TOURISM'S THREE MAIN IMPACT AREAS

Negative impacts from tourism occur when the level of visitor use is greater than
the environment's ability to cope with this use within the acceptable limits of
change. Uncontrolled conventional tourism poses potential threats to many natural
areas around the world. It can put enormous pressure on an area and lead to impacts
such as soil erosion, increased pollution, discharges into the sea, natural habitat
loss, increased pressure on endangered species and heightened vulnerability to
forest fires. It often puts a strain on water resources, and it can force local
populations to compete for the use of critical resources.

DEPLETION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Tourism development can put pressure on natural resources when it increases
consumption in areas where resources are already scarce.

Water resources

Water, and especially fresh water, is one of the most critical natural resources. The
tourism industry generally overuses water resources for hotels, swimming pools,
golf courses and personal use of water by tourists. This can result in water
shortages and degradation of water supplies, as well as generating a greater volume
of waste water..

In dryer regions like the Mediterranean,

the issue of water scarcity is of particular
concern. Because of the hot climate and
the tendency of tourists to consume more
water when on holiday than they do at
home, the amount used can run up to 440
liters a day. This is almost double what
the inhabitants of an average Spanish city
use.

Golf course maintenance can also deplete fresh water resources. In recent years
golf tourism has increased in popularity and the number of golf courses has grown
rapidly. Golf courses require an enormous amount of water every day and, as with
other causes of excessive extraction of water, this can result in water scarcity. If the
water comes from wells, overpumping can cause saline intrusion into groundwater.
Golf resorts are more and more often situated in or near protected areas or areas
where resources are limited, exacerbating their impacts.

An average golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs 1500kg of chemical
fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides per year and uses as much water as 60,000 rural
villagers.
Source: Tourism Concern

Local resources

Tourism can create great pressure on local resources like energy, food, and other
raw materials that may already be in short supply. Greater extraction and transport
of these resources exacerbates the physical impacts associated with their
exploitation. Because of the seasonal character of the industry, many destinations
have ten times more inhabitants in the high season as in the low season. A high
demand is placed upon these resources to meet the high expectations tourists often
have (proper heating, hot water, etc.).

Land degradation

Important land resources include minerals, fossil fuels, fertile soil, forests, wetland
and wildlife. Increased construction of tourism and recreational facilities has
increased the pressure on these resources and on scenic landscapes. Direct impact
on natural resources, both renewable and nonrenewable, in the provision of tourist
facilities can be caused by the use of land for accommodation and other
infrastructure provision, and the use of building materials.

Forests often suffer negative impacts of tourism in the form of deforestation caused
by fuel wood collection and land clearing. For example, one trekking tourist in
Nepal - and area already suffering the effects of deforestation - can use four to five
kilograms of wood a day.

POLLUTION
Tourism can cause the same forms of pollution as any other industry: air emissions,
noise, solid waste and littering, releases of sewage, oil and chemicals, even
architectural/visual pollution.

Air pollution and noise

Transport by air, road, and rail is continuously increasing in response to the rising
numbe reported that the number of international air passengers worldwide rose
from 88 million in 1972 to 344 million in 1994. One consequence of this increase
in air transport is that tourism now accounts for more than 60% of air travel and is
therefore responsible for an important share of air emissions. One study estimated
that a single transatlantic return flight emits almost half the CO2 emissions
produced by all other sources (lighting, heating, car use, etc.) consumed by an
average person yearly. (Mayer Hillman, Town & Country Planning magazine,
September 1996. Source: MFOE ).
Transport emissions and emissions from energy production and use are linked to
acid rain, global warming and photochemical pollution. Air pollution from tourist
transportation has impacts on the global level, especially from carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions related to transportation energy use. And it can contribute to
severe local air pollution. Some of these impacts are quite specific to tourist
activities. For example, especially in very hot or cold countries, tour buses often
leave their motors running for hours while the tourists go out for an excursion
because they want to return to a comfortably air-conditioned bus.

Noise pollution from airplanes, cars, and buses, as well as recreational vehicles
such as snowmobiles and jet skis, is an ever-growing problem of modern life. In
addition to causing annoyance, stress, and even hearing loss for it humans, it causes
distress to wildlife, especially in sensitive areas. For instance, noise generated by
snowmobiles can cause animals to alter their natural activity patterns.

In winter 2000, 76,271 people entered Yellowstone National Park on snowmobiles,

outnumbering the 40,727 visitors who came in cars, 10,779 in snowcoaches and 512 on
skis. A survey of snowmobile impacts on natural sounds at Yellowstone found that
snowmobile noise could be heard 70% of the time at 11 of 13 sample sites, and 90% of the
time at 8 sites. At the Old Faithful geyser, snowmobiles could be heard 100% of the time
during the daytime period studied. Snowmobile noise drowned out even the sound of the
geyser erupting. (Source: Idahonews)

Solid waste and littering

In areas with high concentrations of tourist activities and appealing

natural attractions, waste disposal is a serious problem and
improper disposal can be a major despoiler of the natural
environment - rivers, scenic areas, and roadsides. For example,
cruise ships in the Caribbean are estimated to produce more than
70,000 tons of waste each year. Today some cruise lines are
actively working to reduce waste-related impacts. Solid waste and
littering can degrade the physical appearance of the water and
shoreline and cause the death of marine animals.

In mountain areas, trekking tourists generate a great deal of waste. Tourists on

expedition leave behind their garbage, oxygen cylinders and even camping
equipment. Such practices degrade the environment with all the detritus typical of
the developed world, in remote areas that have few garbage collection or disposal
facilities. Some trails in the Peruvian Andes and in Nepal frequently visited by
tourists have been nicknamed "Coca-Cola trail" and "Toilet paper trail".
The Wider Caribbean Region, stretching from Florida to French Guiana, receives 63,000
port calls from ships each year, and they generate 82,000 tons of garbage. About 77% of all
ship waste comes from cruise vessels. The average cruise ship carries 600 crew members
and 1,400 passengers. On average, passengers on a cruise ship each account for 3.5
kilograms of garbage daily - compared with the 0.8 kilograms each generated by the less
well-endowed folk on shore.
Source: Our Planet, UNEP magazine for environmentally sustainable development, volume 10, no. 3, 1999

Sewage

Construction of hotels, recreation and other facilities often leads to

increased sewage pollution. Wastewater has polluted seas and
lakes surrounding tourist attractions, damaging the flora and fauna.
Sewage runoff causes serious damage to coral reefs because it
stimulates the growth of algae, which cover the filter-feeding
corals, hindering their ability to survive. Changes in salinity and
siltation can have wide-ranging impacts on coastal environments.
And sewage pollution can threaten the health of humans and
animals.

Aesthetic Pollution

Often tourism fails to integrate its structures with the natural features and
indigenous architectural of the destination. Large, dominating resorts of disparate
design can look out of place in any natural environment and may clash with the
indigenous structural design.

A lack of land-use planning and building regulations in many destinations has

facilitated sprawling developments along coastlines, valleys and scenic routes. The
sprawl includes tourism facilities themselves and supporting infrastructure such as
roads, employee housing, parking, service areas, and waste disposal.

PHYSICAL IMPACTS
Attractive landscape sites, such as sandy beaches, lakes, riversides, and mountain
tops and slopes, are often transitional zones, characterized by species-rich
ecosystems. Typical physical impacts include the degradation of such ecosystems.

An ecosystem is a geographic area including all the living organisms (people,

plants, animals, and microorganisms), their physical surroundings (such as soil,
water, and air), and the natural cycles that sustain them. The ecosystems most
threatened with degradation are ecologically fragile areas such as alpine regions,
rain forests, wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs and sea grass beds. The threats to and
pressures on these ecosystems are often severe because such places are very
attractive to both tourists and developers.
In industrial countries, mass tourism and recreation are now fast overtaking the extractive
industries as the largest threat to mountain communities and environments. Since 1945,
visits to the 10 most popular mountainous national parks in the United States have
increased twelve-fold. In the European Alps, tourism now exceeds 100 million visitor-days.
Every year in the Indian Himalaya, more than 250,000 Hindu pilgrims, 25,000 trekkers,
and 75 mountaineering expeditions climb to the sacred source of the Ganges River, the
Gangotri Glacier. They deplete local forests for firewood, trample riparian vegetation, and
strew litter. Even worse, this tourism frequently induces poorly planned, land-intensive
development.
(Source: People and the Planet)

Physical impacts are caused not only by tourism-related land clearing and
construction, but by continuing tourist activities and long-term changes in local
economies and ecologies.

Physical impacts of tourism development

Construction activities and infrastructure development

The development of tourism facilities such as accommodation, water
supplies, restaurants and recreation facilities can involve sand mining, beach
and sand dune erosion, soil erosion and extensive paving. In addition, road
and airport construction can lead to land degradation and loss of wildlife
habitats and deterioration of scenery.

In Yosemite National Park (US), for instance, the number of roads and facilities
have been increased to keep pace with the growing visitor numbers and to supply
amenities, infrastructure and parking lots for all these tourists. These actions have
caused habitat loss in the park and are accompanied by various forms of pollution
including air pollution from automobile emissions; the Sierra Club has reported
"smog so thick that Yosemite Valley could not be seen from airplanes". This
occasional smog is harmful to all species and vegetation inside the Park. (Source:
Trade and Environment Database)

Deforestation and intensified or unsustainable use of land

Construction of ski resort accommodation and facilities frequently requires
clearing forested land. Coastal wetlands are often drained and filled due to
lack of more suitable sites for construction of tourism facilities and
infrastructure. These activities can cause severe disturbance and erosion of
the local ecosystem, even destruction in the long term.

Marina development Development of marinas and breakwaters can cause

changes in currents and coastlines. Furthermore, extraction of building
materials such as sand affects coral reefs, mangroves, and hinterland forests,
leading to erosion and destruction of habitats. In the Philippines and the
Maldives, dynamiting and mining of coral for resort building materials has
 damaged fragile coral reefs and depleted the fisheries that sustain local
people and attract tourists.

Overbuilding and extensive paving of shorelines can result in destruction of

habitats and disruption of land-sea connections (such as sea-turtle nesting
spots). Coral reefs are especially fragile marine ecosystems and are suffering
worldwide from reef-based tourism developments. Evidence suggests a
variety of impacts to coral result from shoreline development, increased
sediments in the water, trampling by tourists and divers, ship groundings,
pollution from sewage, overfishing, and fishing with poisons and explosives
that destroy coral habitat.

Physical impacts from tourist activities

Trampling Tourists using the same trail over and over again trample the
vegetation and soil, eventually causing damage that can lead to loss of
biodiversity and other impacts. Such damage can be even more extensive
when visitors frequently stray off established trails.

Trampling impacts on
vegetation
Breakage and bruising of stems
Reduced plant vigor
Reduced regeneration
Loss of ground cover
Change in species composition
Source: University of Idaho
Trampling impacts on soil
Loss of organic matter
Reduction in soil macro porosity
Decrease in air and water
permeability
Increase in run off
Accelerated erosion

Anchoring and other marine activities In marine areas (around coastal

waters, reefs, beach and shoreline, offshore waters, uplands and lagoons)
many tourist activities occur in or around fragile ecosystems. Anchoring,
snorkeling, sport fishing and scuba diving, yachting, and cruising are some
of the activities that can cause direct degradation of marine ecosystems such
as coral reefs, and subsequent impacts on coastal protection and fisheries.

There are 109 countries with coral reefs. In 90 of them reefs are being damaged by cruise
ship anchors and sewage, by tourists breaking off chunks of coral, and by commercial
harvesting for sale to tourists. One study of a cruise ship anchor dropped in a coral reef for
one day found an area about half the size of a football field completely destroyed, and half
again as much covered by rubble that died later. It was estimated that coral recovery would
 take fifty years.
Source: Ocean Planet

Alteration of ecosystems by tourist activities Habitat can be degraded by

tourism leisure activities. For example, wildlife viewing can bring about
stress for the animals and alter their natural behavior when tourists come too
close. Safaris and wildlife watching activities have a degrading effect on
habitat as they often are accompanied by the noise and commotion created
by tourists as they chase wild animals in their trucks and aircraft. This puts
high pressure on animal habits and behaviors and tends to bring about
behavioral changes. In some cases, as in Kenya, it has led to animals
becoming so disturbed that at times they neglect their young or fail to mate.

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ALL INCLUSIVE HOLIDAYS - SINNER OR SAINT?
Do all inclusive holidays provide a much needed break for millions of families on a tight
budget and employment for local people or deny local communities a fair share of tourism
revenues? With the all inclusive share of the UK market continuing to grow year on year, and
companies such as First Choice operating as 100 percent, all inclusive providers since 2012 in
response to customer demand, the debate continues.

The story so far

Belgian sportsman Gerard Blitz pioneered the concept of all inclusive holidays using army
surplus tents in Majorca in the 1950s. Club Med was born, and the first of their famous straw-
hut villages opened in Corfu in 1952. Its first all inclusive ski-village opened in Switzerland
five years later. 50 years on Club Med have dozens of competitors, including most well
known high street tour operators. The cheap all inclusive holiday has become the staple of
millions of holidaymakers, and the army surplus tents have been replaced by custom built
tourist resorts. As it says on the tin, the basic premise is that you pay in advance for
everything you need including all the sports, activities, kids clubs, food and drink. Tourists
have the freedom of enjoying all the facilities without carrying any money with them.

Resort in Antalya. Photo by Cristian Bortes

The issues
Blitzs concept was not only a clever piece of marketing, but a shrewd commercial concept.
Tourists who have paid for everything in advance and are accommodated in self sufficient
resorts complete with bars, restaurants and entertainment have little incentive to go
anywhere else, hire local guides, eat in local restaurants or pay entry fees to see local natural
or cultural heritage.

This means that the resort (which is usually owned by an overseas company) sequesters most
of the tourists' cash, leaving little behind in the local community who are impacted by the
presence of the resorts. Holidaymakers also use vast quantities of energy and water
(significantly more per person than local people) and create large amounts of waste, which
some feel is a high price to pay for little commercial return.
It is not surprising, then, that all inclusive resorts have picked up some well-deserved bad
press over the years, particularly for exploiting local labour and giving little back to
communities in the way of economic benefits.

Case studies
The Gambia is one of the worlds poorest countries with much of its population dependent
on subsistence agriculture. Concern in The Gambia about the growth of all inclusive holidays
led to attempts by the government to ban them, but a storm of protest from European tour
operators (and threats of reduced business) resulted in the policy being abandoned.

In the Caribbean, some local hotel workers feel the jobs provided for the local community
by all inclusive hotels are better than the alternatives on offer. However, this is often far from
the truth in the majority of cases. Beaches are sometimes reserved exclusively for tourists
fenced off and protected by security guards, with local people being denied access. Tourists
are warned about the security threat posed by local people which may or may not be true
and advised to stay in their resorts.

Hotel workers in the Canary Islands were interviewed Tourism Concern about their working
conditions. Many reported living in cramped conditions, barely earned a living wage, and
were illegally kept on temporary contracts. There is no doubt that in many cases local people
get the most menial jobs, while expatriates take the best-paid management positions.

Can all inclusives be responsible?

The temptation is to polarise and denounce all inclusives as irrevocable serial offenders
against communities and environments. Harold Goodwin, Professor of Responsible Tourism
at Manchester Metropolitan University, believes that there is a place for the all inclusive in
tourism alongside other smaller scale tourism experiences; the real challenge is to ensure we
develop them in the right places, and in ways that push responsible tourism practices forward.
Building a loyal and skilled local workforce, reducing energy costs and waste, sourcing fresh
local produce, and offering an exciting range of sensitively planned excursions are all good
for business, as well as destinations and local people and Justin Francis, founder and
managing director of Responsible Travel, believes that there is no reason why these cannot be
integrated into the all inclusive model:

An impressive all inclusive resort can provide employment for local people with a genuine
chance of progression with the right support and training into managerial roles that are
better paid. Indeed, an all inclusive resort in a developing country could employ far more
people locally than several ecolodges ever could.

Notorious for not sourcing locally, there is no reason why a responsible, sustainable all-
inclusive resort cannot support an adopt a farmer scheme, or similar sourcing delicious,
fresh, quality produce for its catering needs at a local level.

All inclusive resorts have economies of scale on their side where water and energy resources,
and waste management are concerned. Although they often host a higher number of visitors
than your average ecolodge, from a per capita perspective it is far more environmentally
friendly to manage the impact of tourists in one place using appropriate systems and
technology than it is if visitors are dispersed throughout a destination in little pockets of
temporary luxury living.
While much needs to be done to improve the wages and working conditions of local staff, all
inclusive resorts do create significant numbers of new jobs in areas with some of the highest
unemployment in the world. In some cases, these jobs can be better than those provided by
local businesses. If planned sensitively this can be taken a step further, extending to
excursions that utilise locally-owned, managed and run transport and tourism services (guides,
restaurants, craft markets, heritage attractions) which can provide opportunities for others to
access the tourist market and reap the economic benefits that tourism can bring to an area.

Sandals Negril Resort is one example of a resort which is pioneering new ways for all
inclusives to work with local communities by:

Promoting and selling tours of the community by local people

Inviting local craft vendors to sell their wares in the hotel free of cost
Promoting local artistes for nightly guest entertainment.
Conducting lessons in schools about environmental and tourism related matters
Employing qualified local persons whenever possible
Reserving summer holiday jobs for students from neighbouring areas

Local artist at Sandals Negril Resort. Photo by Gail Frederick

Our stance
Although there are exceptions, all inclusive holidays generally create limited local economic
benefits, and a large environmental footprint. However, we believe that there is considerable
scope to improve the benefits to local communities and reduce the environmental impacts of
all inclusive resorts. Slowly, this is beginning to happen.

What you can do

Consider the alternatives. Our advice to tourists is that in many (but not all) popular
destinations there are attractive locally owned hotels or self catering accommodations that are
just as cheap as all inclusives. They will enable you to discover more about the destination
and local cultures, and increase the benefits to local communities.

However, if you are considering an all inclusive, always ask your tour operator to provide
specific examples of how the resort benefits local people and minimises environmental
impacts. If theyve got nothing in writing they probably arent taking it seriously and it's time
to look elsewhere for your holiday.

- Based on: Olly Wheatcroft and Justin Francis

- The original version of this article appeared in the Travel Trade Gazette on 6th May, 2011

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