Victoria (Australia)-Socio-Cultural Impacts Tourism can have many socio-cultural impacts which can have both negative and positive contribution to the Victorian state community (Hall, 2004). Based on the 10 year plan strategy policy, those impacts will be analyzed below along with some recommendations for their future implementation.
The history of Victoria is very important to the locals and this is why the government is preserving it by having numerous museums and heritage site buildings. It is one of the places where Aborigines live and a lot of tourists visit Victoria to find out how these people live (Melbourne Australia, 2013). As noted in the 10 year policy document, in the year 2005 in November, the Government of Victoria released its local financial strategy called: “Moving forward: Making Provincial Victoria the Best Place to Live, Work and Invest”, which consisted of $502 million of innovative development enterprises for the following four years (2006-2010). The strategy included numerous tourism-specific commitments and initiatives which are going to have a direct influence on the industry of tourism and events of Victoria state including $9.6 million for the following three years from the Aboriginal Land and Economic Development Program to develop the use of by the Aboriginal communities. The impacts to the region that will be implemented of the strategy will be evaluated and monitored over the time of the strategy in order to ensure the maximization of the benefits due to tourism to the region. This is very important as communities are one of the main reasons tourists are travelling to a place, in order to experience the community’s lifestyle and local products (Hall, and Richards, 2002). In order to determine the socio-cultural impacts by tourism in a region, it is important to understand the different types of tourists. Plog (1977) has divided the type of tourists into two main categories. The first category is Allocentrics tourists which seek environmental and cultural differences from their everyday lifestyles, they belong to the high income group of people, they are very adventurous and they are not looking for a touristic destination. The second category of tourists are the ones that Victoria state’s ten year sustainable policy wants to attract which are the psychocentric tourists. This type of tourists seeks familiar surroundings like the ones they are used to, they are not adventurous and they solely ask for a tourism orientated destination (Holden, 2005). As noted in the policy, Victoria state is aiming to attract the Chinese population because of the fact that the middle class will widen and people will be more curious to travel and experience different lifestyles (10 year policy document). In addition, Victoria State is attracting a lot of major cultural and sporting events, attracting around 230,000 international visitors every year which is the equivalent of 42% of the whole Australia and events generate per year around $1 billion which is a high economic income on the region. Victoria wants to continue attracting events and is aiming on attracting more regional events (10 year policy document).
The Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks states in the 10 year policy document that “The tourism and events industry has grown over the past years and provides a set of world class experiences to local holiday makers, overseas tourists, etc. and Victoria’s strengths are the sophistication, diversity and reputation for cosmopolitan and cultural experiences” (pp. 1). Therefore, it is important to understand the importance of sustaining the socio-cultural impacts that tourism brings to a region if Victoria State’s tourism continues growing. This is because, as De Kadt (1979) mentions, the socio-cultural impacts occur when there is contact of the host population with the visitors and if this policy is aiming on attracting thousands of visitors then they need to find a way to sustain efficiently this socio-cultural relationship of host and visitors(Fletcher, 2008).
The negatives of socio-cultural impacts of tourism that can arise to the host people of Victoria will be mentioned below. Firstly, the 10 year policy document states that “modern transport, communications and skill development infrastructure is essential for attracting tourists. The needs of the industry must therefore be considered when government plans its infrastructure investment.” The policy states that in 2005 the Government of Victoria released its local economic policy and they aim to spend $50.8 million for regional transport (10 year policy document). However, the taxes on the local residents may increase in order to meet the demand for the better infrastructure (Fletcher, 2008).
Another negative socio-cultural impact can be the use of resources. This happens when local people and businesses compete for land use and as a result there will be high demands on the land, leading to increased prices. As well, tourism industries use water and other resources used by locals as well and this can result on tensions due to the fact that in most cases, the tourism businesses have the upper hand due to the amount of money and power they have and the local people will need to comprise with these decisions (Fletcher, 2008).
There are also some positive socio-cultural impacts that are associating with tourism will be discussed below. The first positive impact that will be discussed is the fact that tourism provides shared infrastructure. When there is a tourism development in an area as in Victoria, the local infrastructure becomes better in order to meet the tourists demand (International Finance Corporation, 2000). As noted in the 10 year policy document, “infrastructure is essential for attracting tourists”. As a result, the local people can enjoy what it is built for the tourists and have a better life quality. For example, they can enjoy new restaurants and new entertainment facilities (Fletcher, 2008). The 10 year policy document mentions all the things that have already been done for the improvement of infrastructure which include: the construction of a rail and bus terminal, improving road networks and the groundbreaking of new bike trails through the whole region of Victoria state and all these can be used and enjoyed by the local community as well (10 year policy document).
Another vital positive impact that arises is the access to consistent international flights. This is because, as stated in the 10 year policy document, 70% of Victoria’s tourism growth is forecast it to come from international tourists and therefore the need to increase the amount of direct flights from Melbourne airport to Victoria was a very important decision. As a result, there is an additional 2,468 seats available (10 year policy document) and this means that local people will have access to these more often direct flights as well and they can travel more.
Another benefit to the community of Victoria is that the tourism industry provides a lot of jobs (Moyle, Weiler, and Croy, 2012). As stated in the 10 year policy document, the industry of tourism and events is a key source of occupations opportunities and the aim of this strategy is to create 66,000 new occupations by 2016 whereas in 2003/2004 the tourism industry employed 159,000 people which are equivalent to 6.6% of Victoria State’s whole workforce. As well, this will lead to a skilled workforce as they are aiming to put more emphasis on the training of the employees. In addition the policy suggests putting more emphasis on the tourism industry in schools, especially colleges as the number of employees needed is very high. Since 1999, investment in teaching in schools and training has made Victoria Australia’s leading training provider, having spent $6.2 billion since then (10 year policy document). As a result, the state will have young people ready to go into the workforce with the right skills and the right attitude to work. However, as this staff training has already begun, there are some complaints about staff not being on time and they need to become more motivated to attend the training on time. The reason for this lack of motivation is more likely on the fact that tourism employees are poorly paid. Therefore, if the pay is more, the staff will be more motivated to be on time (Cooper and Scott, 2006). (I have not added this reference on my list as Melvy is including it in her references)
As for the future of the state of Victoria having to sustain the socio-cultural impacts of tourism in cooperation with the local government they aim to widen the opportunity of the Regional Tourism Development Plans, to include more locations of investment attraction and make further infrastructure development. They are also aiming to have discussions between the Department for Victorian Communities and Department of Sustainability and Environment to seek advice on managing and determining the environmental and socio-cultural features of tourism. Finally, they will provide qualitative and quantitative data about the input of the industry to local and community development, social structure, employment, infrastructure establishing and ecological sustainability in order to evaluate their performance (10 year policy document).

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References

* Fletcher, J. (2008). The Socio-cultural Impact of Tourism, in Cooper, C., Fletcher J., Fyall, A., Gilbert, D. and Wanhill, S. Tourism Principles and Practice. 4th ed. Edinburgh: Pearson. pp. 187-209

* Hall, D. (2004). Rural Tourism Development in South-Eastern
Europe: Transition and the Search for Sustainability. International Journal of Tourism Research, 6: 165-76

* Hall, D., and Richards, G. (2002). Tourism and Sustainable Community Development. London: Routledge. pp. 2-102 [Online] GoogleScholar. Available at: < http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o3GE5jTJ02kC&dq=the+link+between+sustainable+development+and+sustainable+tourism&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s> (Accessed 22 May 2013)

* Holden, A. (2005). Tourism Studies and the Social Sciences. London: Routledge. pp. 74-75 [Online] GoogleScholar. Available at: <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YpRrJD-jQc0C&pg=PT72&dq=allocentric+and+psychocentric+tourists&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dvudUfP6PIbQ7Abi3IHICw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA> (Accessed 23 May 2013)

* International Finance Corporation. (2000). Investing in People: Sustaining Communities Through Improved Business Practice: A Community Development Resource Guide for Companies. pp.22-30[Online] World Bank Publications: Amazon. Available at: < http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kohj1eiDp1MC&pg=PA22&dq=impacts+of+infrastructure+on+local+community&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jwKeUcKNMKSO7QbYkoCYBQ&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAw> (Accessed 23 May 2013)

* Moyle, B.D., Weiler, B., and Croy, G., (2012). Visitors' Perceptions of Tourism Impacts: Bruny and Magnetic Islands, Australia. [Online] Journal of Travel research. Available at: <http://jtr.sagepub.com/content/52/3/392.full.pdf+html> (Accessed: 22 May 2013)

* Unknown. (2013). History & Heritage. Available at: < http://www.visitmelbourne.com/Activities-and-attractions/History-and-heritage.aspx> (Accessed: 22 May 2013)

10 year policy document * http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/images/stories/10yearstrat.pdf