TOURISM and

ENVIRONMENT

Positive effects of

tourism on the environment

The most important factor in favor of tourism leaving positive impacts emanates from the really fact that the environment constitutes a very essential component of tourism item.

Economic advantages to the society- flow in the form of foreign exchange earnings, direct and indirect employment opportunities have been feasible due to the development of tourism and the associated infrastructure. It also leads to improved government revenues n the form of various kinds of taxes levied on tourism activities.

Improvement and preservation of parks and cultural heritage-The tourism activities also lead to far better resource availability for the construction of infrastructure and maintenance of heritage properties and parks.

Promotes cross cultural exchanges with the tourist and resident- The population is able to understand more about every other’s culture. This leads to a greater understanding of each other.

ARDENT HOT SPRINGThe water of the Ardent Hot Spring is 40°C warm. It is heated by the volcanic activity of Mount Hibok-Hibok. There are several pools and a large recreation area.

Negative impacts of tourism on the environment.

Negative impacts of tourism can be studied into three classifications: natural built cultural environment.

For Natural EnvironmentThese effects can be summarized

into four categories namely: effects on flora and fauna,

pollution depletion of natural resources visual effects.

Effects on flora and fauna

i.            Effects due to tourism infrastructure- there has been a spread of tourist and recreation infrastructure on the ecosystem due to digging and increased extraction of local building materials causes irreversible damages to the landscape. Significant scale destruction of an ecosystem by way of vegetation removal to accommodate tourist infrastructure is a case in point.

ii.            Effects due to tourists- the vegetation cover can also be damaged due to trampling by walkers or crushing by tourists vehicles. The damages caused due to this activity may be of four sorts namely: soil erosion caused due to trampling, deforestation caused due to fuel requirement, threat to wildlife and threat to cultures.

FLORA and FAUNA

Flora and fauna refer to plant and wildlife, respectively. The indigenous plant and wildlife of a geographical region is often referred to as that region’s flora and fauna. Both are collective terms, referring to groups of plant or wildlife specific to a region or a time period. For example, the flora and fauna of a warm region may consist of tropical to warm-temperate vegetation and exotic species of birds.

Effects on pollution Water pollution occurs due to the discharge of

untreated water, inorganic and organic wastes and sewage. One of the major causes of water pollution caused by tourism industry is discharge of dumping of oil, petrol, inorganic and organic wastes by hotel units and means of water transport. In several coastal waters the source of water pollution are hotels and resorts that dump raw or inadequately treated sewage. Sewage pollution can alter the ecological balance of an region resulting in a marked decline in species diversity. Air pollution can also accompany tourism developments e.g.  from  burning of fossil fuels  for offering power and  heating, from the forms of transportation  used by tourists. Noise pollution occurs mainly due to increased traffic, water sports activities and music in restaurants and discos.

WATER POLLUTIONWater pollution is the contamination of water bodies. . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

Depletion of natural resources Increased activity and consumption might lead

to rapid depletion of renewable and non-renewable natural resources like construction material, forests, water and animal life. Tourism led deforestation and degradation are widely reported issues. Tourists demand increases the demand for fuel, demand for timber for construction and the quite short growing season add to the issue of forest degradation and deforestation. Vegetation has also been affected due to the souvenir industry in specific. Increased deforestation for wood based carvings and big scale massacre of animals for animal skins and wings has been reported in many developing countries. The presence of tourists also disturbs the predator- prey relationship causing ecological imbalance.

Depletion of natural resources

Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources.

Visual effects This can be caused due to 3 reasons namely

littering, sewage and poorly sited and constructed buildings. Littering is one of the significant causes of visual pollution at tourist destinations. Abandoned aluminum cans, oxygen bottles and foodstuff grow to be a permanent type of defacement. The issue is compounded by the use of non-biodegradable packing materials which do not decompose and blocks the drains. Visual top quality may well also be affected due to open discharge of sewage. Poorly designed, sited and constructed buildings and other tourist facilities are a well recognized consequence of significantly tourism development. Regularly delvading from the visual amenity of natural environment by blocking views

Visual effects

Unattractive and man-made visual elements of a vista, a landscape, or any other thing that a person does not feel comfortable to look at.

For Built Environment

Huge scale construction of infrastructure and tourists facilities leads to change of land use in the area, via direct loss as a result of urban expansion  or indirectly as  a consequence of changes in land values. This may well be harmful for the local ecological balance. Market force-led indiscriminate construction of tourist infrastructure leads to overstrained civic infrastructure. Facilities like water, electricity, roads and public health typically exist in accordance with the local wants. A sudden enhance in number of uses outcomes in breakdown of the system.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter and buildings to neighborhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply or energy networks. The built environment is a material, spatial and cultural product of human labor that combines physical elements and energy in forms necessary for living, working and playing.

For Cultural Environment

It is often stated that traditions in the host countries are weakened under the influence of tourism. There is frequently a loss of identity of standard cultures resulting in tourist facilities like accommodation . This loss of identity resulting from tourism typically destroys intimate, personal and friendly relationship and leads to commercialism and materialism. This result in change of system based on social and moral values to a system based on funds. Among the cultural strategies the folks develop to cope with the effects of tourism are :

resistance retreatism boundary maintenance revitalization adoption.

Resistance: Differences in wealth and lifestyle between the tourists and local residents can generate feelings of envy and resentment among the local men and women. Tourism development might result in a lot of resentment against the tourists and tourist facilities.

Retreatism: This can be total boycott of the tourist and revival of the old traditions and culture.

Boundary maintenance: This might happen at a stage of development of tourism when the advantages commence percolating to a significant section of folks and the negative effects of tourism developments are overshadowed by the positive economic gains. This method entails establishing a well defined boundary between the foreign and the local culture and presenting the local traditions to foreigners in a distinct context so that the effects of the foreigners on the local are minimized.

Revitalization: As culture is an integral component of the tourism item, sometimes the protection of conventional culture itself becomes needed to promote tourism.

Adoption: Young individuals have accepted the western moral values about sex and dress due to their contact with tourists.

However, among the five stages revitalization may not manifest itself as a distinct strategy. It may well coexist with boundary maintenance and adoption.