the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

• Lifestyles
• Behavioural patterns
• Dress codes
• Sense of time and budgeting
• Attitudes towards strangers
Tourism development may also lead to changes in the arts and crafts of the host
culture. Tourism, firstly leads to a resurgence of local art forms. This increased
demand can lead to a mass production of the art, a lowering of its quality and value,
and the loss of its meaning to the artisan. The traditional music of a host culture can
also be negatively affected in the same way by tourism development (Martha, 1993).
The language of the host community, if different from that of the tourists, is affected.
.Language is one way in which the host community can remain distinct from the
visitors. However, the language of the hosts will inevitably change to accommodate
the tourists. Also, members of the host society who learn the language of the tourists
are more employable and valuable to the tourism industry (Martha, 1993).
According to Alien and Hamnet (1995), compared to the absolute poverty of the
majority of individuals in a Third World host community, the tourists seem extremely
affluent, which is usually manifest in their appearance and behaviour. Dressed in
'designer fashions, wearing expensive watches and jewellery and sporting the latest
in hi-tech photographic equipment, they (the tourists) frequent luxury hotels and
expensive restaurants. The price of even one meal in such establishments is likely
to be more than what a local will be paid in one month' (Alien and Hamnet, 1995, p.
207).
Some researchers even go as far as describing tourism as 'whorism' and blame the
sector for dismantling traditional communities and promoting undesirable lifestyles
including prostitution, drug addiction and crime (Erisman, 1983). Thailand stands out
as a prime example of a destination that has thrived on the proliferation of sex
tourism. Today, Bangkok has thousands of brothels, massage parlours, and go-go
bars employing an estimated four hundred thousand prostitutes (Kelly, 1993). This in
turn has led to a proliferation in sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS in
the country, which is a direct result of the expansion of the tourism industry.
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