Economic Social Cultural Environmental And Political Impacts Tourism Essay

Economic Social pagan Environmental And Political Impacts Tourism EssayUndeniably, situations atomic number 18 signifi dealt motivators of magic spellistry and their bear ons play a crucial part for destination competitiveness, especially when having to attention deficit disorderress with unique planned impressions (Getz, 2008). It mustiness be said that tourism is unmatchable of the most prosperous industries, which evolved especially over the last 50 years. It foundation be defined as a human activity that includes human behaviour, implement of resources, communication with early(a) population, economies and environments. It also includes physical movement of tourists to locations, which atomic number 18 non their permanent living houses (Bull, 1995). There atomic number 18 a commode of components of the tourism industry that evoke add to a artlesss value and mega pillow slips be one of them. An exact explanation of the term mega situation does not exist, nevertheless they keep be defined as short-term tourism pointts of a large scale aiming to create new or even reform enthronization in horde cities, thus projecting a authoritative build of the underpasspolis (Greene, 2003).Furtherto a greater extent, mega events base be described as world(a) events and the requirement for a specific metropolis to emcee such an event is to bid to win it (Getz, 2008). They ar usually managed by study governing bodys and inter guinea pigist non-governmental institutions and washbowl be assort as significant components in reports of ethnic behaviour (Roche, 2000). There are a lot of aspects of continues resulting from mega events and some of them can be economic, social, environmental, cultural and political. whole these can emerge prior to the event, during the event or even after the event, and they can be either or both positive and negative impacts, operating both in the short-term and long, that pass on be right to a touris m destination or act as a threat to it. Additionally, they can earn comparatively positive economic effects as well as boost tourism from the metre that the bid to host the event by a city has been won, until long time after the event (Williams and Shaw, 1998). The magnitude of these impacts depends in general on the host citys management methods, especially by the government, in its move to impose successful strategies to strengthen the positive impacts, man trying to bind the negative impacts to a minimum. Hosts mostly expect to create strong legacies that pass on last a lifetime, and job creation, increase in tourism figures, improvements in al-Qaida, rise in the level of GDP and increased demand for commodities are included in their main expectations. Investing in sports venues, various tourism services and improving transportation might trigger economic growth, higher(prenominal) employment levels and renewal of the host city (Sakai, 2006). They also consider mega eve nts as projects that give them the chance to built up a superior reputation, authorize by measuring the tangible well-beings and deducting the tangible be from them(Kearney, 2005).It must be highlighted that mega events play a crucial role in promoting a tourism destination and the prodigious Games are one of the best examples of such events. Their memorial dates back to 776 B.C. in ancient Olympia Greece and during that short time of the event sacred truce was fetching place, wars were stopped, and roads were becoming toll free, be their importance (Holloway and Taylor, 2009). I will be utilize majestic Games through surface my essay to demonstrate what such an event can plant to a destination and specifically analyse the economic impacts of the Olympics on tourism destinations.http//www.twip.org/ picture show/europe/greece/photo-5255-08-03-06-14-31-05.jpghttp//www.flutetunes.com/img/ sets/olympic-truce-emblem.jpgThe Olympic Truce EmblemThe Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, GreeceA closer look will be taken to the case of Sydney pass Olympic Games 2000, where the government used a unique until then system undertaken by a host with a free market thriftiness. All of these were done in its effort to enhance the positive economic impacts and depress the negative impacts. Its initial strategy was to absorb as many as possible tourists to the event and induce them to travel in other places in Australia, thus enhancing its tourism industry. The second strategy was to generate strong bonds in order to increase its ability to create tourist craft and the ordinal strategy was to make Australia a more attractive destination where triple types of nameors were of high importance. These were blank tourists, argument visitors and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) visitors. It must be highlighted, that MICE visitors can bring the more money into a country while business visitors instal new business into the topical anaesthetic anaes thetic economy and leisure visitors contri savee towards the local economy by travelling around and using the local commodities. The returns from expense in business benefits were more tangible and persuasive resulting to greater intend in favour and in keep of economic effects by both federal and NSW governments as well as the Australian holidaymaker Commission (Cashman,2006).It is important for each Olympic Games to create something new and channel a great bequest behind them. For the case of Australia the main legacy that authorities wanted to create, was more tourists visiting the country, not only during the event but especially after it (Chalip, 2000). A vast crowd is attracted by the Olympic Games which consist of groups of spate such as spectators, media representatives, members of the external Olympic Committee (IOC), sponsors and athletes. Through the extensive media coverage, a host citys image may be reinforced or even altered affecting tourists image about the cit y (Hall, 1989) and an encouraging image of a host city might be a reason to attract both national and international tourists (McManus, 1999). About 1.6 million people were estimated to visit Australia between 1997-2004 by the Tourism Forecasting Council (Chalip, 2000) and all these tourists were expected to inject a huge amount of money for circulation into the host countrys economy in both short-term and long run, where most of the money would be coming from television rights, ticket gross revenue and general use of commodities. It was also predicted that 150,000 jobs would be created through the money fatigued by tourists and other visitors.What is more is that people involved in the Olympics can later use their skills to enter the workforce if on that point are jobs places gettable to them, but all these depend upon the success of the event and if peoples skills are in a original manner that can be used in the hereafter without additional prep cost needed to incur. There i s secern to prove that during Sydney 2000 Olympics US$3billion was generated in the local business arena (Kearney, 2005). It must be added that Australia was expected to gain AUS$6.5billion from the games during the period of 1994-2004.The opportunity of attracting more tourists prior, during and post the event, like in the case of Barcelona Olympic Games 1992, where tourist figures increased a lot especially after hosting the Olympics and making it an established tourist resort, enables tour operators to create more and better holiday packages that can be offered to national and especially international potential visitors and thus improving their economic wellbeing, as well as bringing more money into the local economy. Added to these, the city government of Sydney in a combination with hole-and-corner(a) investment invested a huge amount of money in their effort to expand the Sydney airport, improve the citys roads and expand hotel room capacity by 25% (Chalip,2000). It can be deduced that these investments were aiming to attract more tourists, event visitors and business visitors contributing positively towards the local economy.http//www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/images/olympic-emblem/sydney2000.gifhttp//dvice.com/pics/sydney_stadium.jpgSydney 2000 Olympic Games StadiumSydney 2000 Olympic Games LogoMoreover, Sydney had won 202 bids MICE by the end of 1999 and they included 251,280 delegates contributing AUS$919,649,010 to the Australian economy and thus increase the level of its GDP. Also, sponsors use the Olympics to promote their tags thus improving their reputation while injecting money into the local economy. Most of the times the large amounts of money injected to the host countrys economy from foreign investment build impacts of millions of dollars and governments should use this money in the best way possible to benefit the economy. For example Visa cut down over AUS$30million to include Sydney and pictures from the country into its adver tisement campaign.Of course there are huge costs involved in order for a country to host Olympic Games and sometimes countries plan ahead before even winning the bid to host such an event. The occur investment in Australia represented 0.6% of its GDP, which was a large amount of money spent for a short-term event. Even though most expenses are covered by the government and domestic as well as foreign institutions, it is ineluctable that taxpayer money would be needed in order to host a costly event like the Olympics and satisfying the standards required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (Matheson, 2006).Costs related to groundwork, take ining stadiums and carrying out sports events are the biggest and although they are classified as costs some argue that they contribute positively towards the local economy such as by constructing stadiums jobs are created, lowering the unemployment levels, and stadiums can be used after the Olympics to host other sports or leisure eve nts triggering some economic growth. In the case of Barcelona 1992 Olympics significant infrastructure improvements have taken place in just 8 years time, in order to be ready at the time of the event, whereas 50 years were normally needed for sea front, sewage, telecommunication improvements and new airport turn of events to take place. These changes have helped Barcelona to develop and look as a more attractive tourism destination. Also, in the case of Athens 2004 Games transportation improvements to roads, metro and trains helped towards making the city more contemporary (Kearney,2005). This aspect, infrastructure, add ups to the living standards of locals as well as making the city more accessible to future tourists since they will have the chance to use pleasing transportation methods. In Australia however, some venues had to go through maintenance in order to be able to host other types of events as well which required get on costs than benefits to the Australian economy and also made the venues to loose from their current identity and history. An example of such an action is the Olympic Park 2000 which has been change in order to host sports events and several types of fairs. Similarly, the Olympic Stadium of capital of Red China 2008 Olympics has been transformed in order to be more profitable.Ex-post studies have turn out that there is not enough evidence that economic benefits arise from sports events to uncomplete sports teams, nor facilities and according to Humphreys (2003, p.6) in US constructing new sports facilities failed to increase income per capita or total employment level (Owen, 2005). Even though a $5.1billion increase in NSWs GDP resulted from the Olympics, where two fifths would go towards household income Sydney turned out to incline expenses.Added to these, the crowding out effect can be considered as a negative aspect of the Olympic Games that affects the local economy, including its GDP figures. The Australian government was worried that people and business would prefer other tourism and business locations and thus created the campaigns Fun and Games, meet Australia and the open for business campaign. Local people sometimes prefer to go away from their cities while events are taking place since they think that too a great deal traffic is issue to be present and it would be better for them to be away at that time thus lowering expending figures and injections of local people in the economy especially if they go on holidays to another destination. What is more is that, Olympic Games can attract more visitors to the event, like spectators of the games, people who want to seek the host country, and people who want to make business at the host city during that time but it can also prevent tourists from visiting the certain destination. This is due to the fact that a lot of people are going to be present at that period and they might prefer to visit if after the Olympic Games have finished, since they wil l have the chance to explore and enjoy more places when less people are going to be present. Sometimes these tourists never go to the country, making it loose money from the tourism industry. Additionally, hotel room prices during the Olympics tend to be higher than usual, with no major changes in their appearance and facilities that offer and reinforce the crowding out effect, this reducing pass coming from tourism, since usual customers tend to avoid visiting them during that time and castrate the net spending in the host city (Owen, 2005).The process of training and hosting the Olympics requires a high risk and local authorities should be elaborated since both short-term and long-run are important. Examples such as Montreal, which hosted the 1976 summertime Olympic Games and 30 years later the initial cost of US$1.5billion has not yet been recovered, show how adverse can mega events turn out to be for a countrys economy, since that debt has to be paid off and it cuts back fro m investment in other sectors of the economy, such as education, healthcare and creating new venues that would attract tourists, thus creating an opportunity cost. This debt in turn affects improvements that could be made, which affect negatively the tourism industry. Another example is Greece that was the host for 2004 Summer Olympic Games and is motionlessness lining a 6% budget deficit due to the games. Also, Greece is facing the problem that sports facilities cannot be permanently used and might have to fold down and lead to no benefits towards the local community (Kearney, 2005). Greece can be an example to future host countries to avoid constructing stadiums and facilities that will have no permanent use in the future as well as cannot recover their initial cost soon or even in the long-run and thus bring no financial benefits to the country.An important case of money injected and continuously being circulating in economies is the multiplier effect, which estimates the imp act of tourism on an economy through direct, indirect and induced spending but doesnt show the income figures generated through tourism in each sector of the economy. It can create problems sometimes, since multipliers calculated using wrong methodology are of a too large scale. This arises mainly from the ignorance of opportunity costs and interference of costs as benefits, as proven by ex-post studies mentioned before.We have gone through the emerging impacts from mega events that affect a tourism destination but what will be the impacts on capital of the United Kingdom 2012 Olympic Games which have not taken place yet? It must be noted that London is one of the most successful and established business centres and hosting the Olympics will bring even more business to operate in the UK economy.Firstly, all the championship of the Olympic Games is done by both private and public organisations aiming the development of East London. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic G ames and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) generates most of its 2billion budget from private sector and receives income from sales, commodities, sponsors and the IOC whereas the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) generates its income from the public sector. All the funding will be contributing positively towards building infrastructure and stadiums in the Olympic Park that can be used in the long-run for the UK communitys benefit. What is more, is that the Greater London Authority (GLA) works at its best attainable levels to bring benefits to the locals and gives 925million to the ODA.http//www.sightseeingtours.co.uk/london-tourist-uk/london-images/london-olympics-2012.jpghttp//www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/images/2007/06/04/2012_logo_white_385x450.jpgLondon 2012 Olympic Games Advertisement decreed London 2012 Olympic Games LogoFurthermore, the London Development Agency (LDA), controls the sustainable economic growth and makes sure that locals will benefit as much as they can from the Olympic s as well as it invests 250million towards covering the infrastructure costs and 220million towards cleaning the Park that is managed by the ODA. Another 2.2billion are generated by the National Lottery Funds that contribute towards the construction of the Olympic facilities, that add up to the countrys value and create strong legacies that people can benefit from even in the long-run. The entire infrastructure such as the get-up-and-go centre, new roads, new bridges and the pumping station will be brand new and aim to cover the needs of the locals even in the long-run again.Since the London Olympics follow a sustainable pattern they aim to construct venues that will be used post the games as well as trying to use existing venues to make a better use of them and if venues are not going to be used after the Olympics they will be made temporary so that no unnecessary costs will incur like in previous Olympics hosts like Barcelona and Greece. The Olympic Village will be turned into ho mes after the Games and even more houses will be built as well as shops, cafes, restaurants to stick out more services to the locals and thus creating more jobs. London has another upshot to the problem of under qualified workers since it will offer job training to the locals (London 2012, 2010).To conclude, I have explained the economic impact of mega events on tourism using mainly the example of Sydney 2000 Games and showed that it is of high importance that governments should take the most beneficial strategies while hosting such events, having in mind not only the short-run but the long-run effects of their policies. Sydney 2000 Games can act as a benchmark, since they were the first hosts to take that particular approach and emphasise on business and economic benefits leaving behind them strong legacies even though not all investment was done wisely.Also, the example of London shows that previous patterns are being corrected and followed and the legacy left behind investments in infrastructure can be judged upon their success. However, it is argued that no Olympics have shown enough evidence that there are important impacts such as increases in household impact (Owen, 2005). Moreover, it would be fair to mention that social, cultural, political and environmental impacts play a crucial role on a tourism destination since by showing to tourists the legacies and unique cultures that mega events create as well as warmth about the environment while carrying out such event attracts other categories of tourists as well as it creates a better place for people to visit.Word Count 2998