Unit 17 Travel and Tourism

　　Dialogues /monologues:

　　1、 The acceptable standard is 15% of the tall bill.

　　2、 You can stock up on something to have for later—for example, cheese and caviar in Mexico City.

　　3、 Meditation room

　　4、 When you walk in, relaxing music comes and pictures of clouds are projected on the wall.

　　5、 Christen cruises are popular with those who are not interested in the drinking, gambling, and Las Vegas style shows that are a part of most cruising vacations.

　　6、 Enjoying retracing the journeys of the apostle Paul in Turkey and Greece on a luxurious tall sailing ship.

　　Passage:

　　To attract tourism to one’s country was once thought of as an unqualified success; there seemed to be no negative aspects to it. However, today we are coming to realize that tourism is a mixed blessing: it has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it can bring money to parts of the world that very much need it. People can earn a great deal through tourism. And this income can help to preserve the environment. Anything that helps to protect the ecosystem, the interrelated community of plants and animals that makes up the earth, is, of course, positive.

　　A recent worry, however, is the fact that tourism can cause serious damage to the fragile environments they love to visit. Ecosystems are delicate and easily damaged. Around the world, areas are endangered by the large numbers of tourism who visit them. On every continent, tourism threatens the environment. Even trekkers who take difficult journeys on foot can cause damage.

　　There are, then, serious dangers that come with the promise of tourism. Every advantages bring with it real disadvantages. This dilemma makes planning difficult for nations trying to decide what to do. Countries can make a good deal more money from the tourist industry than they need to put into attracting tourists. This financial profit can help nations protect habitats where endangered animals and plants live. It also may be that tourism can help strengthen local culture by encouraging awareness of traditions and ceremonies. Historic buildings thrive on tourism. These cultural locations enjoy great success with the money and respect brought by tourism.

　　But there is a down side to all this. Because cultural sites are becoming too crowded, Disneyland-like reproductions are being created. These are not authentic cultural sites but copies of something that may or may not have ever really existed. Some people say, “what’s the value of tradition if it’s kept alive for profit, and bears little relation to real life?”

　　Taken together, the negative effects of tourism grow larger over time. The cumulative effects of tourism are great because every time we use cars or planes to travel we contribute to one of the greatest disruptions in the history of the planet: global warming and climate change are interrupting what has been the normal climate pattern for centuries.

　　New approaches to the problem are also being developed. One initiative has been the development of tourist opportunities in which the tourists both give and receive through working vacations. This kind of personal, small-scale tourism is meant to be a positive response with its large-scale organizing. Working tourism may not be for everyone, but the hope is that some kinds of travel can become more planet friendly.