The environmental impacts of tourism have received increasing attention in recent years. With the rise of sustainable tourism and the growing number of environmental initiatives, tourists and stakeholders are now recognizing the importance of environmental management in the tourism industry.
Why the environment is so important for tourism:
First of all, the quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential for tourism. However, the relationship between tourism and the environment is complex. Certainly, many activities can have negative effects on the environment if tourism planning and poor management are not undertaken.
Most of the negative impacts of tourism on the environment are related to the construction of infrastructure. For example, you will find constructions such as roads and airports. But also, you will find tourist facilities such as seaside resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses, and marinas. In this sense, the negative impacts of tourism development can progressively destroy the environmental resources on which it depends.
Not everything is negative:
Tourism can have beneficial effects on the environment by contributing to its protection and conservation. It is a means of raising awareness of environmental values and can be used to finance the protection of natural areas and increase their economic importance.
In this article, I explained exactly how tourism can both protect and destroy the environment.
Positive impacts of tourism:
Indeed, the positive environmental impacts of tourism are not as numerous as the negative impacts. However, it is important to note that tourism CAN contribute to preserving the environment! And yes.
The most commonly observed positive environmental impact of tourism is awareness raising. Many destinations encourage ecotourism and sustainable tourism, which can help educate people about the environmental impacts of tourism. Destinations such as Costa Rica and the Gambia have fantastic ecotourism initiatives in place. Indeed, they encourage activities and resources that respect the environment. There are also many national parks, nature reserves, and conservation areas around the world that help promote the positive environmental impacts of tourism.
As a result, positive environmental impacts can also be induced by considering the environment. Tourism often cannot succeed without the environment, because it depends on it (after all, you can’t go on a beach holiday without a beach or go skiing without a mountain, right?) In many destinations, operations have been organized for tasks such as beach cleaning. All this is to preserve the destination’s aesthetics and thus satisfy tourists. Some destinations have gone further and put restrictions in place on the number of tourists who can travel there at one time.
For example, not so long ago the island of Boracay in the Philippines was closed to tourists to give it time to recover from the negative effects of large-scale tourism on the environment in recent years. Of course, this was an inconvenience for tourists who had planned to go there. In addition, it is a positive example of the environmental management of tourism. We are starting to see more and more such examples around the world.
The negative impacts of tourism:
The negative impacts of tourism on the environment occur when the level of use by visitors exceeds the capacity of the environment to cope with that use. I don’t know if I made myself understood.
In short, uncontrolled conventional tourism poses a potential threat to many natural areas around the world. In this way, it can put enormous pressure on an area and lead to impacts. These can be soil erosion, increased pollution, discharges into the sea, loss of natural habitats, increased pressure on endangered species, and increased vulnerability to forest fires.
It often puts pressure on water resources and can force local populations to compete for the use of essential resources.
Depletion of natural resources:
To continue, tourism development can put pressure on natural resources when it increases consumption in areas where resources are already scarce. Some of the most common examples include the use of water resources, land degradation, and the depletion of other local resources.
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Water resources:
The tourism industry typically overuses water resources for hotels, swimming pools, golf courses, and the personal use of water by tourists. This can lead to water shortages and the degradation of water supplies, as well as the production of a greater volume of wastewater.
In drier regions, such as the Mediterranean, the issue of water scarcity is of particular concern. Due to the hot climate and the tendency of tourists to consume more water on vacation than at home, the amount used can reach 440 liters per day. This is almost double what the inhabitants of an average Spanish town use.
Soil degradation:
Important land resources include fertile soils, forests, wetlands, and wildlife. Unfortunately, tourism generally contributes to the degradation of these resources. The increased construction of tourist facilities has increased the pressure on these resources and the scenic landscapes.
Animals are continually moved when their homes are destroyed or when they are disturbed by noise. This can lead to an increase in the number of animal deaths, for example, those killed on the road. It can also contribute to behavioral changes.
Animals:
Animals can become a nuisance by entering places they usually wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) go, such as people’s homes. It can also contribute to aggressive behaviors when animals try to protect their young or fight over food that has become scarce due to the development of tourism.
Moreover, picturesque landscapes are often destroyed by tourism. While many destinations today impose limits and restrictions on the type and style of development, many do not impose such rules. High-rise hotels and buildings that are out of harmony with the
Pollution:
Tourism can cause the same forms of pollution as any other industry: air emissions, noise pollution, solid waste, trash, sewage, oil, and chemicals. The tourism industry also contributes to forms of architectural/visual pollution.
Air pollution and noise:
Air, road, and rail transport are constantly increasing due to the growing number of tourists and their greater mobility. Tourism accounts for more than 60% of all air travel.
One study estimated that a single round-trip transatlantic flight emits almost half the CO2 emissions produced by all other sources. That is, lighting, heating, and car use,… consumed by an average person every year – that’s quite a shocking statistic!
You too can have fun thanks to the ADEME site, for example, to calculate your carbon footprint. In my opinion, you will quickly be very embarrassed to find that your emissions are MUCH higher than you assume…
Either way, air pollution from tourist transport has global impacts. All this in particular because of the CO2 emissions linked to the use of energy in transport. This can contribute to severe local air pollution. It also contributes to climate change.
Fortunately, thanks to advances in aviation technology, more environmentally friendly aircraft and fuels are being used around the world. Even if the problem is far from solved. If you want to help save the environment, the solution is to look for other means of transport and avoid flying too much.
Also, you can look for ways to offset your carbon footprint.
Noise pollution can also be a problem:
In other words, noise pollution caused by planes, cars, buses (+ snowmobiles and jet skis, etc.) can be a source of annoyance, stress and even hearing loss for humans. It is also a source of distress for wildlife and can cause animals to change their natural mode of activity. Having taught for several years at a university close to London Heathrow Airport, this subject has always piqued the interest of my students and has been a popular choice of dissertation topic.
Solid waste and litter:
In areas with a high concentration of tourist activities and attractive natural attractions, waste disposal is a serious problem. Of course, this contributes significantly to the environmental impacts of tourism.
Improper waste disposal can be a major factor in despoiling the natural environment. Rivers, scenic areas, and roadsides are places where litter is often found, ranging from plastic bottles to sewage.
Moreover, cruise tourism in the Caribbean, for example, contributes greatly to this negative impact of tourism on the environment. It is estimated that cruise ships produce more than 70,000 tonnes of waste each year.
Good to know:
It should be noted that the Caribbean region, which stretches from Florida to French Guiana, receives 63,000 ship calls each year. The fact is these generate 82,000 tonnes of waste. About 77% of all waste comes from cruise ships. On average, cruise ship passengers each produce 3.5 kilograms of waste per day, compared to 0.8 kilograms for those less well-off ashore.
While the unwritten rule is that you don’t throw litter overboard, it’s hard to enforce on the open sea. In the past, cruise ships just dumped their litter at sea. Today, fortunately, this is less often the case, but I’m sure there are still exceptions.
Solid waste and litter can degrade the physical appearance of water and shorelines and cause the death of marine animals. Just take a look at the image below. This is a photo taken of the entrails of a dead bird. Birds often mistake floating plastic for fish and eat it. They cannot digest the plastic and once their stomach is full they starve to death. This is just one sad example of the environmental impacts of tourism.
surrounding architecture or landscape contributes to a lack of aesthetic appeal.
Frequently, forests suffer the negative effects of tourism in the form of deforestation caused by firewood collection and land clearing. For example, a tourist trekking in Nepal can use four to five kilograms of wood per day!
There are also many instances of erosion, with tourists taking the same trail or skiing the same slope so frequently that it erodes the natural landscape. Sites like Machu Picchu have been forced to introduce restrictions on tourist numbers to limit the damage caused.
Development of marinas:
The construction of marinas and ports can further contribute to the negative environmental impacts of tourism. The development of marinas and breakwaters can lead to changes in currents and coastlines. These changes can have wide-ranging impacts, from temperature swings to patches of erosion on the wider ecosystem.
Physical impacts of tourism activities:
The final point worth mentioning when discussing the environmental impacts of tourism is how physical impacts can occur due to tourism activities. This includes trampling, anchoring, cruising, and diving. The more of these activities, the greater the damage caused. Naturally, this gets worse in areas of mass tourism and overtourism.
Trampling:
Tourists who repeatedly take the same trail trample the vegetation and soil, which eventually causes damage that can lead to loss of biodiversity and other impacts. This damage can be even greater when visitors frequently stray from established trails. This is the case at Machu Pichu as well as other well-known destinations and attractions, as I explained earlier in this post.
