Tourism helps promote a country’s or a region’s culture. At the same time, there is concern about its negative effects on the preservation of local cultures. For a local culture, do the disadvantages of tourism outweigh the advantages?

International inbound travel is often hailed as a lifeline for cultural patrimony, yet it can be a double-edged sword: what sustains traditions financially may, if mishandled, hollow them out. In my view, for many locales with limited carrying capacity and weak safeguards, the cultural downsides of the visitor economy can outweigh its gains—though targeted governance can still tilt the balance. One of the most compelling benefits is that the travel trade can provide much-needed funding for preservation. Gate receipts from museums, sacred sites and festivals—when ring-fenced—underwrite conservation, apprenticeships, and even language revitalisation. Holidaymakers who seek authentic, community-led experiences not only gain first-hand insight into distinctive lifeways but

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help keep them viable as living traditions rather than museum pieces. In Bali,

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, the rise of cultural itineraries has created stable livelihoods for performers and artisans,

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revenues from temple admissions have financed restoration and archival work. In short, when visitor spending flows through local hands, it can pay dividends for both tangible and intangible heritage. Despite these upsides, the cultural risks are substantial. Commodification frequently breeds “staged authenticity”: rituals are shortened, costumes standardised and narratives sanitised to fit outsider expectations, turning nuanced practices into an airbrushed pastiche. The demonstration effect compounds

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shift, as younger residents emulate tourists’ tastes and status markers, gradually displacing customary norms. At the neighbourhood level, the influx of holiday rentals and souvenir outlets can trigger creeping gentrification; custodians of tradition are priced out or recast as performers on demand. In these scenarios, culture becomes a backdrop for consumption at the expense of its meaning and community control. None of

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is inevitable—but the villain is in the design of governance. Caps and timed ticketing protect sacred calendars; benefit-sharing agreements and cultural IP safeguards preserve agency; differential pricing and heritage levies internalise conservation costs; and community-owned enterprises ensure profits circulate locally. Where

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guardrails are enforced, destinations can strike a balance: the visitor economy supports—not supplants—identity. Absent them, the disadvantages for local culture outweigh the advantages.