On the social and environmental fronts, globalization has broadened people's knowledge, created respect for indigenous cultures, contributed to the protection and conservation of historical monuments as well as the physical environments. .
One of the major problems with tourism is the way it is structured in the global economy. The industry is generally controlled by the developed West, in particular, Multinational Corporations. According to Mpofu (2009), some international companies have taken advantage of globalization to seek for new opportunities to grow their enterprises, reap the benefits of the economies of scale, increase their market share, suppress competition, and achieve global dominance. With the help of world organizations that have further liberalized global trade through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) it has been extremely easy for Multinational Corporations to invest in receiving countries. Due to GATS, MNCs are able to invest, trade and repatriate most of their earnings to their mother countries. For example, travel agencies and tour operators such as European cars are mainly subsidiaries of western TNC's and most of their earnings are repatriated abroad. Even the airlines that bring tourists to receiving countries like British airlines are from the West and the host countries get nothing from profits made by these airlines. Further, small airline companies like Air Zimbabwean and many other airlines in Africa cannot compete with these giant multinational airlines. As a result Zimbabwean airlines and other African airlines have collapsed.
Around the globe there is a general push by all countries, developed and developing to attract as many tourists as possible because the tourism industry is viewed as a major source of foreign earnings which are supposed to boost the economies of receiving countries, particularly developing countries that perceive tourism as a fast way to rapid development.
