Some people say that tourism has many negative effects on the countries that people travel to.How true is this statement? What can tourist do to reduce the harmful effects of tourism on local cultures and environments?

Tourism sites are one of the source incomes of national budget for one country. The local government insists to develop tourism sites in order to advance economy of the country. In addition, the inhabitants will learn tourist’ knowledge so that they can get many benefits from that. In fact, the government intention sometimes does not work according to the plan. Tourism tends to give many negative effects on the countries and the local people as well.

Today, there have been so many pros and cons developing in society whether to support or opposite the government policy regarding tourism development. In one side, government support to develop tourism because it is suitable for our country which has many interesting places. According to representative of ministry of tourism, when the numbers of tourist coming to our country increase, foreign exchange will grow as well. This will give positive impact to economy country. Money tax from tourism can be used to build new infrastructures where tourism locates.

On the other hand, there are many people and some organizations oppose tourism development because it can give bad effects to local culture and environment. They tend to think that tourist from other country will erase their culture value. Local people will not commend to their ancestor. For simple instance, the way of visitors dressing which is not really appropriate with eastern culture will influence local people. In term of environment, according to environmentalist of Hasanuddin University, there are a number of tourism sites in our country which are no longer maintained. Furthermore, tourists sometimes break the rule to keep clean in tourism place.

As of now, there have been no clear and practical solutions for tourism development in our country. There are many considerations we have to pay attention on if we want to oppose with government intention. Besides, as visitors, they should obey the rules of the local government to get mutual benefit for both sides.