There is consensus that tourism has both positive and negative environmental, socio-cultural, and economic impacts on a given tourist destination, and that
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responsible and sustainable tourism practices are the key to maximising the positive impact of tourism and minimising its negative impact (Ivanovic et al 2009:352). An overview of tourism impacts is provided in Table 3.3.
TABLE 3.3: AN OVERVIEW OF TOURISM IMPACTS
IMPACT POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Environmental
Motivation and financial means to conserve natural resources and biodiversity
Motivation and financial means to preserve or restore historical buildings
Motivation and financial means to enhance and improve the built environment
Ecological damage
Damage to important sites Pollution
Overcrowding and congestion
Socio-cultural
Renewal of local and cultural pride
Promotion of socio-cultural awareness and peace Revival and conservation of
cultural heritage
Improvement in standards of living
Provision of shared infrastructure
Decline in morality in society Interruption of family and
gender relationships
Interference with value systems and religions
Commodification Staged authenticity Standardisation
Imitation of tourist behaviour and lifestyle Economic Contribution to GDP Contribution to foreign exchange earnings Contribution to employment
Loss of money spent overseas by South African tourists Loss of money due to imports
and foreign investments Unemployment due to the
seasonal nature of tourism Increase in prices
Dependence of the local community on tourism Vulnerability of tourism to
market trends
Source: Adapted from Ivanovic, Khunou, Reynish, Pawson, Tseane & Wassung (2009:271-284, 297-301, 325-337)
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First of all, tourism has a symbiotic relationship with the environment, both natural and man-made. If the environment is allowed to deteriorate, this will have a negative influence on tourism. Simultaneously, without tourism the need and the financial means to conserve the environment may be reduced (Ivanovic et al 2009:325-337).
Furthermore, tourism has a range of social and cultural consequences which affect both the host and the guest. Positive socio-cultural impacts include the opportunity for cultural exchange between the host and the guest that fosters peace and greater understanding between the two parties, protection of cultural heritage, improvement in standards of living, and enhancement of local infrastructure. Negative socio-cultural impacts include the threat posed to traditional cultural values, and specific social problems such as sex, crime, and health problems (Ivanovic et al 2009:297-301).
When tourism activities affect a destination‟s economy positively, the economy will grow. Common signs of economic growth include increased wealth, fewer poor and unemployed people, and improvement in the balance of payments. Negative effects include inflation, opportunity costs, dependency, and seasonality (Ivanovic et al 2009:271-284).
The remainder of this section explains the economic impact of tourism: this argument is most frequently used by the government and the private sector to justify tourism investment (Page & Connell 2009:383). Thereafter follows a description of the relationship between tourism and crime, deemed important because South Africa has gained a reputation for having one of the highest violent crime rates in the world (George 2010:806).
Theoretically, the total economic impact associated with tourism is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced effects within a destination region. Direct effects
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are the changes resulting from “the immediate effects of changes in tourism expenditures”; indirect effects are the changes resulting from “various rounds of re-spending of the tourism industry‟s receipts in backward-linked industries”; and induced effects are the changes resulting from “household spending of income earned directly or indirectly as a result of tourism spending” (Keyser 2009:308).
From a measurement perspective, the WTTC in collaboration with Oxford Economics, developed a system for producing annual estimates for the economic contribution of tourism to 181 countries, 20 regions, and the world overall (WTTC 2011:4). Differing from the United Nations-approved Tourism Satellite Account system that quantifies only the direct contribution of tourism (UNWTO 2010:3), the WTTC‟s system attempts to measure the total contribution of tourism, particularly to GDP and employment, by taking into account indirect and induced effects in addition to direct effects (Oxford Economics 2013:3-7). Figure 3.8 provides a summary of the WTTC‟s system. Since this figure is self-explanatory, no further discussion thereof is deemed necessary.
In South Africa, tourism‟s total contribution to GDP was ZAR 251.8 billion (8.6% of total GDP) in 2011 and is expected to rise by 3.9% per annum to ZAR 385.3 billion (8.5% of total GDP) by 2022. The total contribution of tourism to employment was 1,188,000 jobs (9.0% of total employment) in 2011 and is forecast to grow by 2.0% per annum to 1,498,000 jobs (9.4% of total employment) by 2022 (WTTC 2012:1). Therefore, it can be argued that tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries and a major provider of jobs in South Africa.
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FIGURE 3.8: MEASURING THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Note: T&T=Travel & Tourism
Source: Adapted from Oxford Economics (2013:3)
One of the undesirable effects of tourism is crime. There is sufficient evidence in the tourism-crime literature to suggest that an increase in tourism activities contributes to increased crime rates, and that acts of crime against tourists are more likely to occur at destinations that are already experiencing high levels of crime (George 2010:807). Crime levels are exceptionally high in post-apartheid South Africa. However, the most distinctive feature of crime in
INDUSTRIES Accommodation
services
Food & beverage services
Retail trade
Transportation services Cultural, sports &
recreational services COMMODITIES Accommodation Transportation Entertainment Attractions SOURCES OF SPENDING Residents‟ domestic T&T spending Businesses‟ domestic travel spending Visitor exports Individual government T&T spending T&T investment spending Government collective T&T spending Impact of purchases from suppliers Food & beverages Recreation Clothing Housing Household goods To GDP To employment DIRECT T&T CONTRIBUTION INDIRECT T&T CONTRIBUTION INDUCED T&T CONTRIBUTION TOTAL T&T CONTRIBUTION
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the country is not so much its volume, but rather its violence. For instance, among the over two million crimes committed nationwide in 2008/2009, more than one-third were violent, such as murder, attempted murder, serious assault, and rape. According to statistics, on average South Africa experiences 49.7 murders per day, comparable with China‟s statistics, but bearing in mind that China has a population thirty times larger than South Africa‟s (Altbeker 2005:1; Breetzke 2010:446).
Although the tourism sector cannot be held responsible for the occurrence of crime, one must be aware that tourists may become crime victims because criminals perceive them as wealthy and soft targets; or they may simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The enhancement of tourist safety is essential to the survival and growth of the tourism sector (Goeldner & Ritchie 2012:241). Research finds that prospective tourists may decide not to visit a holiday destination due to their fear of crime; if tourists feel unsafe in a destination, they are unwilling to participate in tourism activities outside their accommodation facility; and tourists who have felt threatened at a destination are not likely to revisit the destination or to recommend it to others (George 2003:577).
Given the above discussion and considering SAT‟s (2010a:66) findings that safety concerns are among the primary reasons for Chinese residents not wanting to visit South Africa, the current research incorporated the element of tourism safety into the measurement scale of potential Chinese travellers‟ perceived constraints to visiting South Africa.