Why Do You Think Tourism Is Killing The Welsh Language

Over the years tourisms effect on Wales has been argued, in particular its effect on the Welsh language. It is suggested that the tourism industry is killing the welsh language. However this paper, will argue that tourism actually supports the healthy wroth of the Welsh language and the education of the future, because without this the Welsh language may just become another statistic and part of ancient history.

In preparation for this paper, it is vital that the history of the language is examined and it is understood where it came from. The Welsh Language is the oldest in Europe it is shown that the Welsh language dates back to the 7th century (Gwynedd Council, 2015) making it the oldest attested native language in Europe. The Welsh language

(Anon., 2015) This definitely supports the idea that early people of Wales were intrigued to find out about their language therefore were keen to promote it to the local people. A more up to date example is the poet and writer, Dylan Thomas. His work is known throughout Wales and the wider world due to his beautiful poems and writings. An example of his work which helps promote the welsh language and in turn educate the younger generations of its beauty and culture is the play ‘Under milk Wood.’ There are two main reasons why tourists have not recognised the language. First, the visitors who come to Wales are not aware that Welsh is spoken more than is portrayed within the media. According to Baker (1985. 168) “the preferred notion of Welsh culture is a whole way of life.” Also, as a tourist entering Wales for the first time, they are often surprised that most of the signs are bilingual. This also includes banking and legal documentation. Having the Welsh language on such a large scale shows a divide between Wales and the rest of the United

The most harmful effect by far is the way in tourism encourages in-migration. The definition of in-migration is to move or settle into a different areas of one’s country or home territory (Harper, 2010). “From July 2012 to June 2013, 463,000 international immigrants have arrived in Wales.” Nash (2014) describes large amounts of immigrants that have come to Wales to live here and start their own life and business in Wales compared to where they were originally. According to Philips (2014) respondents welcomed the economic and employment benefits of tourism, but also had strong reservations regarding the social and cultural disadvantages. This sadly affects the tourism sector because this sector highly depends on the social and cultural advantages not