Many Third World villagers living on exotic islands in the middle of the South Pacific or elsewhere soon realize that if they allow tourists to come visit, they can have a huge influx of wealth, goods, and greatly improve their lifestyle. However, with all good things, folks should be careful what they wish for. Those living in an island paradise might just find that all these tourists bring with them more than just money and wealth, or a so-called; higher standard of living. Let's talk about this for second shall we?
If too many tourists come to these little islands, they also end up tracking-in invasive species in their clothes, on their shoes, or often in their suitcases. It is interesting when you look at invasive species that you won't find them on certain islands, and on other islands in the same island chain you find them all over the place. This is because the tourists come to certain islands, and not to others. In fact, if you look at the charts of invasive species and how they've traveled and migrated to other civilizations, societies, and nations you can see that they typically come in as soon as tourism and trade expands to their lands.
First world nations generally have more travelers and tourists, so they tend to track-in invasive species first. Very poor cultures where wealthy tourists would not necessarily have the right accommodations, tend to get very few invasive species, and they also are not trading as much with first world nations, so they don't have the influence of wealth which helps keep them poor. Of course, when wealthy tourists of one nation go to poorer areas, they also bring back with them the diseases of the poor and downtrodden nations. Often they bring back diseases which had been eradicated in their cleaner societies in the first world.
In the case of a small island welcoming tourist dollars, they might also be welcoming invasive species which will ruin their crops, destroy their vegetation, and become a complete nuisance for all that live there. Thus, that old saying; "be careful what you wish for," rings quite true here. Cruise ships that pick up water, that is to say fresh water supplies at some of these locations also bring back with them waterborne diseases, which end up in the cruise ship's water supply.
It cuts both ways, and I suppose in the future we will have space tourism, we need to be careful what we bring back, and what we take to areas where there may be different forms of life, even if it is only on the microbial scale. Please consider all this and think on it.
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