Positive And Negative Impacts Of Tourism On The Environment

 

 

Tourism is one of the most flourishing industries in the world. Inbound tourism is seen to improve the economic development of the country while offering high potential for the creation of jobs. Outbound tourism, on the other hand, promotes good will and cross-cultural understanding of a place. Tourism has both positive and negative effects on the nation. Let us know more about them in detail.

 

Positive Economic Effects of Tourism:

 

Job creation

One of the most important benefits of tourism is creation of jobs. This industry provides countless employment opportunities to people throughout the world. As per the research done over the past few years, it was clear that tourism industry is among the top five jobs creation sectors in the world. Tourists increases flow of money into the economy. Airports, roads, shops, golf courses, restaurants, and hotels are required to be developed.

Increase revenue generation

Tourism is one of the important sectors of the country that generates a lot of revenue every year. People choose to visit tourist destination for a vacation, to organize a destination wedding, or to be a part of any mega event or cultural celebration.

Whatever be the reason, tourism industry attracts people all over the world. With “do not click photos” and “don’t throw waste” etc. we can save the nature from any harm done by the tourists.

Also, to make the tourist destination more attractive, government take on the initiative to plant more trees, water them, and maintain them to look beautiful and captivating for the tourists. In this way, tourism encourages afforestation and boost economy of the nation too.

Boosts culture development

 

Learning about the culture of different nations, is one of the reasons for tourists to visit different tourist destinations. They learn the way people dress, the festivals they celebrate, their lifestyle, their historical and cultural heritage, their cuisines, and local customs. Such sort of personal exchanges between guests and hosts foster better cultural understanding and provide immersive and authentic experiences for the guests. National parks and open spaces throughout the world are great for replenishment of soul and body.

 

Negative impact of tourism:

 

Lead to environmental destruction

Sudden and unanticipated events like political upheaval, terrorism, natural disasters and adverse weather conditions causes a havoc on any region. It badly impacts inbound tourism for a significant period of time. To build airports, hotels, pubs etc., the open space is constructed by cutting trees. Due to absence of trees and forests, animals and birds lose their shelter too. The extent of destruction caused to the environment determines the time for its recovery.

Depletion of natural resources

Another big disadvantage of tourism on environment is seen in the form of depletion of natural resources. One of the most important sources of living, i.e., water become scarce due to expansion of tourism industry. This is because tourism results in overuse of water. A simple golf course uses around 60,000 rural villagers, 1500 kgs of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers every year.

Around one billion people in the world engage in tourism every year. By the next year, this figure will increase by sixty percentage. Tourism exerts pressure on natural resources by way of over-consumption. It is mostly seen in areas where resources are scarce.

Causes Pollution

Throwing paper, bottles, food and other items into the water cause water pollution. Due to increased use of vehicles, air pollution is also caused. The natural ecological system is disturbed. Transformation of beaches into tourism destinations and depletion of homes for construction destroys and eliminates these habitats.

Such type of commercialization of land fails to provide any genuine travel experience and authentic social benefit to people. It only leads to depletion of natural resources, waste issues, and pollution.

Other loss to nature

In addition to the other destructive impacts of tourism on the country, it also leads to huge stress on the use of local land. Tourism cause soil erosion, loss of natural habitat, increased pollution, and stress on threatened species. All these impacts destroy environmental resources that forms the basis of tourism.

Change in climate

Tourism industry contributes to around five percentage of greenhouse gas emission all over the world. This along with transportation accounts to 90 percent of the emission.

How can we conserve environment from the negative effect of tourism?

One of the alternatives to the negative impact of tourism is “Eco-tourism”. Looking at the positive impact of this type of tourism, the entire world is looking forward to it. Eco-tourism is rapidly flourishing industry, that offer benefits for the economies of tourist places as well as safeguards the environment.