Though tourism is most often seen as an overall positive thing, more often than not, it serves solely as temporary economic gain. Overall, it is reported that tourism is the largest overall source of global money as it has accounted for more than 1.96 trillion dollars in 2019. It has decreased by over 50 percent in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however it is expected to make a full recovery in the next 5 years. To put this amount in perspective, as of a decade earlier, in 2008 the value was estimated to be only 500 billion dollars which means that the economic implications of the tourism industry only continues to grow as time progresses. Moreover, globally, over 340 million people rely on tourism for job security which is estimated to be over 22 percent of the global population. In fact, countries with the highest reliance on the tourism industry can be evaluated based on several factors such as the percentage of GDP or the percentage of people employed within tourism. For nations such as the Maldives, British Virgin Islands, and Aruba, their tourism contributions to their GDP are the highest in the world, all ranging from 30 percent to about 40 percent. On the other hand, nations such as Aruba, Bahamas, and St. Lucia has the highest rates of reliance in regards to total employment, with all three nations above 26 percent. Furthermore, the tourism industry has had several negative effects on the environment as well. Research shows a direct correlation between higher rates of tourism in developing countries to actions such as soil erosion, higher rates of pollution, and overall environmental degradation in forms such as deforestation. For example, within the Mount Everest region inside of Nepal, they’ve cut down over 1 million acres of agricultural land in order to make room for tourism purposes.
The United Nations has been very involved when it comes to combating the various challenges and difficulties in regards to the economic imperialism within the tourism industry itself. For instance, in order to combat the economic repercussions that tourism causes such as air pollution, the general assembly voted and passed resolution A/RES/16/728 in 2018 to directly address and implement United Nations recommendations into the whole international body itself. Moreover, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals embody the aspirations of the United Nations in order to improve not only the global climate, but also the economy and infrastructure as well. For instance, through the implementation of the sustainable development goal number 8, they’ve focused on establishing economic growth that wouldn’t harm or demonstrate negative impacts on the environment itself. As of 2022 as well, the United Nations officially launched the World Tourism Day report as an annual analysis into the global working sector in the tourism industry. Not only everything that has been previously stated, but the UNWTO has also taken direct action to combat the exploitation of youth workers and other vulnerable groups within the tourism sector through the deployment of multiple government sponsored online campaigns aimed to uplift and inspire positive change. Within the UN Climate Action Conference as well, they’ve declared the deployment of the development of sustainable tourism which is very scarce in the current industry today. Additionally, with the aspirations of the United Nations, they’ve already partnered with over 530 current organizations that have pledged to support not only UN efforts, but their local and state governments to create a positive impact within the tourism industry. The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Gutierres, also mentioned that there is an abundance of unlocked potential for sustainable tourism, it just has to be fostered by organizations and governments willing to embark on the investment into improvements for the tourism industry. To conclude, the United Nations has taken immense action in order to successfully and effectively combat economic imperialism in the tourism industry.