My Village Should not Resort to Tourism

Essay, Pages 6 (1332 words)

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Village life is renowned for being peaceful, calm and pure as people are closer to nature within their small rural areas. However, village life also has it’s set of challenges. Although people living in the village areas lead peaceful lives, they are devoid of many modern amenities that make life comfortable. Many city people think that it is impossible for people to want to live in underdeveloped rural areas, when modern city life can provide them with almost everything that they could need.

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I think my village should allow our members to move away to earn money and pursue other beneficial options instead of resorting to tourism. My fellow villagers are already satisfied with the necessities of their living.

We are provided with a bounty of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, water, and clear air. It is the simplicity, natural beauty, and tranquility that make our rural life unique and special. Even though our village is economically poor, we are rich in heritage and culture.

As a villager, I would rather suffer economically than risk giving up our cultural beliefs and traditions to the effects of tourism. Even though there are economical benefits associated with tourism, there are also many negative environmental effects of tourism including air and soil pollution, water contamination, traffic jam, damaging the historical monuments, destroying the plants and nature, destroying the wildlife (Rahmani, 69).

The last thing I want is for tourists to invade my home and threaten to strip away the significance of my cultural beliefs and traditions and to turn the law against myself and my people.

For example, an indigenous Andaman island tribe - Jarawa was exposed and disrespected by tourists who invaded the privacy of their own land without permission. The Indian government in the Andaman Islands were responsible for enacting laws and regulations to protect their primitive tribes against the threats that tourism can impose on them.

However, the government did not take immediate action in this situation and waited three years to respond to this issue and as a result, the Jarawa tribal people were humiliated, abused and sexually exploited by tourists invading their land. For example, a policeman was caught on video sexually exploiting indigenous Jarawa women who were forced to dance naked in front tourists in return for food. I would hate to think that tourists and the government were to disrespect and violate of the rights of Indigenous people. For this reason, I believe my village should not resort tourism due to the negative risks of their rights being violated by tourists and the possibility of having their land confiscated from them.

Another negative impact of tourism is the way it can change and commercialize a culture for profit. The commercialization of culture can undermine the soul of a tourist destination. Local traditions that have a rich cultural heritage made a mockery wearing costumes and presenting a fabricated version of the culture in front of tourists for profit. I think it is unethical to alter, change and commodify unique cultures and traditions to advertise and sell. If the government turned a village into a tourist destination, I would fear that the spiritual beliefs and the cultural values of the village will be ignored and disrespected. When tourists are not strictly informed and aware of the code of behavior that is expected of them the chances are that they will disrespect the local traditions and culture. For example, tourist may not follow local dress standards, get drunk in public, or behave in a rude and very inappropriate manner towards the local people. Although jobs are created by tourism, most are relatively low level, such as bar work, hotel service, restaurant serving, and so forth. They also have little prospect for promotion. Tourism jobs are quite commonly seasonal and insecure with no extra benefits, such as pensions, sick pay, or health care. Some areas can be inundated with visitors during busy times, and are then virtually deserted for many months.

Culture heritage is the backbone of every nation around the world. The historic ruins and monuments and the cultural beliefs of the village people are significant of who they are. For this reason, it is important that stories behind historics ruin must be shared by the villagers so that their story is being told. If the government is promoting the ruins without input from the villagers, this is would be very disrespect because the government dismissing their culture.It is important that the villagers acknowledged and they are actively involved in the process of representing their culture so that the tourists learn and respect the how sacred their cultural beliefs and historic monuments are to them.

In addition, the villagers should also determine how they want to present their story and how much they would like share with tourists. I believe it is important the people of the land are able to control how their culture is portrayed and to also be able to set clear boundaries to ensure that their culture and traditions are respected no matter what. In this situation, I would suggest that the high chief of village in a consultation with the villagers should decide how much of their story should be shared with tourists or any outsiders. The villagers are essentially the guardians of the land so they have to right to decide how much of their cultural identity they share with the outside world.

If the people of village decide to follow the tourism route, they need to understand and take into account that lives are going to change. The full impact of tourism is very difficult to be measure. However, sociocultural effects are sometimes related to quality of life, values, norms, society model, and environmental damage. If the government were to violate their rights of the village people for the benefit of tourism, I think it would be appropriate for village people in this situation to gather and initiate protests against the government to voice their concerns and demand that they are in control of who enters their land and who observes their historic ruins and monument sites to avoid complications or conflicts with tourists and the government.

Tourism is a possibility as this option can financially support the village by provide the people of the village with jobs and career opportunities so that they can support their families. However, I strongly dislike the idea of the government turning against turning against my cultural traditions and falsely advertising it for public interest.

If the village were to pursue the tourism route, the revenue from tourism would be shared between the village and the government. Both parties should meet and discuss what they would like to achieve and give the villagers time to talk about their needs and wants from the government. Overall, there must be a framework that addresses shared governance of resource development and the fair sharing of all forms of revenues and benefits generated between the village and the people.

Personally, I believe that the tourism is the most beneficial route for my village. I would rather reach out to philanthropists and non-profit charitable organizations who would be interested in helping our village survive without the government. The non-profit organization, “Survival International” in particular is an example of a charity organization that specifically utilize their social platform to fundraise money and help indigenous tribes to prevent the annihilation of tribal peoples and to give them a platform to speak to the world so they can bear witness to the genocidal violence, slavery and racism they face on a daily basis. Survival International’s dream of providing a world where tribal peoples are respected as contemporary societies and their human rights protected. I think it is important that villages like my own are supported by a non-profit organization as way of supporting our way of life.

Works Cited

Rahmani, Vali “The Role of Tourism in the development of Coastal Villages. A case study in noor town, Iran”, European Journal of Geography Volume 7. Pg. 69, December 2016