SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

TOURISM IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

TOURISM IMPACTS: What influences
Tourism Impacts?
 Where is tourism taking place? (e.g. a rural/urban location, a coastal/inland
location, a developed/developing country)
 What is the scale of tourism? (e.g. how many tourists are involved?)
 Who are the tourists? (e.g. what is their origin? Are they domestic or international
visitors? Are they from Developed or Developing countries?)
 In what type of activities do tourists engage? (e.g. are these passive/ active? Are
these consumptive of resources? Is there a high/low level of interaction with the
host population?)
 What infrastructure exists for tourism? (e.g. roads? sewage system? electricity
supply?)
 For how long has tourism been established?
 When is the tourist season? (time of year? importance of rainy/dry seasons)
FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS ABOUT TOURISM

 Tourism consumes resources and creates waste.

 Tourism has the ability to over-consume resources.
 Tourism competes with other resource users and needs
 Tourism is private sector dominated.
 Tourism is multi-faceted and is therefore almost impossible to control.
 Tourists are consumers, not anthropologists.
 Tourism is entertainment
 Unlike other industrial activities, tourism imports the clients rather than
exports a product
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
contribution to foreign exchange
earnings;
contribution to government revenues;
generation of employment;
contribution to regional development.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
Employment Generated By Tourism
1.Direct Employment – is which is generated as a result in
providing goods and services directly to the tourist.
Hotel employees
Flight attendants
Ground attendants
Travel agency
Transportation Industry
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
Employment Generated By Tourism
2. Indirect Employment -It lend support to the
direct employment.
Food suppliers
Tour wholesaler
Contract food services
Travel Publications
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
Employment Generated By Tourism
3.Induced Employment - Refers to the people working in
positions only peripherally related to tourism but
generated because of it.
Construction workers
Merchants
Professionals (Engineer, Architect, Doctor)
Real State agents etc.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
a. Foreign Exchange
 Generates income in once destination or country.
 Expenditure of tourists worldwide are the major
sources of income in economies.
 Earn much needed dollars
 Invisible export ( services, products, and
experience )
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
b. Investment
Tourism can bring investment that can stimulate the local economy. Investment serve as catalysts that encourage
spending not only from the private sector but also public sectors. .
Capital Investment – refers to tangible elements of tourism industry that include facilities, equipment and
infrastructure.
Investment Related To Tourism Industry
Restaurant
Hotel  Resort
Travel Agencies
Other Capital investment
Infrastructure
Roads/ Bridges
Communications
Terminals/ Airport
Water system
Sewerage system
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Effects:
c. Jobs And Employment Generation
 Tourism means job
 Tourism is a labor intensive industry
 Tourism promotes job
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Negative Effects:
inflation;
opportunity costs
over-dependence on tourism.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Negative Effects:
inflation;
opportunity costs
over-dependence on tourism.
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 There are impacts of tourism on people in groups, and this

includes both residents of tourism areas (such people are
usually referred to as hosts) and tourists themselves.
 It also concerned with impacts on the culture of the host
population (and also any effects on the culture of the
visitors themselves).
 The way in which culture can be used and even packaged
to promote tourism, and hence the subsequent effects this
has on culture are also topics investigated.
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Cultural attractions in relation to tourism include the following:

 handicrafts;
 language;
 traditions;
 gastronomy;
 art and music;
 history of the area/including visual reminders;
 types of work engaged in by residents;
 architecture;
 religion (including visible manifestations);
 education systems;
 dress;
 leisure activities.
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Positive Impacts
 The creation of employment;
 The revitalization of poor or non industrialized regions;
 The rebirth of local arts and crafts and traditional cultural activities;
 The revival of social and cultural life of the local population;
 The renewal of local architectural traditions; and
 The promotion of the need to conserve areas of outstanding beauty which have
aesthetic and cultural value
 In developing countries in particular, tourism can encourage greater social
mobility through changes in employment from traditional agriculture to service
industries and may result in higher wages and better job prospects.
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM

 Negative Impacts
 Overcrowding can cause stress for both tourists and residents.
 The ‘demonstration’ effect
 Acculturation
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

Tourism and International Understanding

 Tourism has become the noblest instrument of this century for achieving
international understanding. It enables contacts among people from the most
distant parts of the globe, people of various languages, race, creed, political
beliefs and economic standing. Tourism brings them together, it is
instrumental in their dialogue, it leads to personal contact in which people
can understand attitudes and beliefs which were incomprehensible to them
because they were distant. In this way it helps to bridge gaps and erase
differences. Since its focal point is man and not the economy, tourism can be
one of the most important means, especially in developing countries, of
bringing nations closer together and of maintaining good international
relations. This noble task is today more important than ever. It therefore
overshadows all other means striving for international friendship.
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

The Glasses of Prejudice

 ‘Travel in its current form hardly helps to bring people closer together and promote their mutual
understanding.The dim glasses of prejudice are never taken off. Although there are studies of the
subject, all indications are that travel, especially to countries with a totally different culture,
does not diminish prejudice but reinforces it. The other people are poor but happy. Carefree,
easy-going, and hospitable, but yes, a bit untidy, not so clean you understand, yes, even dirty
and unhygienic, certainly unreliable, lazy too, and well, not so very intelligent. Well, that’s
exactly what one had expected, it’s not surprising, that’s what Africa’s like – people say. The
image we have of other nationalities is as distorted as their image of ourselves. For the native,
the tourist’s behaviour is typical of his country. In his eyes, for example, tourists are immensely
rich and never have to work. Or because they walk around half-naked, they must come from
“cold islands”. “In the cold parts they cannot go to the beach because snow is falling and certain
parts of the beach is frozen.’ Neither the native nor the tourist knows what their respective
worlds are really like. In this way travel confirms the clichés of both host and guest.
Misunderstanding instead of understanding among peoples. At times confrontation instead of
meeting. In the worst case mutual contempt instead of esteem: tourists despise the
“underdeveloped” natives, and natives in their turn despise the unrestrained foreigners.”
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

The scope of the concept of environment

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 POSITIVE IMPACTS:
 Tourism may stimulate measures to protect the environment
and/or landscape and/or wildlife;
 Tourism can help to promote the establishment of national parks
and/or wildlife reserves;
 Tourism can promote the preservation of buildings/monuments
(this includes for example Unesco’s World Heritage Sites);
 Tourism may provide the money via, for example, entrance
charges to maintain historic buildings, heritage sites and wildlife
habitats
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 1. Conservation Of Resources Both Natural And Man-Made.

 2. Awareness And Observance Of Green Practices
 3. Protection Of Flora And Fauna And The Communities
 4. Creation Of Guidelines And Codes On Responsible Tourism
Ways To Protect And Preserve Our
Environment
 1. Volunteer
 2. Partnership
 3. Travel
 4. Spread Awareness
 5. Donate

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:

 Tourists are likely to drop litter;
 Tourism can contribute to congestion in terms of overcrowding of
people as well as traffic congestion;
 Tourism can contribute to the pollution of water courses and
beaches;
 Tourism may result in footpath erosion;
 Tourism can lead to the creation of unsightly human structures
such as buildings (e.G. Hotels) that do not fit in with vernacular
architecture;
 Tourism may lead to damage and/or disturbance to wildlife
habitats.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:

 1. Land Degradation Any change that decreases the productivity
of the land. It causes by land clearing and poor land practices and
management. Other causes of land degradation - Deforestation -
Soil Erosion by wind or water - Mining - Industrialization -
Unsustainable agricultural practices - Urban Expansion

 2. Waste Depletion
 The consumption of resource faster that it can be
replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between
renewable and non- renewable resources. Use of these forms of
resources beyond the rate of replacement is considered to be
resource or waste depletion.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:

 3. Climate Change
 a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to
human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere
and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over
comparable time periods.
 Some effects of Climate Change - Rising Sea Levels - More Heat
related illness - More animal extinctions - Rising temperature - More
worst droughts - More worst storms
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:

 4. Environmental Conflict-Pollution
 - Water ,Air, Noise and Visual pollution
 - Solid waste
 - Destruction of wildlife
 - Destruction of vegetation
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM:

 NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:

 5. Habitat Fragmentation It describes the emergence of discontinuities
in an organism’s preferred environment, causing population
fragmentation and ecosystem decay. It is the conversion of landscape to
small fractions of its former area.

 6. Congestion
 - Traffic - Difficult in space - Long queues - Over crowding

 7.Animal Species Extinction

 Extinction occurs when species are diminished because of environmental
forces. Species extinction is the permanent loss of the species to the
planet.
 ‘Balance sheet’ of environmental
Impacts of tourism