Event Concepts and Contexts

An Event basically refers to any observable occurrence, phenomenon or simply an extraordinary occurrence. An event can, in its broadest description, include anything attracting an audience by pleasing to specific tastes, desires or needs (Tasmania, 2004). Most researchers have investigated mega events from a variety of aspects and found that they have social, economical, and environmental impacts on the host communities.

In this paper we are going to look at tourism and some of its positive and negative impacts. The impacts are categorically many but we are going to focus on the economic and environmental impacts of tourism as an event. Tourism can be described as a manner of one travelling and staying in a foreign place for not more than one year and more a day for leisure, business or for other purposes that are not associated to the exercise of an doings remunerated from within the location. Tourism affects the socio-cultural, economical, environmental and political perceptions of a nation. Tourism effects, just like a coin, have two dimensions: both the positive and negative impacts perceived differently by the tourist and the locals and any other party that is involved.

Impact on environment

Today, the world faces a number of major environmental challenges that directly influence the health of human's plants, and animals. Negative effects from tourism take place when the intensity of visitor use is more than the environment's capacity to handle with this use within the acceptable confines of change. Unrestrained conventional tourism has potential challenges to many of the tourists' areas in the world today. It can put huge pressure on an area which may lead to effects such as soil erosion, discharges into the sea, increase environmental pollution and pressure on endangered species (Harris & Allen, 2002). It habitually puts a strain on water resources, and it can force local populations to struggle for the use of natural resources.

It is so likely for natural resources to be exhausted by tourism activities especially in areas where the resources are scarce. The enormous consumption as a result of increased growth in tourism puts a lot of pressure to the already scarce resources.

The tourism industry normally uses water resources for hotels, swimming pools, golf courses and personal utilization by tourists. This can effect to degradation of water supplies and water shortages, as well as generating a greater volume of waste water bearing in mind that water is one of the critical natural resource and a basic need for both human, animal and plant survival. In arid areas such as the Mediterranean, the subject of water shortage is common because of the hot climate and the tendency of tourists to consume more water when on than they do at home, the quantity consumed can go up to 440 liters a day (Bleacher, 2003). With the increase of golf tourism in the recent years, increased recognition and the figure of golf courses has grown rapidly. Golf courses need huge amounts of water volume every day. Over pumping of wells waters can cause saline interference into groundwater. Generally an average golf course in a humid country such as Thailand requires 1500kg of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides annually and uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers can consume in a day (Australian Tourist Commission, 2004).

Resources such as raw materials, energy and food, that may already be in short supply may be subjugated to depletion due to the strain that tourism apply on them. Larger production and distribution of these resources worsen the objective impacts related with their exploitation. Improved creation of tourism and recreational facilities has over years increased the strain of vital land resources such as, fossil fuels, forests, wetland fertile soil, and wildlife. For example provision of tourist facilities, use of land for accommodation and other infrastructure provision, and the use of building materials will affect lend directly. Deforestation is also a widespread effect, caused by fuel wood collection and land clearing. For instance in south Africa an area already suffering from the impacts of deforestation, one tourist can use five to six kilograms of wood a day.

The still increasing tourist numbers have led to increased travel by air, road, and rail. Research shows that that tourist accounts to more than 65% of all air travel. Emissions from jets and planets contribute to a great share of air emissions.  A study done by Mayer Hillman, Town & Country Planning magazine estimated that a single flight return  emits approximately about  half the Carbon dioxide emissions produced by  a mix of all other sources (lighting, heating, car use, etc.) consumed by an average person per year(Australian Tourist Commission, 2004).  Air pollution from tourist transportation has many implications on the overall oxygen level, and can contribute to scrupulous air pollution. Some of these impacts are quite explicit to tourist activities. For example, particularly in extremely cold or hot countries, tour vehicles and cars often leave their motors running for long time while the tourists go out for an excursion so as to maintain a contentedly air-conditioned environment in the car.

Airplanes, buses, cars, and buses, as well as recreational vehicles such as jets, produce lots of noise pollution, which has been of great problem in our modern world. Regardless of causing annoyance, stress, noise causes wildlife to suffer, specifically in responsive places and this is likely to result to alteration of usual activity patterns. For instance in winter 2005, thousands of people entered milestone stone National Park on jet planes; this resulted to outnumbering many of the visitors who came in cars. A survey of jet planes impacts on natural sounds at milestone stone showed that jet noise could be heard 68% of the time at 11 of 13 sample sites (Bleacher, 2003)

Increased sewerage and water disposal has become a serious threat on areas with great numbers of tourists. Waste water, littering and solid waste can degrade the physical form of the soil, shoreline and water which may cause death of marine animals and not underrating the threat to animal and human health. Inappropriate disposal can be a major threat of the natural environment - scenic areas, roadsides and rivers. For example, ships in the Caribbean are emit approximately 70,000 tones of waste annually. Tourists leave behind their refuse which result to degradation of the environment.

Impact on economy

The impacts of tourism on the economy can be divided into three groups: direct, indirect, and induced.   Direct effects are those emerging from the initial tourism spending, such as money spent at a café.   The restaurant buys goods and services from other businesses, in so doing they generate indirect impacts.   In addition, the café employees spend part of their earnings to buy a variety of goods and services, thereby generating induced impacts. Should the café purchase the goods and services from outside the region of interest, then the money provides no indirect impact to the region it leaks away.   Tourism is a fast arising economic activity in many regions worldwide, it has a great role in both economical and technological development of many countries. It is a main economic activity in terms of revenue generation, foreign exchange earnings, employment, and stimulation of growth in essential infrastructure, attracts foreign investment, growth of domestic industries and facilitates the transfer of, culture, technology and information among populace (Mules, 1993)

Consequently it jointly promote sub-industries such as airlines, airports, hotels, manufacturing, tour operations, conference, credit card companies, travel agencies car rental companies and visitors business and other travel associated services.  Tourism represents almost 35% of the world's export of services and over 67% in developing countries. For instance, the 800 million global tourists in the year 2007 represent a 6.5 % of growth per annum between the year 1960 and 2007 in South Africa (Harris & Allen, 2002). According to a research carried out by UNWTO's Tourism 2020 Vision states that tourism will generate about 1.7 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide by the year 2022 (Harris & Allen, 2002).

Tourism growth enables the growth and development of small-scale urban trade, and agrarian transformation, consequently gradual trade and industry development is realized. Similarly other economic opportunities are opened to benefit both the privileged in the region as well as the working classes. Commerce expands rapidly affecting the industries around due to the increasing demand of food supply and other products ultimately Technology and infrastructure advancement takes place. Tourism is of head role in remote areas as it brings around jobs opportunities, these regions may have in the past benefited little from the total income growth programs (Tasmania, 2004). This economic impact can add to political and financial holdings for conservation.   Protected regions and environment conservation usually, offer many benefits to society, including conservation of biodiversity and protection of watersheds. Though, the benefits connected with recreation and tourism in protected areas tends to be tangible. For example, divers at a marine park spend money on accommodation, provisions, and other goods and services, thereby providing employment for local and non-local residents.

The intensity of benefits varies lengthily as a outcome of differences in the attraction quality, access, and so on.   In some cases, the number of jobs created will be low, but in rural areas even a few jobs can make a big difference. Consequently Tourism enables a rise in a range of opportunities such as establishment of networks and partnership within outside bodies and the event sector. Creating links and partnership between organization and individual events have a potential impact of greatly promoting tourism, for example this is facilitating applications that demonstrate effectiveness of cultural institution and tourism bodies. This will greatly impact the economy of a given positively.

Sustainable based tourism relies deeply on petite, locally operated commerce, bordering features and goods and thrives on commercial activity from persons. Mainly in community operated businesses the tourist dollar flows adding up to the multiplier outcome to the local economy. Tourists bring in foreign money into the area by buying products, services and experiences; fundamentally food, travel lodging, and entertainment (Barker, Page & Meyer, 2002). Though the ultimate economic advantage is gained from overnight visitors, substantial benefit can also be gained from through traffic. Tourism provides opportunities opportunity for economic development specifically for regional areas undergoing structural and economical change. Growth of tourism product does not basically require building "tourist things." (Harris & Allen, 2002).Tourism is often structured around existing fundamental interest, be it heritage, cultural experiences, natural or economic activities. There is need to defeat the opinion that they must "build things" to become a tourist target. The best thing is to focus on what they do best and have rather than trying to duplicate other "tourist" attractions.

In conclusion tourism has also its negative economic outcome. Several fears surrounding it are closely related with unrestrained, unsustainable and massed tourism growth and development. It's an industry that is really subjugated by private enterprise with a target of making money by selling experiences. Market planning can fail to achieve the aims of sustainable tourism and a preference to overlook environmental, social and cultural impacts. Above the limits, tourism has contributed to ample series of challenges - many of which seem inconsequential but detract from the quality of life of local residents. For instance, infringement on daily life, loss of privacy, and a sense of crowding contribute to ill feelings towards tourism growth and development. Tourism infrastructure is regularly blamed of taking the "best sites" and local secrets seen as being spectacles and losing their destination appeal. Many people see tourism as "the solution" to economic hardship rather than a diversification of the local economy, thereby small communities become dependent on tourism, drawing labor away from emerging industries such as manufacturing and agriculture.