Notes

THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF TOURISM

Why the environment is so important to tourism?
- Tourism depends heavily on the quality of both natural and built environments, but its relationship with the environment is complicated. Without proper planning and management, many tourism activities can cause environmental harm. Most negative impacts come from building infrastructure like roads, airports, hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops, golf courses, and marinas—developments that can eventually damage the very resources tourism relies on. Despite being fewer, tourism can also bring positive environmental impacts, such as helping to preserve natural areas when managed responsibly.

Negative environmental impacts of tourism
- Negative environmental impacts of tourism occur when the level of visitor use is greater than the environment’s ability to cope with this use.

Depletion of natural resources
- Tourism development can put pressure on natural resources when it increases
consumption in areas where resources are already lacking. Some of the most common
noted examples include using up water resources, land degradation and the depletion of
other local resources.

Land degradation
- Important land resources include fertile soil, forests, wetlands and wildlife. Unfortunately, tourism often contributes to the degradation of said resources. Increased construction of tourism facilities has increased the pressure on these resources and on scenic landscapes.

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.

Air pollution and noise
- Tourism greatly contributes to air and noise pollution, especially through increased travel by air, road, and rail. Since tourism makes up over 60% of all air travel, its impact is significant. A study even found that one round-trip transatlantic flight releases nearly half the amount of CO₂ that an average person produces in a whole year from daily activities like heating, lighting, and driving—highlighting how impactful tourism-related travel can be.

Solid waste and littering (Garcia)
- In places with many tourists and attractive natural sites, waste disposal becomes a major issue that heavily affects the environment. When waste is not properly managed, it can significantly damage natural areas. Rivers, scenic spots, and roadsides often end up littered with garbage—ranging from plastic bottles to even sewage, making improper waste disposal a serious environmental concern.

Sewage (Gariguez)
- The construction of hotels, recreation and other facilities often leads to increased sewage pollution. Unfortunately, many destinations, particularly in the developing world, do not have strict law enrichments on sewage disposal. As a result, wastewater has polluted seas and lakes surrounding tourist attractions around the world. This damages the flora and fauna in the area and can cause serious damage to coral reefs.

Physical impacts of tourism development (Gariguez)
- Whilst the tourism industry itself has a number of negative environmental impacts. There are also a number of physical impacts that arise from the development of the tourism industry. This includes the construction of buildings, marinas, roads etc.

*Construction activities and infrastructure development (Gonzales)*
- The development of tourism facilities can involve sand mining, beach and sand dune erosion and loss of wildlife habitats. The tourist often will not see these side effects of tourism development, but they can have devastating consequences for the surrounding environment. Animals may displaced from their habitats and the noise from construction may upset them.

*Deforestation and intensified or unsustainable use of land (Gonzales)*
- Construction of ski resort accommodation and facilities frequently requires clearing
forested land.

*Marina development (Guides)*
- The building of marinas and ports can also contribute to the negative environmental
impacts of tourism. Development of marinas and breakwaters can cause changes in currents and coastlines.

*Coral reefs (Guides)*
- Coral reefs are especially fragile marine ecosystems. They suffer worldwide from
reef-based tourism developments and from tourist activity.

*Trampling (Ignacio)*
- 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

*Anchoring and other marine activities (Ignacio)*
-In marine areas many tourist activities occur in or around fragile ecosystems.

*Alteration of ecosystems by tourist activities (Labitag)*
- Habitats can be degraded by tourism leisure activities.