Hi again everybody, so last time we talked about the good things that tourism can bring us, how it can help us grow and what benefits it brings, and today we're going to talk about the other side which is the negative effects of tourism. So this presents the biggest challenge for tourism as it's important to balance both the positives and negatives. So we have to understand although there are good things, some really good things about tourism, there are actually some negative impacts as well.
And those impacts come under the same categories that we talked about last time, which were economic, so anything financial, social and also environmental. So like benefits, negative impacts of tourism can be categorised in these three categories. So first we'll talk about the negative impact that tourism can have on economic factors. So the first negative impact that tourism can have is that it leads to an increase in price for local goods. So that is problematic because tourists will obviously pay more for goods that they need.
Because they're on holiday, you're more likely to spend more. But this is a problem because it makes local products too expensive for local people to buy. So if people live in a tourist area...
Their products are much more expensive than those people who don't live in a tourist area just for the fact that tourists will pay more for those products. Another problem caused by tourism is the fact that in tourist areas, shops will stock products for tourists and they will not have everyday goods that are needed by locals. So they have a lack of product available for locals. In tourist areas you'll find a high concentration of souvenirs shops, fashion shops, electronic shops but you'll find a low concentration of things like supermarkets, chemists and other necessary items that the locals need so it makes it more difficult for people who live in tourist areas to access the everyday products that they need.
Another economic impact of tourism is on housing prices. So in... areas that are popular tourist destinations, housing becomes very, very expensive and it becomes difficult for local people to afford. So what we've got over here is a picture of Malibu, okay, and of course there are people who are from this area that cannot afford to buy the houses there because they're worth millions and millions of dollars because it's popular for holiday accommodation. The last economic problem that we'll talk about is to do with jobs.
Now I said in the last video that tourism has a positive impact because it creates jobs, but sometimes these jobs are problematic because they're seasonal jobs. We all know that there are nice times of the year to visit places, and there are not so nice times to visit places due to the weather or things. So because of this, jobs become seasonal in that they need more people during the high season and less people during the low season. So during the low season, a lot of local people who are employed in the tourist industry lose their jobs or have a reduction in income because these jobs are seasonal. And also, these jobs are often low paid with long hours, so that creates a problem for local people wanting to work in the tourist industry.
So moving on to the social effects of tourism and the negative effects that it can have in that area. remembering that anything that is a social effect is anything to do with quality of life or way of life of people in the area. So the number one concern for negative effects in the social category is that it can erode, tourism can erode traditional values.
So in the last video I know that I said it can encourage traditional values and it definitely can if those are supported. But sometimes when we introduce foreign elements, traditional values can be eroded. And sometimes these foreign elements, so things from another country, can conflict with the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the community. And we can see that these traditional values are no longer as pure as they once were.
Another social problem that's associated with tourism is an increase in crime rate. So if there's an area with a lot of tourists, obviously those tourists might be targets for crime. And so you'll see an increase in things like theft, assault and things like that in areas that are frequented by tourists because they become an easy target. Following on from this, we can also see sometimes tourism can lead to drug and alcohol problems in an area. So because of the increased amount of people and some tourist destinations are well known for their sort of party atmosphere, like the Gold Coast or some places in Europe, Las Vegas, it sort of attracts people.
And then, of course, that attracts, you know, drugs and alcohol. to the area because there's a higher amount of people and then it can become a big problem in the area in regards to people with drug and alcohol problems. Again, following on from that is because of, you know, the increased amount of traffic and the increased amount of crime, it's also...tourist areas are also a target for prostitution so people are on holiday, they're ready to let loose and these areas can definitely... Hats start to have problems with prostitution because there's an increased demand. The last type of negative effect that we're going to have a look at is the environmental effects of tourism.
So this is probably the biggest area and one of the biggest criticisms for tourism is its negative effect on the environment. And it does this in several ways. Firstly, there's a strain on resources. So we already have... a lot of scarce resources such as energy, water and food and moving people around through tourism and bringing a high concentration of people into a particular area certainly puts an extra strain on things like food, water and energy which are already scarce and puts a strain on those things.
Another factor which is a negative impact of Tourism on the environment are things like soil erosion and pollution. So due to the increased traffic there's a much bigger problem with soil erosion and pollution. So due to the increased traffic we see a lot more litter on our beaches and it moves into the waterways adding to the pollution. We see a lot more car traffic and things like that so it adds to the pollution. in our airways and soil erosion is also a big problem because we see a lot of development along the beachfront and so we're seeing increased soil erosion so that's the soil moving back and being removed by the water and we're seeing a lot more of that because of the development along the coastline.
Another environmental problem that we're seeing is dangers for animals and for plants. So because, again, of the increased traffic, the need for development, there's increased pressure on endangered species of animals and plants. So we know that there are certain types of animals that don't really have... or that need to live in a specific kind of environment, in a specific habitat, and sometimes those habitats are cleared for...
tourism purposes like development of hotels, things like that. And so natural habitats are being removed and putting pressure on the animals. We also see, unfortunately, some sort of demand for products from endangered species. So things like ivory items, things from elephants, for example.
I've seen like an elephant foot umbrella stand and things like that. And there's a sort of demand for those things. And Tourism encourages that demand by allowing people to go and move about and actually hunt for these creatures themselves. And the last environmental problem that I'm going to discuss is deforestation.
So of course we know that deforestation is a big problem in our world. You can see over here that forests get cleared like this and that can be for hotel development or it can be to create products for people that they wish to buy and so we're losing much of our natural forest across the world and that's a big environmental consequence of tourism. So I hope that you can see from this video that there are many negative effects of tourism and it's important that we learn about these things because we do want to continue to enjoy the benefits of tourism but we do need to be aware of what the negative effects are so that we can continue to manage these negative effects.
and so that we can continue to enjoy tourism without harming our planet. So my next video will be about how we can manage the negative effects of tourism to reduce the harm that we're doing. So that will be in a video called Sustainable Tourism. See you next time.