A thriving local economy facilitates opportunities for residents to live happier, more comfortable lives. But every region needs a little assistance to reach its full potential. Communities rely on neighboring boroughs, cities, counties and beyond for economic growth, making tourism a valuable asset — especially to smaller communities.
Why Is Local Tourism Important?
Drawing visitors from far and wide has substantial benefits. When tourists travel to a community, they bring opportunities for local business owners and the hard-working individuals who hold the area together. Ultimately, tourism paves the way for positive change. Businesses and governments allocate resources to enhance the visitor experience while improving residents’ everyday lives.
Click here to see recent statistics from the US Travel Association about the economic impact of tourism in the state and county.
Services
An influx in tourism creates the demand for businesses to grow their service offerings. Existing companies improve their services while discovering new offerings that please out-of-town guests.
Simultaneously, new businesses emerge to add to the community. From dining options to entertainment venues, museums, transportation services, healthcare facilities and beyond, tourism encourages new developments that residents can enjoy year-round.
Job Opportunities
As new service offerings and businesses emerge in a bustling tourism community, so do employment opportunities. Existing businesses find ways to expand while new ones appear, creating new roles for locals to fill.
Industries like hospitality, food service and travel, in particular, produce new job openings. New entrepreneurial opportunities emerge as well. Services like Airbnb empower residents to earn revenue from tourists looking for a comfortable, local place to stay.
Infrastructure
Increased tourism can motivate local governments to improve local infrastructure:
Accessible public transportation and smooth roadways help tourists experience more of the community.
Telecommunication improvements enable tourists to share their experiences with friends and family.
Better water and sewage systems can satisfy the increased demand while ensuring a comfortable stay.
Such improvements benefit residents daily at every economic level.
Revenue
Visitors spend money with the community’s businesses. Restaurants, retail stores, boutiques and businesses of all varieties have the potential to earn more when their community attracts tourists. As a result, everyone from business owners to employees will have more to spend within the local economy. The increase in sales tax revenue will fund important infrastructural and environmental endeavors in the community.
Culture
Tourism helps preserve and evolve a community’s culture. Visitors eagerly engage in the history and traditions that make the town tick, providing an opportunity for locals to embrace their roots. Local museums and historical sites can see increased attendance, while the community’s artists can spread their stories and tell new ones.
Meanwhile, tourists bring their perspectives and traditions to the communities they visit. The cultural interchanges that coincide with tourism can have lasting positive effects on the community.
Help CAEDC Support & Grow Tourism
Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation (CAEDC) is also the designated destination marketing organization for Cumberland Valley and responsible for promoting the area’s attractions, shops, restaurants, and lodging properties. View our tourism site at www.VisitCumberlandValley.com to learn more. While the tourism arm of CAEDC is non-membership, please contact us to learn how you can participate with the tourism-side of our agency.
Tourism is an important part of any economy, as it brings in money from outside sources. It can provide jobs for local people and help to boost the local economy by providing a source of income. Tourism also helps to create new businesses, such as restaurants and hotels, which can further contribute to economic growth.
It creates jobs, strengthens the local economy, contributes to local infrastructure development and can help to conserve the natural environment and cultural assets and traditions, and to reduce poverty and inequality.
The impact of tourism on the economy extends beyond generating income and employment. It acts as a growth engine, stimulating investment in infrastructure, promoting sustainable development, and fostering the conservation of cultural and natural heritage.
Economic benefits include local economic stimulation, job creation, and infrastructure development. Social and cultural benefits include improved quality of life and social cohesion. And environmental benefits include improved conservation, preservation, and promotion of sustainable tourism.
There are several benefits of tourism on host destinations. Tourism boosts the revenue of the economy, creates thousands of jobs, develops the infrastructures of a country, and plants a sense of cultural exchange between foreigners and citizens.
Tourism is recognised as an important driver of the local, regional and national economies, and therefore is a central component of the economic ambitions of all local authorities. The tourism objectives for each local area are clearly stated in each Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) as outlined in Section Two.
The impact of tourism on local communities and their cultural heritage can be both positive (revitalization of local arts and traditions) and negative (cultural damage, increase in crime). The impact of tourism on local communities and their cultural heritage can vary, with both positive and negative effects.
As well as generating employment and income, another positive impact of tourism is improvements in infrastructure. These include road and rail improvements, airport development and improvements in utilities, such as water supply and telecommunications.
In the short run, tourism can bring benefits such as raising tax revenues, increasing sectoral employment, and improving environmental quality. However, in the long run, costs may arise, such as the "Dutch Disease" effect, which lowers capital formation in non-tourism sectors, and a reduction in foreign reserves.
Overtourism can also decrease quality of life for residents, leading to an increase in housing costs, limited economic opportunities, and/or exposure to the misuse of public spaces.
Global tourism, as a key contributory business, has contributed to approximately 10% of global GDP through possible employment opportunities, extending client markets, encouraging export trades, and gains from foreign exchanges [2, 3].
Soil erosion, various types of pollution, habitat loss and destruction, and forest fires are just a few of the environmental effects of tourism. If these areas are not properly conserved and cared for, they will lose their natural essence and be abandoned by tourists.
By promoting social interaction, tourism activities can also have an important role in contributing towards meeting new people and, thus, expanding social networks, as well as spending quality time and carrying out activities alongside other persons, permitting them to develop social skills (reducing difficulties in ...
Support for Local Businesses: Small business owners and artists often benefit from tourism as it increases demand for locally produced goods like food, crafts, and souvenirs, generating revenue for farmers, artists, and small businesses.
A stronger economy can lead to positive social effects that impact everyday life. Tourism also creates incentives for investments that can have positive social effects. For example, tourism encourages infrastructure such as roads, transport networks, medical facilities, and education facilities.
Economic benefits are benefits that can be quantified in terms of money generated, such as net income, revenues, etc. It can also be money saved when discussing a policy to reduce costs.
Creates local jobs and business opportunities. These include those jobs directly related to tourism (hotel and tour services) and those that indirectly support tourism (such as food production and housing construction). The multiplier effect: Brings new money into the economy.
Moreover, it leads to job creation and thus elevates the GDP level of the country, which contributes to economic Growth. However, just like any other industry, tourism has drawbacks as well. Tourism can harm the society, culture, and environment of an area.
Tourism is a live topic with new activities, new destinations, new markets and rapid changes ● The tourism Industry is Global and it is a large business ● All the visitors and activities generate change in local communities ● The changes can be in terms of Economic, Social and Environmental ● The changes that comes ...
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A thriving local economy facilitates opportunities for residents to live happier, more comfortable lives. But every region needs a little assistance to reach its full potential. Communities rely on neighboring boroughs, cities, counties and beyond for economic growth, making tourism a valuable asset — especially to smaller communities.
