A lot of places in the world rely on tourism as a main source of income. Unfortunately, tourism can also be a source of problem if it is not well managed. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in the modern world? Do you think that the benefits of tourism outweigh its drawbacks?

Tourism plays a vital role in a country’s economy especially for countries with high historical value like Sri Lanka and Bali where tourism is a main source of income. Although tourism can cause problem when it is not well managed, there are plenty of advantages that outweigh the drawbacks. Firstly, tourism bring income to the country, which also increases government spending and may satisfy the needs and wants of the public. Government could also develop the infrastructure facilities like reconstructing road to reach the tourist point, building good accommodation around the place and provide proper safety measures to the public and tourists with the income earned. These developments may increase the income through tourism in long term. Especially to the well-known tourism countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives. Secondly, tourism decreases country’s unemployment rate by giving more job opportunities to the local residents. People around the tourist area may work as a tourist guide as they may have more ideas about the tourist place. The local residents can also rent out their buildings to the tourist for accommodation which will be a source of income and unemployed localities will get chance to work as taxi drivers to the tourist to introduce them to new tourist sites. Small boutiques can also be opened to sell the country’s authentic products and to give other variety of services. As a result, tourism plays a vital role in countries unemployment rate. However, tourism also has some drawbacks which should be noted and resolved. The main drawback is the environment contamination. The increasing number of tourists will increase demand for accommodation which will lead to deforestation. People starts to cut down trees to build new building to rent out to the tourist in order to increase their income. Throwing litter to the water bodies, damaging natural resources and air pollution through the fumes of vehicles when there is an increase in the number of tourists are some examples of environment contamination. Moreover, government will also take part in deforestation while expanding roads, developing infrastructures and sometimes shifts the local residencies near the tourist spots to other places which may lead them to an uncomfortableness. Meanwhile, tourism will introduce drugs to the society and will change the culture of the country. Especially, youngster gets attracted and affected easily by these addictive drugs and prolong to usage of it. Some tourist knowingly introduces drugs and alcohol to the localities which changes the culture particularly of some historically sacred countries like Bali, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. To conclude, even though there are plenty of drawbacks of tourism to a country, the advantages outweigh them, just because the drawbacks are controllable and can be controlled by publishing awareness about the valuable resources and governments actions to eradicated drug usage. Localities and tourists should take responsibility in preserving the natural resources and treasures of the ancestors and protect them.