there is a phenomenon that emerging countries are increasing their tourist industry to a larger size. While this phenomenon could be count for the benefits such as higher income for general citizens, considerable tax income for governments, and better reputation for the country, I think it could be a negative development for those countries.
Admittedly, the expanding of the tourist business for the emerging countries do have some positive impacts on the development of the countries. Firstly, increase in the number of the visitors from the other countries can increase the overall income level of the normal citizens who participate in the industry. Besides, since the overall profit of the companies and persons related to the tourist business such as sightseeing and hoteling, the government can gain more tax income from all the stakeholders from the business. The raise in the governmental income can indicate that government can allocate more money into the sectors, for example, education and healthcare, which benefit the development of the country for a long run. Additionally, with the increase number of the visitors to the country, the nation can also be more impactful on the social media and gain the better reputations around the world. For example, Korean was a developing country 50 years ago, however, around 30 years ago, the government decided to apply the strategy in the tourist industry. The results of the strategy is still profound nowadays that many young people go to Soul for trips of food and plastic surgeries.
However, despite there are many advantages that this development brings to the country. There are some more concerns can be raised. As the countries which apply this strategy are out of developing economies, the increase in the tourist business can lead a higher expenditure in the construction of the infrastructure, which can lead a more stressful financial deficit of the government. Also, this allocation of the government fund can lead a more tight budget for the other segments such as education and healthcare. In a long run, there can be a risk that the society will lack of the high-quality and skilled works and engineers, and the country will enter a negative loop where the profits gain from the tourists become the main income of the entire society. For instance, Thailand has been top developing countries in the 1990s, however, it is still a developing countries at present. During the COVID-19, the tourist industry of Thailand was amplified by the pandemic which lead more conflicts and higher criminal record even after the post-COVID time.
Hence, even there can be huge economic benefits that both government and citizens related to expand the tourist business, there is a higher risk of miss-allocation of the incomes and lead the country into a wrong direction for development, even the strategy can surge the income of the country in a short term. Ultimately, the countries’ development can be damaged by solely relying on the tourist income.