Yes. To a large extent, tourism has been a culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions. With the increasing trend towards cultural tourism, Manila, which is a city that is rich in culture due to the different colonisation by different countries, will definitely attract more t ourists to visit them.
However, not all cultures and traditions takes place all year round. For example, cultural dances and traditional festivals only take place at a certain time of each year. This means that tourists could not learn about the local culture any time they come. In order to attract more tourists and ensure that their arrivals are consistent all year round, the government have to make the culture of the locals into an ‘every day thing’. For example, certain rituals will have to be repeated every day for different timing groups of tourist. The ritual, has in turn, transformed into a ‘performance’ and the original purpose attach to the ritual is lost.
However, as contradictory as it can be, when cultures and traditions are being modified, they can be preserved for a longer period of time in a way that since it helps the government to bring in more tourist revenues. The government will then be more willing to assist and inject more funds into cultural projects which helps to retain the culture, improve the living conditions and creates the habitat for certain indigenous groups.
Unavoidably, things evolve and change over time. This applies to culture and traditions of a place as well. Perhaps, tourism might not be the only culprit but one of the culprits that cause cultures and traditions to be commodified. Technology can be another culprit. As the people get more technology-savvy, most of the information of other’s cultures and traditions can be obtained from the internet and thus, cultures and traditions can be said as being commodified as well. Since sooner or later, the culture and traditions will change, why not use it to attract tourist and earned revenue when the culture is still appreciated by most of the people?
However, as cultures and traditions are commodified, the uniqueness of each country will be gone. By then, there will be no need for tourism since there is nothing to learn and see in other countries since every place look similar.
In my opinion, I feel that not just the tourists, but the locals and in fact the government should be educated so that, traditions and cultures will not only not be commodified, instead, sustainable cultural tourism is obtainable.
Thursday, December 9, 2010, 9:54 PM