Mass tourism involves large numbers of tourists coming to one destination. There is usually a particular purpose and a particular type of location, such as skiing in a mountain resort, or sunbathing at a beach location. Many countries want to develop mass tourism because they believe it will bring many advantages.
Advantages of Mass Tourism:
It brings jobs, allowing people who previously survived on subsistence agriculture or day labouring to gain regular work with a reliable wage.
New infrastructure must be put in place for tourists - airports, hotels, power supplies, roads and telecommunications. These benefit the population.
Temporary construction jobs often go to local people, but they are temporary.
New leisure facilities may be open to local people.
Disadvantages of Mass Tourism:
The activity may be seasonal - skiing only happens in winter. Local people may find themselves out of work for the rest of the year.
The industry is dominated by large travel companies who sell package holidays by brochure or on the Internet.
New infrastructure may bring with it pollution and over-development;.
Lower- and middle-income customers are the target market - this type of tourism does not appeal to wealthier groups of people.
Few local employees are well paid. The higher level jobs are often taken by people from companies involved in developing the resort, who are not locals.
Investing companies are usually based in countries at further stages of development. Mass tourist resorts are increasingly in countries at lesser stages of development. Profits therefore go outside the tourist country - they do not benefit the host country.
New building developments need land. Local farmers may be tempted to sell their land to developers, or development around them makes farming the land almost impossible.
Tourists can be narrow-minded and often prefer familiar food, so much is imported rather than produced locally.
Local people may not be able to afford the new facilities put in place for tourists.