Tourism is one of the major sources of income for a number of countries all around the world; it not only provides the people with greater business opportunities but also circulates a lot of money in the economy thus boosting the economy of a country. Employment, foreign exchange, cultural recognition etc are some of the positive impacts of the industry on a nation state (Solarin 2014). There are a number of countries around the world that run on the basis of tourism for example, Macau, Aruba, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Austria etc. this growth is encouraged by the government as well as other authoritative bodies as it ensures a steady growth of income among the citizens. However there is a constant debate over the level of sustainability upheld by the country that concerns tourism. In this essay the argument is going to the on the basis of “Given environmental concerns, tourism in the developing world is unsustainable”. It is important to understand the term sustainability, it a balanced growth and development, where every resources are used in the way that it is balanced for the future generation. Sustainable tourism is a concept where the areas which are frequently visited by tourists are preserved in a way that the future generations can also enjoy the beauty and appreciate the grandeur of nature as well as heritage of culture (Lee and Brahmasrene 2013).
When the acceptable limits of change exceeds there is a negative impacts from tourism occur. There are a number of environmental issues that has directly been associated with tourism. Firstly, increase in pollution which is directly associated with the increase of wastage, there has been an alarming rate of increase in the level of solid wastes from the tourists, starting from non-biodegradable packages to throwing things in the water body (Solarin 2014). For example, 70,000 tons of wastes are estimated to be produced by the Caribbean cruise each year. This has a degrading impact on the water body interfering on the natural habitat of the flora and fauna of the region. Solid wastes are also found in the mountainous regions where the tourists go to trek. There are also issues and gap in garbage collection and proper disposal in such terrains. This leads to a great deal of harmful impact on the natural beauty and habitat (Sajjad et al. 2014).
Secondly some of the factors those add to the unsustainability of tourism are associated with physical impacts. Deforestation, in order to construct hotels and resorts, is a major negative impact of tourism that has led to believe in the unsustainability of the industry. Depletion of natural resources is one of the major reasons for any environmental issues such as water resource pollution, land degradation, deforestation etc. for example in Australia, over use of the land areas around the coastal regions of Queensland have given rise to the ecological imbalance leading to a depletion of the natural resources by overuse (Sajjad et al. 2014). The resources of a certain areas are limited for the people of that place when this increase it leads to an unsustainable usage and depletion. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the major tourist attractions of Australia, providing luxurious provisions for the tourists have an adverse effect on biodiversity of the area. For example, the sand dunes and the vegetation of the region are disrupted due to constructions and building of further provisions for the tourists. Another example of how tourism has caused depletion of natural resources is the construction of the ski resorts on the protected areas of the Australian Alps. Quality of water, native fauna and wildlife has been negatively impacted with the construction of the ski resorts on adjacent natural areas (Lee and Brahmasrene 2013).
There are also depletion and destruction of the cultural heritage sites, people destroy the monuments and areas where they visit by scribbling on the stones and on the walls of heritage and historical sites creating aesthetic pollution. This is not an environmental issue but it surely impacts the sustainability of the industry in a large way. When important heritage and historical artifacts are damaged or destroyed because of the tourists and tourism therefore making tourism unattainable. With more and more development and encouragement of tourism these issues in the process are also aggravating (Lee and Brahmasrene 2013).
Development of Marinas and breakwaters can have an adverse effect on the coastline and currents, interfering on the natural course of action. There are significant cases of erosion and destruction of habitat as there is extraction of building materials such as sand and coral reefs. Coral reefs and shorelines all over the world have been depleted due to an increase in the building resorts around these natural land masses (Tang 2015). As these are a part of the habitat form a number of marine lives there is also an ecological imbalance that has been create. The Great barrier reef is a major attraction in the country and pulls both domestic as well as international tourists over the years of development of tourism in the region there has been a significant threat of bleaching, this takes place due to the rise in temperature fluctuation in the salinity, increase in suspended sediments as well as degradation of the quality of water. Around US$ 640 million is generated by the tourism industry in this region of Australian, while the area has been under the threat of coral bleaching for a significant period of time (Sajjad et al. 2014).
Companies that are associated with tourism want their clients or customers to provide with the best of experiences and in the quest they do not understand the liability or responsibility that they have towards the environment or the society (Sajjad et al. 2014).
There are a number of environmental issues that the world is facing in today’s time. Tourism is also a collective human activity, people visit from one place to another in order to spend work or leisure time. Accommodation, food, transports, luxury is some of the feature of the industry and the companies are also based on these aspects. Due to some of the above stated issue that have been directly associated with tourism, development of the industry has escalated these factors to a global level (Tang 2015). Loss of biodiversity the promotion of tourism has led to the increase in the number of tourist and has led to a gain in the economy of the particular country. However, this rise has also resulted in the loss of bio diversity (Sajjad et al. 2014). The various life forms of life that are found on Earth in their natural state are referred to as biological diversity. Nature tourism is associated with biodiversity and development and popularity of the same have increased depletion. Another issue is the introduction of the non-native species in the biodiversity; this can cause a large imbalance of the natural ecosystem. Habitat alteration and fragmentation are some of the ways in which the biological diversity is negatively impacted with tourism (Sajjad et al. 2014).
Ozone layer depletion is the next issue; it is the degradation of the ozone layer in the atmosphere which is located at an altitude of 12-50 kilometers (Sajjad et al. 2014). ODSs such as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon) and halons are responsible for this layer to deplete. The services that operate in the tourism industry have a large role to play in the process. Some of the agents that produce ODSs are refrigerators, air conditioners and propellants in aerosol spray cans. These are widely used in the resorts and the hotels (Gladstone et al. 2013).
Climatic change is another major issue that has been impacted by the rise and development of tourism. Transportation and traveling also cause air pollution carbon dioxide (CO2), is generated when fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas are burned. Automobiles are a major source of CO2 generation and tourists extensively use automobiles to travel from one place to another. Prolonged exposures to harmful gases over the years have resulted in the change of climate on a global scale (Tang 2015). Tourism industry is significantly responsible for this change along with other human activities. There has been a significant rise in international tourism from 594 million in 1996 to 1.6 billion by 2020 this issue to the developing opportunities for people to travel as well as connect to other internationally; this significant rise has also impacted the environment in the ways which has been discussed above. Global warming is due to climate change and the result of global warming are some of the impacts that development of tourism has brought about in the global prospect. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is a global authoritative body that works towards conservation of nature and encouraging sustainable use of natural resources, in 1992 the organisation listed tourism to be the second major threat to protected areas (Sajjad et al. 2014).
The nature of the tourism industry is unsustainable as is discussed above and with development of the industry the factors that has been discussed above are becoming from bad to worse. However, there is also an impact of environmental on the tourism industry as well (Sajjad et al. 2014). Natural disasters are the most important environmental factors the impact tourism, for example if there is flood or storm in an area the tourism rate of the place falls drastically. Climate and weather change, many places have seasonal tourism, which means that people can choose to visit that area only in one particular time of the year and other times the weather doesn’t permit people from other areas to visit there and have a comfortable stay (Gladstone et al. 2013). The factors that are discussed above can also have an adverse effect on the industry as well if the factors leading to the issues are not checked. Issues such as Global warming may cause a number of relative impacts which may lead to fewer tourists in the area. For example: due to global warming there may be less snowfall, this can impact the ski attraction for the tourists. On the other hand temperatures have soared in the areas where there was already high temperature; this might keep the tourists away or reduce the tourism season in the areas (Gladstone et al. 2013).
The beauty of the natural existence of the tourist areas are degrading which is a threat to the industry, the degradation which is an environmental impact cannot be controlled by people; however efforts of conservation should be initiated in order to preserve the beauty (Sajjad et al. 2014).
Ecotourism is travelling responsibly and understanding the obligations that tourists as well as companies in the industry have towards the environment. The concept promotes conservation and stresses to reduce the negative impact of tourism on the environment. Promotion of sustainability depends on the awareness of the issue and measures which can be taken to mitigate in the process. Eco tourism encourages tourists and organisations to come up with strategies to ensure that there is less environments degradation. For example: cycling instead of taking a car as a mode of transport is an activity tourists can undertake in order to encourage ecotourism. Australia has a number of companies that offer ecotourism and is on the mission to improve in the impact the industry have on the environments (Tang 2015).
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded form the above discussion that development of tourism has led to unsustainable future. Environmental concerns like biological degradation, ozone layer depletion, climatic change etc are directly impacted with tourism. Luxurious provisions, hotels in exotic locations, adventure rides etc add to the global environmental concerns. With a view of offering the customers with the best experience the natural course of habitat and beauty of much tourist attraction around the world has depleted significantly. Pollution, wastage, overuse of natural resources, causing ecological imbalance etc are some of the direct impact of the industry on the environment. With development and popularity this impact has taken become evident and significant. However, this has a boomerang effect where this negative impact of the environment reduces the tourism popularity of the area as well. Therefore it can be concluded that tourism in the developing world is unsustainable.
Reference list:
Gladstone, W., Curley, B. and Shokri, M.R., 2013. Environmental impacts of tourism in the Gulf and the Red Sea. Marine pollution bulletin, 72(2), pp.375-388.
Lee, J.W. and Brahmasrene, T., 2013. Investigating the influence of tourism on economic growth and carbon emissions: Evidence from panel analysis of the European Union. Tourism Management, 38, pp.69-76.
Sajjad, F., Noreen, U. and Zaman, K., 2014. Climate change and air pollution jointly creating nightmare for tourism industry. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 21(21), pp.12403-12418.
Solarin, S.A., 2014. Tourist arrivals and macroeconomic determinants of CO2 emissions in Malaysia. Anatolia, 25(2), pp.228-241.
Tang, Z., 2015. An integrated approach to evaluating the coupling coordination between tourism and the environment. Tourism Management, 46, pp.11-19.
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