Category: Tourism

The growth of tourism is a threat to the environment. Discuss.

Tourism is an activity with roots that can be traced as far as people visiting the Roman baths, becoming a fashion in Europe since the 17th century. Today, tourism represents more than an activity or a fashion, it is an industry which brings great contribution or even keeps alive certain economies. In the age of cultural diversity, any country can allow the world to become familiar with their roots, traditions or beliefs. Much alike the case of natural resources, tourism is regarded mainly from one perspective, that of financial income for the hosts. In a time when technological development marks every corner of the world, the wide-spread touristic activities are enclosing the natural habitat until it reaches the confines of a windowed room, for the leisure of innumerable individuals.

            Tourism determines the need to expand over natural environment. In the field of tourism, the most important aspect is to have impeccable services, which means that enough accommodation must be provided, as well as infrastructure for access to the area as well as recreation facilities. All of these are necessary in order to keep a constant income of visitors, while ensuring that a good deal of profit is being made. For instance, accommodation facilities and recreational areas in the case of ski resorts imply massive deforestation, severely altering the trophic chain of the surrounding forest. Furthermore, the extensive paving required by infrastructure access and travel related building such as airports amount up to an alarmingly high portion of the natural habitat. These inherent, compulsory factors brought about by the progress of the tourism industry eventually end up dominating the environment and turning it into a man-made, artificial one.

            The pressure exercised by the tourism industry does not, however, resume itself to limiting and confining nature. Another grave issue is represented through the enormous resource consumption, pollution and waste that result from the millions of visitors. For instance, in the case of Cyprus, in 2009 the government has approved the touristic development of 14 golf courses. Considering the amount of drinkable water that is already scarce in the region, the annual required volume to maintain the golf-courses sums up to more than a third of the population’s need of potable water over a year. What is more, any form of transportation employed by tourism is, unavoidably, air polluting, bringing a massive contribution to the process of global warming by the means of carbon dioxide emissions. All factors considered, being one of the fastest growing industries around the world, tourism poses one of the biggest threats for the environment and for the preservation of natural habitats, causing a tendency in people to put a price-tag on everything that can be considered exotic by someone else.

            On the other hand, there are also advantages determined by touristic development because of the world-wide advertising this industry can bring to a remote area or potential investors. Therefore, tourism is beneficial because it contributes to key-areas such as raising environmental awareness, the protection and preservation of certain ecosystems and endangered species within protected natural parks. For example, in Congo, the coverage provided by tourism has led to investments to protect the mountain gorillas, one of the most endangered great ape species in the world. One other positive example is the Grupo Punta Cana resort, located in the Dominican Republic. In this case, over 10,000 hectares of natural habitat have been set aside for the preservation of biodiversity and 11 fresh-water springs are maintained for the same purpose. The resort truly combines luxury with utility, also having created a biodiversity laboratory run by the Cornell University. These facts serve but to emphasize that with the proper responsibility, care and attention to the nature which protects humanity, the environmental issues can easily be solved by means of sustainable development.            

As it is the case with most rapidly growing industries, exercising control and regulatory standards is close to impossible on a global level. The lack of environmental awareness and education has brought humanity to the paradox of wanting to travel in order to visit and appreciate a unique place on earth, while destroying it. Awareness for the ecosystem in which people live, should be a part of the common consciousness. Ethical principles should be applied to man’s relationship with his habitat, so that the few positive examples are followed, turning a strictly financial business into a life-giving one, both for people and for the Earth.