Moving towards achieving a major role

The presumed capacity of tourism to enhance regional development, redistribute wealth and benefits to the local economies have been questioned in many of the developing countries. Tourism has been widely associated with
• Localized inflation in the price of land
• Increase in labor costs and
• Increase in the prices of goods in the shops

Studies of tourism destinations as diverse as that in the UK and Malaysia suggest that rather than diffusing economic gain into less wealthy, peripheral regions, developments tend to refocus on areas of existing developments. In India and particularly in states like kerala tours and travels have now assumed the status of an industry and it has actually resulted in the development of a parallel economy.

In Britain, traditional domestic tourist centers in regions such as Devon and Cornwall has seen a loss of business with domestic holiday makers flocking abroad. Ideally, such losses would be counterbalanced by new inflows of foreign tourists into the same regions. Yet, the primary focus for foreign visitors to Britain is London, and only a tiny portion of overseas visitors dare to venture as far as Cornwall. So at a regional level, the gains from foreign tourism in one locality are not compensating for the losses in the domestic market, thereby sustaining rather than eroding the regional disparities.

Also, questions have been raised over the role of tourism in generating local employment. Tourism work has been widely characterized as:
• Low paid
• Menial and unskilled
• Part-time and seasonal
• Over-dependent upon female labor