Tourism impacts result when the host and tourists interact with each other at and within the destination (Polytechnic, 2007). There are three categories which includes the socio-cultural, environmental and economic. These impacts often appear as both positive and negative.
When this indigenous group of people comes into contact with the tourists, it brings about understanding between the different cultures and lessens the conflicts and unhappiness between each other. The mutual sympathy and understanding will increase and prejudice is reduced (Polytechnic, 2007) between each other. This is because locals and tourists have a better knowledge of the practices in the different cultures after interacting with one another.
New facilities will also be built to provide for these tourists and they will also benefit the locals of the Aboriginal culture in North Queensland. The indigenous group will also feel a sense of pride for their own culture and heritage and this can help to encourage their interest in conserving their cultures.
However, there are so negative impacts to it. With more tourists coming into the community, there will be a loss of culture, indigenous identity and values. This is caused by certain influences such as commodification, also known as commercialization, standardization, loss of authenticity and adaptation to tourist demands.
The commercialization of the community will attract more people to visit the community and thus, bringing in their own practices and cultures. The locals may also want to live the life that is similar to the tourists such as having a good phone and being trendy. When new facilities are built in the community, some plots of lands will be forced to be let out to cater to the tourists. As a result, conflicts with traditional land use may also occur. In addition, there will also be signs of degradation of the local’s culture.
Even though the locals and tourists may develop mutual sympathy and understanding between each other, there may be times that there are irritations due to the tourist’s behavior. This could be brought about as the tourists do not follow or respect the culture and moral values of the locals.
Due to mass tourism, the environment will be affected and degrade over time. Conservation and preservation of the environment may not be observed by both the locals and the tourists, thus causing harm to the natural environment. An example would be ruin of the beaches nearby.
Jobs are also created with the development of tourism in Tjapukai Cultural Park. Tour operators often involve the local indigenous community in the development of tourism and increase their standard of living financially by creating new and additional jobs for these locals. Over time, there will be presence of schools for tourism to educate the locals such as bringing in more and new tourists and the ways they could help to increase the tourist arrivals to their community.
Nonetheless, tourism will also cause the locals to adapt to tourist demands such as encouraging young men to abandon their plots of land to work in the tourism sector as tour guides.
Because of tourism, there will be globalization. Globalization is also one of the long-term impacts. Globalization is defined a set of concerns which involve the apparent withering away of the nation state, the rise of transnational corporations, and the spread of new technologies and electronic broadcast media (Amin & Thrift, 1994).
Harvey (2000) has identified four shifts in the dynamics of globalization: - (1) Financial deregulation, (2) technological change and innovation, (3) media and communications and (4) cost and time of moving commodities.
Financial deregulation drives the movement towards free trade and lessening of foreign investment restrictions (Polytechnic, 2011). As such, the tourism impacts that the Aboriginal culture in Queensland will include more foreigners or the local government to invest in tourism. An example is the building of tourist facilities to cater to them. This will result in more foreign talents coming in to work and the authenticity of the culture will be affected as these foreigners will also bring in their own culture and practice.
Transport and aviation technology will improve over time to cater to the mass tourism such that the travelling time to travel from places to places will decrease over time.
Media and communication within the area of the Aboriginal culture will be affected due to the exposure of the tourists. For example, when the tourists visit the indigenous group, they will tend to bring along their mobile devices that will cause the locals to waver their desire for it. Furthermore, in order to cater to the needs of the tourists, the government will improve the communication system such as there will be better signals for phone calls and there may be even internet to cater to them.
With globalization, the cost and time of moving commodities i.e. boats will decrease due to technological changes and new product innovation and processes. Advance technology will be able to speed up the rate of these commodities from one place to another within a shorter period of time. As such, the cost i.e. oil will also decrease due to the shorter time required.
In conclusion, tourism will cause the non-locals to bring in their own cultures into the park, influencing the Aborigines and their traditional culture. Over time, there will be a loss of culture and its meaning and tradition for these locals because of the changes and educating the tourists with their unique culture.
