RR Tourism by Lim Jun Ren

Firstly, I agree with the writer that tourism is a great threat to the local heritage sites and it definitely affects the culture of the local people. Their lifestyles are changed and affected such that they are often uncomfortable with the government's decision on tourism development. As such, locals are not used to these new changes. When heritage sites are being torn down for tourism purposes, the value and culture within it is lost too. There is no longer a form of knowledge of their culture to be passed down to the future generations. According to the passage, historic building sites are demolished to make way for hotels in Manila, and the aim was to provide accommodation to visitors of "Historic Manila". In Singapore, the Bidadari cemetery which served Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sinhalese communities was cleared for development. The culture of these sites are gone and in the long term, locals do not follow the tradition of visiting an ancestor's tomb. As a result, the culture of locals in Singapore is lost and indirectly affects the future generation. Thus, I agree with the writer that mass tourism destroys the culture of local people.