Tourism is sustainable when it
can last in an area for a long time without damaging it. Sustainable is
synonymous with “eco-friendly.”
When we talk
about sustainability, we have to consider three “pillars”: environmental,
economic, and socio-cultural. Tourism has to be sustainable in all three areas.
Environmental
sustainability
The environment
is really important for tourism. The natural environment and the built
environment must be preserved for an area to be sustainable. Environmental
sustainability means preserve an area for future generations.
Socio-cultural
Sustainability
When tourists
start visiting an area, there are some social and cultural impacts on the host
community. Local people may see increase in congestion and overcrowding in
towns and cities, maybe an increase in crime, the introduction of new languages
and values, and even an influx of migrant workers. Socio-cultural
sustainability means minimizing these negative impacts and focusing on more
positive ones, like promoting cultural exchange and preserving local
traditions.
Economic
Sustainability
Economic
sustainability means keeping the money local. A hotel or company owned and
operated by a foreigner doesn’t contribute much to the local economy.
“Unsustainable”
tourism might be okay from the point of view of the tourist, but it’s
improbable to help or gain support from the host community: at the end of the
day, everyone involved should be benefiting from it in one way or another.
Despite the slow
but constant increase in the number of enterprises claiming to be responsible
or green, the current system of mass international tourism is totally
unsustainable.
Mass Tourism vs
Developing Countries
In the top 20
favourite long-range tourist destinations there are 14 which are in developing
countries but their infrastructures are generally more breakable than the others
destinations already developed.
Some problems
can arise when travellers keep their normal habits in places that simply can’t
accommodate them.
The quantity of
water that one tourist in one day uses is the same of the quantity of water
that a villager use in a period of 100 days.
In the end this
excessive use of water will be weighing on poor regions, which leave locals fighting
to find clean water just for their vital needs.
How does mass travel affect the environment?
Tour companies, airlines, and
other providers try to encourage large number of tourists to visit handful of
selected places but consequently
locals lose their unique cultural identities.
Then the mass can influence
the degradation or maybe even the destruction of famous sites or fragile
ecosystems.
In addition, one of the main
contributors are greenhouse gasses (5% for tourism industry) which cause the
change of the climate.
-RESPONSIBLE
TRAVEL REPORT.COM
Have a look at these cases of touristic
“unsustainability”
The Situation Of Coastal Areas
The coastal areas are inclusive areas between the sea
and the land, with a great variety of animals and plants among the most fragile
of the planet. At the same time, coasts are consequently damaged by the fast
urbanization. More than half of today’s world population live in coastal areas
and this number is increasing. In addition to it coastal areas are those which
are most visited by tourists and in many coastal areas tourism presents the
most important economic activity.
How Does Tourism Damage Coastal
Environment?
Massive influxes of tourists, often to a small
area, have a huge impact. They add to the pollution, waste, and water needs of
the local population, putting local infrastructure and habitats under
enormous pressure. A development that has turned out to be a severe problem for
many coastal areas in
the last decade is the increase in cruise ship tourism.
HYSTORICAL
PLACES BEING DESTROYED BY TOURISTS
Unfortunately tourism can also
become a bad thing when tourists aren’t respectful to places they visit. In
fact, several historical places have been ruined by tourists.
Here’s a top 10
from the less to the most destroyed.
Tourists are lucky
to have full access to some of the oldest sites in the world and not only, it
preserves important pieces of our essential identity, that’s why should we
care!
Links:
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento