Cultural Impacts Caused by Tourism

 For this post, I will be focusing on how a country's culture is affected by tourism.

Jamaica   

As a country that is heavily dependent on tourism, Jamaica receives both positive and negative impacts from tourism on its culture. One significant positive effect is the spread of Jamaican culture, especially of their music Reggae. When visitors come to Jamaica they are introduced to Jamaican music, food, dances, and styles. They will then carry what they learned back home and share the knowledge with their friends. This has had a significant impact on Jamaican music, Reggae, allowing artists like Bob Marley to become successful. However, this spreading has caused Jamaican culture to become more westernized. As Jamaican culture becomes more popular, it also starts to become recognized in places like The United States, Canada, and The United Kingdom. While this does lead to more exposure, these countries do not understand the true significance of the culture and a lot of times will misinterpret something or showcase the Jamaican culture in ways that they believe it should be represented. 

Italy(Venice) 

Many tourists from all over the world are drawn to Venice, Italy because of its culture and community. This has allowed for a variety of cultures to come together to integrate and blend with the Venice culture. This blending of cultures has preserved local Venice customs and traditions and the high interest of Venice culture from tourists has allowed locals to spread and share their culture with tourists. However, there are some negative impacts of tourism on Venice culture. A major issue is the ruining and destruction of many historical monuments and landmarks. Venice is acknowledged because of its defining architecture and this architecture and landmarks are an important staple in the Venice community and culture. Unfortunately tourism has started to destroy these landmarks as tourists vandalize these structures, climb statues and leave damage, and by leaving gum and trash around these sites. This vandalism has started to take a significant toll on the locals of Venice. 

Indonesia(Bali)  

Like in high tourist areas, the locals of Bali use their culture to draw in tourists and put on a show for them. This can be great for the community of Bali as they get to showcase their culture, spread their beliefs and traditions, and bring awareness and an understanding of their culture. However, this raises the question of if what the locals are showing tourists is their real lifestyle. Locals in Bali will put on shows of their dancing, rituals, art forms, and music. While this is a part of their culture, locals will feed in to tourist interests which causes them to perform in ways they usually would not. This leads to a loss of culture and loss of authenticity. Instead of performing their rituals for the significance of their religion and beliefs, they are performing for an audience. Over time this will neglect their tradition and cause changes in their lifestyles.  

Peru (Machu Picchu)  

Machu Picchu is a sacred site that represents the Inca civilization and their religious beliefs and connection to the gods. Most tourists who come to visit the site are there because they want to learn and understand the community and culture of this civilization. This has led to the preservation of this culture through local festivals, teachings, and cultural events. It has also encouraged tourists who come to learn some of the Inca language and some skills that the Incas used to have. While there are some concerns that the community is losing their authenticity and that their culture is diminishing, the country has done a good job at maintaining their values and traditions and continuing the teachings of the Inca culture. 

Kenya  

The community of Kenya uses their culture as a way to bring in more tourists and to obtain more money. Locals will sell cultural clothes, important foods, crafts, and plan special festivals where they will perform cultural dances and music in order to draw in more tourists. This provides a steady income to the locals of Kenya. However, this also raises the idea that the culture of Kenya is losing its authenticity. The locals of Kenya depend on the money that tourism brings in. Due to this, the locals will cater to the interest of tourists. This causes them to act out/perform in stereotypical ways and not 100% like how they originally would. This leads to a loss of authenticity which inevitably will lead to a loss of significance in the culture of Kenya.