| The socio-cultural
impacts of tourism described here are the effects on host communities
of direct and indirect relations with tourists, and of interaction
with the tourism industry. For a variety of reasons, host communities
often are the weaker party in interactions with their guests and
service providers, leveraging any influence they might have. These
influences are not always apparent, as they are difficult to measure,
depend on value judgments and are often indirect or hard to identify.
The impacts arise when tourism brings
about changes in value systems and behaviour and thereby threatens
indigenous identity. Furthermore, changes often occur in community
structure, family relationships, collective traditional life styles,
ceremonies and morality. But tourism can also generate positive
impacts as it can serve as a supportive force for peace, foster
pride in cultural traditions and help avoid urban relocation by
creating local jobs. As often happens when different cultures
meet, socio-cultural impacts are ambiguous: the same objectively
described impacts are seen as beneficial by some groups, and are
perceived as negative - or as having negative aspects - by other
stakeholders.
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