Nowadays, several developing countries are increasingly focusing on the travel business. The major reason behind it is to earn foreign exchange, and it has both pros and cons, but in my opinion, pros are more dominant.
There can be several reasons to expand the tourism industry. However, the majority of the countries do it for earning foreign currency. Expanding the tourism industry gives global exposure to a country, which generates tourists in the certain country. Therefore, the country gets the opportunity to earn foreign currency and increase the value of their currency. For example, Thailand, a renowned place for tourists, expanded their tourism industry some years ago to generate foreign income, and their growth is noticeable to the whole world.
A positive effect of advancement in tourism is that it can increase employment substantially. Because foreigners need a place to stay while traveling, which skyrockets the demand of hotels and resorts, and more hotel amenities need more employees to operate, along these lines a country can increase employment. Another positive effect of the trend is that it can contribute to urbanization. Traveling facilities will help a country grow economically. By that, the government will be able to allocate more money for urbanization. For instance, Malaysia was not a developed country, but after tourism expansion, a colossal growth was seen in their infrastructures.
On the other hand, expansion of travel facilities has some minor negative effects, such as environmental degradation, because foreigners tend not to follow rules to keep the environment safe. However, I firmly believe the advantages are more significant, and the drawbacks can be erased or alleviated.
In conclusion, the reason behind some countries’ development in the tourism industry is definitely to achieve economic growth by foreign currency revenue. Moreover, it has numerous advantages, such as a reduction in the unemployment rate and financial assistance in modernization, but it also has some minor disadvantages as well. However, in my opinion, the advantages are greater.
