Tourism

The Impacts of Tourism

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world, involving complex relationships between regions, industries, and the environment at the local, national and global scale. All tourism causes impacts and they can be both positive and negative. Improvements in technology and transportation have caused tourist numbers to increase significantly in a short period of time. This has been beneficial to many countries, because of the creation of new markets, employment opportunities for local workers and the revenue generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists. Conversely, many of these economic benefits accompanied with mass travel negatively impact local ecosystems and natural resources. To determine how tourism affects the environment, and if these impacts occur in isolation, this paper will examine different tourist destinations. Although the focus of this analysis will be at the local and national level, the global impacts of the tourism industry will also be examined.

Local Impacts

All forms of tourism and mass travel impact the environment and every tourist activity, to some degree, depends on natural resources. Tourism increases the pressure placed on the availability of natural resources within a host community. This can create an unequal distribution between local residents and tourists as resources are consumed more rapidly in resorts and hotels. For example, a hotel guest in the Mediterranean on average consumes more than five times the amount of water as a local resident per day. Additionally, many resorts use water to maintain golf courses, or for use in artificial snow generators. These activities place enormous pressure on fresh water supplies, as seen in Thailand, golf course maintenance requires approximately 3,000 cubic metres of water for each course per day. Since resorts in Thailand also require water for showering, lawn care, and swimming pools, the tourists are depleting the local water resources faster than the host community.

In addition to over-consumption and resource exploitation, many tourist activities negatively impact the environment and natural resources in the form of pollution. The chemicals used to maintain golf courses at many resorts have been linked to the contamination of groundwater. Furthermore, local water reserves can become polluted from waste disposal and sewage treatment. This occurs primarily from poor infrastructure, litter, and oil spillage caused by marine traffic. Aside from the visually unappealing affect that litter can have on an area, many streams and lakes near campsites and hiking trails become polluted because of the improper disposal of waste. Tourists also put additional strain on local infrastructures. This can create serious problems for host communities if, for example, poorly designed or aging sewer systems become overloaded due to the high volume of tourists. Such is the case in Jamaica, where sewage discharge has killed coral reefs causing shoreline erosion to rapidly increase. Additionally, numerous beaches are losing their appeal because the waste matter is promoting seaweed growth.

Conversely, an increase in tourists can be beneficial to the built environment in a host community. The prospect of generating new or more income may cause governments to restore or improve infrastructure, recreational facilities, communication systems, and urban areas. For example, as stated in Tourism and the Environment: A Sustainable Relationship?, the tourism industry in the Negril village triggered the government to provide piped water, electricity, and fire stations. While government spending on infrastructure, social programs and facilities does improve the quality of life, an increased number of tourists visiting an area can create more problems than they fix.

Tourism related activities can destroy a stable ecosystem that, in most cases, has taken thousands of years to develop and evolve. Agricultural lands, forests and wildlife habitats are clear-cut and paved over for the construction of resorts and hotels. Additionally, dust and loud noise created during the construction process causes disturbance and damage to wildlife habitats. Vegetation is also damaged by the trampling of vehicles and humans or removed for tourism development. Since the components of an ecosystem are connected, the ecological balance of an area is threatened by tourism activities and development. The European Alps provide an example of tourism's destructive potential. Large areas of forest and vegetation were replaced by tourist facilities and skiing equipment. The removal of the trees and vegetation increased the frequency of floods, avalanches, landslides, and soil erosion. This greatly affected the local ecosystems and the increase of avalanches has caused tourists to be regularly evacuated during times of high risk.

All forms of tourism affect the environment, and impacts on one element of the environment may indirectly impact another element. An example of this 'domino effect' is given in the attached figure 5:1 from the book Tourism Geography, which illustrates how trampling at tourist sites can indirectly impact an entire ecosystem. Since tourist destinations are dependent upon the natural environment, the destruction or depletion of these resources will ultimately produce an unsustainable industry.

Global Impacts

Although significant numbers of people travel within their own country, international travel makes up the bulk of the tourism industry. The environmental