Tourist Developers In The Marine Area example essay topic

Currently, ecotourism is rapidly becoming one of the world's largest industries. According to the World Trade Organization, 600 million people traveled to see "environmental areas" in 2000, spending more than 500 billion U.S. dollars. This makes ecotourism one of the world's number one earners, ahead of automotive products, chemicals, petroleum, even food. But, what exactly is ecotourism? Ecotourism happens to be a special branch of tourism. The Conservation International defines it best saying it is "responsible travel that promotes the conservation of nature and sustains the well being of local people".

There has been dramatic growth of participation in outdoor recreation and ecotourism activities. The bad impacts of ecotourism have led to high demands and this has attracted tourist developers looking to access the environment, "answering the tourist's demands". Unfortunately, there are very few rules or regulations regarding ecotourism and its development. And because of the lack of rules tourism developers are destroying the environment. This problem can not go unnoticed. We are running out of places to ruin, and we will soon not have any where to call home.

According to Erlet Cater and Gwen Lowman, "The much needed rules and regulations must include good and environmentally sensitive, infrastructure-including airports, transport and communications networks, and sanitation and electricity supplies. But above all else, sustainable ecotourism requires careful planning". Without this planning, ecotourism is doing more harm that good. I will show how these tourist developers are putting huge strains on the environment and how the effects of this behavior will eventually leave the land with the inability to cope with the drastic changes. I believe with carefully planned ecotourism development and rules and regulations, we can make ecotourism and the environment blend simultaneously. First, the tourist developers are adding increased pressure to the limited natural resources, especially in places like islands that are already inadequately supplied.

For example, an average golf course in a tropical country, such as Thailand, needs as much water as 60,000 rural villagers. Now, that's a lot of water, just for a golf course and if this kind of water usage continues, the tourist developers are using huge portions of our water resources that really aren't necessary. The tourism developers are also putting additional pressures on all the other resources such as energy, food, and other raw materials. The tourist developers have a high demand on these resources to meet the demanding expectations that most traveling tourists have. Second, tourist developers are continuously adding all types of pollution: air, noise, solid waste and littering, releases of sewage, oil and chemicals, even architectural and visual pollution. One study estimated that a single transatlantic return flight emits almost half the CO 2 emissions produced by all other sources (lighting, heating, car use, etc.) consumed by an average person yearly.

This large amount of pollution not only has effects on the environment but it has global effects as well. Transport emissions have also been linked to acid rain, global warming and photochemical pollution. And 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, are an ever-growing problem.

In addition to causing others annoyance, stress, and possible hearing loss it most importantly causes distress to the local animals. According to Idaho News, a survey of snowmobile impacts on natural sounds at Yellowstone found that snowmobiles drowned out the sound of the Old Faithful geyser erupting and could be heard 90% of the time at eight other sites. Third, all the most desirable tourist spots such as beaches, lakes, riversides, mountain tops, etc. are all rich ecosystems. The tourist developers are coming in and threatening the degradation of ecosystems.

For instance, in the European Alps, tourism now exceeds more than 100 million visitor-days. This kind of heavy tourist traffic is permanently damaging to the ecosystems and will lead to problems such as accelerated erosion, reduced plant vigor, and changes in species composition. This type of damage is especially harmful when tourists stray off the established trail, which frequently happens. In addition, tourist activity in marine areas things like anchoring, snorkeling, sport fishing and scuba diving, yachting, and cruising are just some of the activities that can cause direct damage to the fragile marine ecosystems. Ocean Planet did a study of a cruise ship anchor dropped in coral reef for one day and 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 the coral recovery would take at least fifty years, if that coral remained undisturbed.

Also, construction damage done by the tourist developers in the marine area is very extensive. For example, extraction of building materials such as sand affects the coral, mangroves, and hinterland forests, leading to more erosion and destruction of the habitats that are supposed to attract tourists. Overbuilding and extensive paving of shorelines can disrupt the land-sea connections (such as sea-turtle nesting spots). Nevertheless, construction damage doesn't just affect marine areas but also, all the other types of building that go on in the environment. For instance, construction of ski resort accommodations and services frequently require clearing forested land. Coastal wetlands are often drained and filled due to lack of more suitable sites for building for facilities and infrastructure.

Another form of ecosystem degradation is wildlife disruption. For example, wildlife viewing can bring about stress for the animals and could potentially alter their natural behavior when tourists come too close. Safari and wildlife watching activities have a degrading effect on habitat because they are often accompanied by the noise and commotion created by tourists as they "ooh and aah", scream in excitement, or frantically snap bright pictures. The tourist developers are putting tourists in places where they are putting high pressure on the animals. The frequent tourist activity tends to bring out unusual behavioral changes. In some cases it has led to animals becoming so disturbed that at times they neglect their young, fail to mate or at worst, become violent and erratic.

All these effects are caused by tourist developers overlooking the location and potential problems of where they are putting possible tourist attractions. They are causing problems ranging from coral reef destruction to disrupting wildlife. This is why we need to create rules and regulations to stop all this destructive behavior. Letting this growing problem go unnoticed will lead to the environment's crumbling.

We have no other options when it comes to living on another planet, at least at the moment. We need to establish harsher rules and take better care of where we call home. In conclusion, now that I have explained what tourist developers are doing wrong and what they are doing to destroy our environment we can see that the effects of their behavior have been devastating. We are running out of places to ruin and resources to use up.

Someone must step up and create rules so we can protect our environment instead of destroying the earth.

Bibliography

Cater, Erlet, and Lowman, Gwen. Ecotourism-a sustainable option? New York, 1994.
Cro all, J. (1995) Preserve or Destroy: Tourism and the Environment.
London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. "Ecotourism". Online Posting. 2 February 2002.
27 January 2004.
Theobald, William. Global Tourism: the next decade. Oxford, 1994.
Wor pole, K. (1999) Driving Forces.