Page 427 - Cultures and Organizations

392 IMPLICATIONS

programs showing how people live elsewhere in the world, will want their
share of the world’s wealth. Some privileged groups, informed about suf-
fering and strife elsewhere, will want to close their borders. Many authori-
tarian governments actively block foreign sources of information. Even
Google, supposed champion of free information, has closed down access to
certain sites in certain countries depending on local taboos.
In summary, communication technologies will not by themselves
reduce the need for intercultural understanding. The Internet, in particu-
lar, makes it easy for extremist groups to create their own moral circle,
removed from mainstream society and often exceedingly hostile toward it.
On the other hand, when wisely used, communication technologies may be
among the tools for intercultural learning.

Intercultural Encounters in Tourism

Tourism represents the most superficial form of intercultural encounter.
Tourists traveling in mass may spend two weeks in Morocco, Bali, or Can-
cun without gleaning anything about the local culture at all. Personnel in
the host country who work in the tourism industry will learn something
about the culture of the tourists, but their picture of the way the tourists
live at home will be highly distorted. What one group picks up from the
other group is on the level of symbols (see Figure 1.2): words, fashion
articles, music, and the like.
The economic effects of mass tourism on the host countries may or
may not be favorable. Traditional sources of income are often destroyed,
and the revenues of tourism go to governments and foreign investors, with
the consequence that the local population may suffer more than it benefi ts.
The environmental effects can be disastrous. Tourism is, from many points

of view, a mixed blessing.
Tourism can nevertheless be the starting point for more fundamental
intercultural encounters. It breaks the isolation of cultural groups and cre-
ates an awareness that there exist other people who have other ways. The
seeds planted in some minds may take root later. Some tourists start learn-
ing the language and history of the country they have visited and to which
they want to return. Hosts start learning the tourists’ languages to promote
their businesses. Personal friendships develop between the most unlikely
people in the most unlikely ways. On the basis of intercultural encounters,
the possibilities of tourism probably outweigh the disadvantages.