Text 22A4-II

Over the past few years, Peruvian authorities have tried to find ways to manage increasing visitor numbers to the popular site which often had long lines and overcrowding, leaving many tourists unable to enter. Machu Picchu was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 1983 and is described by the awarding body as probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height. It added its giant walls, terraces, and ramps “seem as if they have been cut naturally” into the continuous rock escarpments. The citadel, 130 km from Cusco, was built in the 15t^h as a religious sanctuary for the Incas at an altitude of 2,490 meters.

However, UNESCO also highlighted the challenges faced by the site, which it says requires more stringent management. “Tourism itself represents a double-edged sword by providing economic benefits but also by resulting in major cultural and ecological impacts,” said UNESCO. “The strongly increasing number of visitors to the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu must be matched by an adequate management regulating access, diversifying the offer, and efforts to fully understand and minimize impacts. A larger appropriate and increasing share of the significant tourism revenues could be reinvested in planning and management.”.

Internet: <https://www.thenationalnews.com> (adapted).

Text 22A4-II

Over the past few years, Peruvian authorities have tried to find ways to manage increasing visitor numbers to the popular site which often had long lines and overcrowding, leaving many tourists unable to enter. Machu Picchu was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 1983 and is described by the awarding body as probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height. It added its giant walls, terraces, and ramps “seem as if they have been cut naturally” into the continuous rock escarpments. The citadel, 130 km from Cusco, was built in the 15t^h as a religious sanctuary for the Incas at an altitude of 2,490 meters.

However, UNESCO also highlighted the challenges faced by the site, which it says requires more stringent management. “Tourism itself represents a double-edged sword by providing economic benefits but also by resulting in major cultural and ecological impacts,” said UNESCO. “The strongly increasing number of visitors to the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu must be matched by an adequate management regulating access, diversifying the offer, and efforts to fully understand and minimize impacts. A larger appropriate and increasing share of the significant tourism revenues could be reinvested in planning and management.”.

Internet: <https://www.thenationalnews.com> (adapted).

Text 22A4-I

Tourism cannot be treated in isolation since it embodies all tourism practices in the system they operate in. Thus, tourism is a complex sociocultural, economic, and political phenomenon that touches all levels of society. The investigation of tourism’s role in society, the tourism system’s effects on nature, tourism spaces, objects, practices, relationships, and tourist typologies demand systematic sociological investigations. It is important to consider the whole macro system through its members’ social, political, cultural, and economic interactions. In such a social context, both human and nonhuman actors continuously shape and reshape the tourism system, and the tourism system reshapes these actors’ values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Researchers examining the sociology of tourism departed from several theoretical perspectives, blended theory and method, and focused on sociological concepts to understand and explain the different aspects of tourism. This group of scholars has been working within the several cores of sociology (like education, family, economy, development, religion, gender, language, migration, social inequalities, labor, and art) and at the margins of emerging interdisciplinary formations, including those crossing many disciplines such as geography, anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, marketing, communication, women’s studies, history, and cultural studies. The sociology of tourism studies engendered transdisciplinary conversations both in academia and in practice, and the results of these studies have created pragmatic changes in tourism practices, habits, and governance.

Internet: <https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com> (adapted).