第19章　観光と地域社会

Tourism has grown into one of the largest industries in the world. Every year, hundreds of millions of people leave their homes and travel, sometimes across the planet, to reach a destination they have dreamed about for months. What draws these travelers? Often it is a beautiful natural landscape, or a famous historic sight that they have seen in photographs all their lives. Modern transportation, especially cheap air travel, has made it possible for an ordinary passenger to cross continents in a single day.

For the region that receives them, tourism can bring real advantages. Visitors spend money in hotels, restaurants, and shops, and this activity supports the local economy. The profit earned from tourism can create jobs and slowly build the wealth of a community that may have few other industries.

Travelers themselves often gain a great deal. They are fascinated by an unfamiliar custom, charmed by everyday scenes that local people no longer even notice, and they return home with a deeper impression of how differently, and yet how similarly, human beings live.

Yet tourism also has a darker side. When too many visitors arrive at once, they form an exhausting crowd. A small historic district can be completely overwhelmed, and the residents who actually live there may find their daily routines disturbed by the endless flow of strangers.

Practical problems multiply as well. Travelers must reserve hotel rooms many months in advance, and the very popularity that helps a town attract visitors can push local prices so high that ordinary families can no longer afford to live in the center of their own city.

For this reason, many places now try to practice what is called sustainable tourism. The aim is to spread visitors across a wider area and a longer season, and to carefully protect the landscape, the buildings, and the traditions that gave the destination its appeal in the first place.

Handled wisely, the movement of travelers is a kind of peaceful trade, an exchange of money, ideas, and friendship. The task for every popular region is to welcome the world without losing the very character that made it worth visiting.