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Impact Of Tourism On The Host Country

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Tourism has greatly increased over the years and has brought people of different cultures closer. There are many places to go explore and learn about how other live in different countries. Tourism has allowed travelers to the world around them, however the impacts from tourism on the host country are not known by many of the travelers. Some of these impacts from tourism can be negatively affecting the host country and those travelers who do not educate themselves on where they are going are most likely contributing to the negative impact. The Kayan people are one of the societies that are greatly affected by the tourism that comes to their village. The women are the main attraction of the village due to the rings that they wear around …show more content…

People come to take pictures of the “long-neck” women that wear the brass ring around their neck. Since the women are the most popular attraction in the community, the local authorities often deny their options to leave the village and are essentially trapped to sitting “on the balconies of small bamboo huts for the benefit of tourists” to see them wear the multiple brass rings around their neck.
The Kayan people are not official Thai citizens, so they are not allowed to go work outside of their village which makes them completely dependent on the money generated by tourism they get. The villages get about 150 visitors daily during the high season. The tourist pay an entrance fee of 250 bhat (7$) to the village which add up to about $33,500 per month. The money earned however is not fully controlled by them, but by a local Thai official that works with the village authority. Women who wear the neck ring will only earn about $40 per month while the men and child who do not wear the rings get nothing. Those without the rings make money by selling souvenirs to tourists (Soe, 2008). Even with so many tourists visiting daily, they struggle to sell these items to tourist; Mae Po said that “some days [she] only make $3 from selling things to tourists” and “some days [she] make nothing” (Winn, 2011). This key issue leads into Pretty’s typology of participation. There is unequal distribution of control over money between the Kayan people and the

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