Tourism's negative effects

Travel and tourism is one of the world's largest industries. There are 1 billion tourist arrivals in the world every year. This industry generates one out of ten jobs worldwide. In 2015, travel and tourism constituted 9.8% ($7.2 trillion) of the world’s GDP. Tourism is usually regarded as a boon to a region’s economy. Tourism brings prosperity to the region and provides employment to the locals of the region. When tourism becomes unsustainable, it can have disastrous consequences on the environment. Tourism can cause all kinds of environmental issues from roadside garbage to polluted water to ugly beaches covered in flotsam and jetsam. It might be the locals doing the littering but they are only a part of the problem. 

• Tourism brings jobs, investment and economic benefits to destinations. But overtourism occurs when tourism expansion fails to acknowledge that there are limits. 
• Tourism is a fascinating, invisible export industry. Tourism inevitably brings with it environmental and cultural degradation. Tourism can disrupt or destroy ecosystems and environments.
• Tourism adversely impacts the environment by producing massive amounts of pollution. Increased movement of people across the globe (1186 million international tourist arrivals in 2015 up from 25 million in 1950), means that transport by plane, car, and train is continuously expanding. Air travel for tourism is responsible for a substantial part of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A single transatlantic return flight emits almost half the CO2 emissions produced by all other sources consumed by an average person yearly. 
• Extreme differences of wealth and lifestyle between locals and tourists in some areas can cause resentment.
• Tourists often, out of ignorance or carelessness, fail to respect local customs and moral values causing irritation and stereotyping.
• Drug and alcohol abuse is one of the biggest problems facing the tourist’s hot spots around the world. Prostitution is rampant in places where the tourists arrive in hordes.
• The commercial sexual exploitation of children and young women has paralleled the growth of tourism in many parts of the world. Though tourism is not the cause of sexual exploitation, it provides easy access to it.
• Tourism leads to loss of traditional jobs when workers move from farming, fishery, mining etc to service jobs in tourism.
• Tourism often leads to overuse of water. Golf courses require a lot of water daily and an average golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs 1500 kg of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides per year and uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers.
• Tourism contributes to more than 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• Tourists as a group consume a tremendous amount of natural resources and produce an equally tremendous amount of waste.  
• The 'mega resort'  has been one of the most economically successful and environmentally destructive additions to the tourism industry.  Large corporate owned resorts rarely give back to the local communities on which they depend and thrive.  Only lower level positions such as maids, cooks, waiters, and bellhops are available to the local residents while upper level and management positions are reserved for corporate immigrants. 
• Large resorts are very rarely environmentally friendly, and in turn do not normally attract an environmentally conscious clientele. 
• Overtourism is defined as the excessive growth of visitors leading to overcrowding in areas where residents suffer the consequences of temporary and seasonal tourism peaks, which have enforced permanent changes to their lifestyles, access to amenities and general well-being. 
• Overtourism is a symptom of the present era of unprecedented affluence and hyper mobility, a consequence of late capitalism.
• Overtourism harms the landscape, damages beaches, puts infrastructure under enormous strain, and pricing residents out of the property market. 
• If tourist arrivals to a destination decline suddenly and dramatically it would likely have considerable economic repercussions for those who rely on them. Prioritising the welfare of local residents above the needs of the global tourism supply chain is vital.

Walking is a virtue, tourism is a deadly sin - Bruce Chatwin

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Economy worsened since 2016 ... RBI survey

Pre-poll surveys might still be leaning towards Modi, but the recent highly rated RBI's Consumer Confidence Survey tells another tale. The survey was conducted in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi, has showed that 48% of the citizens believe that the Indian economy has deteriorated in 2018 from the previous round. On general economic situation, income, spending, employment and price level about 48% felt the general economic situation in May 2018 was worse than a year ago and 32% perceived an improvement.

• Households in general were pessimistic about the employment situation, with 44% of them feeling that it has actually worsened. An aggregate of 51% have said that do not expect any change or expect employment prospects to deteriorate in the coming year.
• Over 88% felt that the general price level has increased and over 83% said they expected it will keep increasing in the coming year too.
• The proportion of households expecting their spending will increase in the next one year remained almost unchanged at over 83%.
• Modi government is facing a flak on the price situation as continuously increasing petrol and diesel prices have led to a spike in the rates of almost all essential commodities and transportation.
• GDP grew at 7.7% in the Q4 FY18, the fastest pace in seven quarters, aided primarily by sustained government spending. While private investments are struggling to recover, slowing of private consumption (54.6% against 59.3% in the previous quarter) the main growth engine, is also a cause for concern. 
• Even though the government has been patting its back on bringing down inflation, 79% of respondents felt that it has actually gone up. Many respondents felt that the prices have increased and will continue to increase going ahead. About 83.8% expects food prices to rise in the next three months as against just 77.2% a year back. 
• Retail inflation, measured by the year-on-year change in the CPI, rose from 4.9 % in May to 5% in June, driven by an uptick in inflation in fuel and in items other than food and fuel. RBI Governor Urjit Patel says RBI needs to maintain inflation at the legislated target of 4%.
• One of the major pointers towards a slowdown is the fact that people's incomes have remained stagnant. 48.9% households said that their incomes have remained same, it has gone up for 27% and gone down for 23%.
• And even though incomes have declined, spending has shot up. People are spending more on essential items. For 85% spending on essential items has gone up,  while for 52% it has gone up on non-essential items.

Earlier in June 2018, Piyush Goyal, finance minister in-charge, dismissed the RBI's consumer confidence survey findings. "I think the facts speak for themselves, with 7.7% growth. Some people with blinkers on seem to have come out with a report that does not gel with reality then I have no answer to them, but there will always be some naysayers in this world,” he said. 

Modi's fake data wont work anymore. He must stop spreading false data and 

take action or should say BJP do not have good finance knowledge and 

hire experts where ever they are available ... A citizen

The BJP will not enjoy the tail winds it enjoyed in 2014 in the next elections. However, a lack of hope that the economic situation will improve significantly in the next one year. Economic mismanagement is an important opposition charge. Still the electorate has not placed its bet on an anti-Modi campaign, like it did in an anti UPA campaign in 2012. A status quo in these trends suggests it may still be advantage BJP in 2019 at a time when the opposition is banding together. It is good that institutions are coming out of Modi's evil influence in spreading fake data. Needless to say that present situation is as bad as it was in 2013-14, the last year of UPA's 10 year regime. Majority people not expecting any improvement in economy indicates their loss of confidence Modi's capabilities and could spell doom, in 2019 elections, for Modi & BJP.