Theory: Tourism Impacts and Challenges

Tourism has potential to impact, positive and negatively, each of these five environmental elements. Due to their placement and use of environmental resources, tourism activities have caused damage, both gradually and rapidly, to both rural and urban landscapes including:

• land use change
• energy consumption
• habitat disruption or destruction
• pressures on natural resources and wildlife
• pollution and waste
• damage to biological and built systems

Many of these impacts arise from infrastructural construction such as roads, airports resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses, and marinas. Travel and tourism providers are also now being targeted as a primary culprit of climate change. These impacts threaten the existence of the tourism activities which created them (Oriade & Evans, 2011). Subsequently, it is important to focus on the interdependence of tourism and the environment and search for methods to make their association more sustainable.

How tourism stakeholders recycle waste, utilize energy, control water usage, minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and protect natural ecosystems all contributes to environmental management. However, it is difficult to determine how much change directly results from tourism compared to natural environmental changes and resident behaviour. The precise environmental impacts and their subsequent management will vary according to each environment and there are numerous strategies (discussed further below in Week 3) to manage environmental impacts of businesses and at destinations and specific sites (UNWTO, 2011). Organized efforts to minimize negative impacts can greatly improve the chances of sustainability, a healthier and cleaner environment, and therefore a more durable and robust tourism industry. In fact, and as discussed below (section 3.4), tourism can help generate a greater appreciation for the environment, ensuring its long-term viability.