which they cannot solve with their own. For the children with those situations, the help of schools' personnel will be necessary (Dove &Miller, 2007).
Eco-tourism
Recently, Ecotourism has been getting popular among tourism planners as one of innovative ways. Eco-tourism is tourism designed to contribute to the protection of the environment or at least minimize damage to it (Collins Language, 2008). According to the International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism has been expanding rapidly. For one thing, the increase of the revenue related to ecotourism raises at about 30% a year world-wide (Zaslow, 2006). However, it does not bring any serious environmental destruction like most other way to develop tourism. In the case of Costa Rica, the country which is one of the most biological diverse regions in South America can be a good example for Eco-tourism. With its broad range of ecosystems, including 12 different life zones, Costa Rica has attracted many tourists from many other countries, especially from the United States. In actuality, about 40% of tourists who visit Costa Rica decided to travel to Costa Rica to see the nature, which includes 29 parks and protected areas. At the same time, tourists help Costa Rica for the positive effect of the Gross Domestic Product of Costa Rica (Primrose, 2003).
The ways to strengthen the security for terrorism activities
Since the Belgian government has started issuing biometric passport in late 2004, it has been regarded as one of innovative ways to strengthen the security check (Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs Belgium, 2008). Biometric is a passport which includes a chip with the holder's facial biometric. For recognising biometric passports, the similar technologies for facial recognition, fingerprints and iris patterns are used. When security officers decode biometric passports, they can recognise various features on the face, such as the distance between eyes, nose, mouth and ears, with facial recognition. Compared to non-biometric passport, biometric passport looks the same but there is a logo which indicates that the chip is inside the passport. Inside the biometric passport, there is an electronic chip which stores the passport holder's digital photograph and signature. In addition, the chip also stores simple personal data like birth date. In terms of security, the new design applied to biometric passport is hard to be forged, and the chip inside the passport makes it much harder to be duplicated (British High Commission in India, 2007).
More than that, approaching the problem related to terrorism activities with civilians can be another way to strengthen the security with minimising distrust and disempowerment at the same time. Mostly, the repression approach is just for limited citizens and very superficial. Moreover, it can make participants discouraged about terrorism because it usually puts them under suspicious and focuses on the introductions and it can also lead to weaken the security in the worst case. However, the new way has no worry for those problems, and it is advantageous for gathering information about threats. In repressed investigation, gathering information is so limited because it is based on secrecy. In case of civil way, gathering information is done with fewer restrictions, so multiple agencies can deal with the problem in comparison to repressed investigation. Moreover, its accuracy has been greater than that of repressed investigations in most cases (Martin, 2006).
The way to minimise the dissatisfactions from locals
Tourism bring significant amount of revenue, but it usually has attracted some people, especially those who have invested tourist areas. This sometimes makes local people dissatisfaction about tourism. However, community based tourism can be a good way to minimise this problem. Community-based means the tourism activities are developed and planned mainly by local people. The feature of community-based tourism is that it respects the culture, the heritage, and the tradition of local. Moreover, it supports those things, and it sometimes helps to rescue (Hatton, 2002).
In the case of Jamaica, community based tourism has been promoted for several years. In this project, Jamaicans have made travellers to participate in and learn about Jamaican way of life by experiencing Jamaican way of hospitality. With this policy, the local people are empowered for the awareness of their communities' value, and they are also promoting the sense of ownership. In addition, the local people can make profit by participating local tourism with travellers in their town (Tourism Product Development, 2005).
Conclusion
Tourism has been developed amazingly since the beginning of it, and some countries like the United Arab Emirates and Macau Special Administrative Regions have been developing tremendously after tourism started being promoted. However, some people concerns that tourism brings many side effects, such as sexual exploitation, destruction of environment, the terrorism related to tourism, and the dissatisfactions from local people, and those will eventually led tourism into declination. Although those are true, we can keep developing tourism by minimising those problems with alternative ways, such as educations for sexual exploitation, ecotourism for environmental problem, electronic passport and investigating terrorism with civilians for strengthening the security, and community tourism for minimising dissatisfactions from locals.
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