Foreign tourists must be charged higher fees than local people to
visit cultural places and historical sites. Do you agree or disagree with this
statement? Give your own opinion including relevant examples.
Levying foreign travelers
with higher entry fees at various historical sites and other places of tourist
interests has been a common trend world over. But, this has sometimes drawn
flak from the various sections who feel that this practice is unjust.
Levying higher than locals,
charges, at various locations of tourist and cultural relevance, for alien
tourists seems to be justified. The local inhabitants contribute a lot, through
taxes and other levies, a share of which also is used to maintain historical
locations. This contribution makes natives deserving candidates for special
treatment. Furthermore, whatever money governments collect from the alien
travelers is often used to cover up the deficits in maintenance of such
locations, and improve tourism infrastructure that targets foreign tourists.
Moreover, locals are the true
owners, and unofficial ambassadors of such locations. Furthermore, it is also
important to make young generation appreciate its national heritage. Creating
parity between charges paid by natives with that of aliens would defeat the
whole purpose; locals would not visit if they have to bear a heavy entry fee. Citizens
are a quick medium of carrying around the word of mouth, which can create
awareness in the world, e.g. when nationals upload pictures and write blogs
about their experiences about tourist locations, the word spreads around the
globe quickly.
However, charging alien
travelers more has some serious drawbacks since this move may be considered as
a bias towards the foreigners. This is bound to dissuade many travelers from visiting
these locations who would be unwilling to pay exorbitant fee. It may also
become difficult for travelers hailing from poor countries to afford visit to
these destinations due to unfavorable exchange rates.
Hence, I feel imposing higher
charges on entry of aliens visitors at tourist locations is fully justified, and the contra view lacks substance since no parallels can be drawn between locals and foreigners.