Impact of Tourism in Hong Kong
Tourism turns local people and places into consumer goods, changing the balance of global and local. For local people and places, tourism often brings global goods but comes at the expense of local goods. The objective of this week’s assignment is to understand the ways tourism transforms local people and places.
(1) Choose one of the places Pico Iyer visits in Video Night in Kathmandu.
Describe two ways international travel and tourism have transformed that place – a physical transformation and a human (social or cultural) transformation.
(2) Now “visit” the same place, either using Google Maps Street View, a travel video from YouTube, or a combination of the two. (Feel free to enhance your visit with a Google Image search, etc.) What evidence do you see today of the same two transformations?
(3) Finally reflect on your observations. Are these transformations you and Pico Iyer witnessed good or bad for the local place and people? Articulate one way they are good and one way they are bad.
