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THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
OF TOURISM
CONTENTS
- Introduction 144
- The environmental effects of tourism 145
- Public-sector planning for control and conservation 164
- The public-/private-sector interface in the development of sustainable tourism 167
- Summary 169
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
- understand the various ways in which tourism can impact on the environment
- identify and evaluate different approaches to finding solutions to the problems caused by these impacts
- understand the importance of sustainable tourism as it relates to the environment
- recognise how appropriate planning and cooperation between the private and public sectors can help to ensure sustainability.
144 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS The projected sustained growth of the tourism industry will pres- ent serious challenges to environmental protection. In general, the tourism industry produces adverse environmental impacts through its consumption of resources, the pollution and waste generated by the development of tourism infrastructure and facilities, transportation and tourist activities. In the absence of proper planning and management, tourism development can create strong competition for the use of land between tourism and other competing uses, leading to rising prices for land and increased pressure to build on agricultural land. (WTO, 1999: 10)
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we explore tourism’s impacts on the environment and consider the grow- ing awareness of the need to become more sustainable. While the obvious focus will be on how tourism affects the environment at popular tourist destinations, we need to be aware at the same time that the rise in global tourism has environmental impacts that go far beyond those destinations alone. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that tourism is a major contributor to the despoliation of the environment, notably as a result of transport’s contribution to pollution, whether by air, sea or on land. As tourism expands, so new destinations are put at risk; and twenty-first-century tourists are tending to seek out ever more remote areas of the globe.
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Tourism in Antarctica
The Antarctic continent has become a regular target for mass tourism, with cruise ships that can carry up to 600 passengers visiting the peninsula on a regular basis and passenger- carrying ice-breakers calling as far south as Scott’s and Shackleton’s bases. Annual figures for visitors to Antarctica were a mere 6704 in 1992, rising to 12,109 in 2001 and peaking in 2007 at just over 45,000. The following seasons saw levels fall to around 35,000 annually but numbers have grown rapidly in the past five years to exceed 50,000 (Table 6.1). While some visitors only fly over the continent – often taking a flight to reach the South Pole itself – the majority (between 75% and 85% of all visitors) land in order to take part in some form of sightseeing or adventure activity, which may include seal and penguin watching, overnight camping, cross-country skiing or kayaking. The popularity of the huge penguin colonies (perhaps partly attributable to the film March of the Penguins) has meant that some of the colonies are receiving as many as three visits every day, impacting on the birds’ behaviour and breeding patterns. There have also been a number of issues with the vessels themselves. In 2007, the MS NordKapp was involved in a minor accident, and later that year 150 passengers and crew were airlifted from the MV Explorer before it sank in the Antarctic Ocean after hitting an iceberg. In 2009, the Ocean Nova ran aground off the coast of Antarctica, with 65 passengers evacuated “ ”
146 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS of all man-made CO2 emissions. The total emission from aviation worldwide is roughly equivalent to that produced by the whole of Germany. One EU study in 2004 claimed that air travel was responsible for 9% of all global warming, while an article three years later (Gössling and Peeters, 2007) asserted that for European residents, air travel accounted for less than 20% of trips but almost 80% of the greenhouse gases released by tourism-related transport. Emissions are made worse by con- gestion that leads to stacking over airports and the resultant fuel waste, a problem that is likely to grow as air corridors become more crowded. The rapid expansion of the low-cost airlines, operating on short-haul routes, accounts for a sizeable increase in pollution figures, given that one-fifth of a short-haul aircraft’s fuel load is burnt in take-off and landing. Yet in spite of the clear threat to world health, aviation fuel remains largely untaxed. Fuel taxation was ruled out at the 1944 Chicago Convention in order to boost the post- war airline industry, and even VAT has not yet been applied to airline tickets, in spite of protests from environmentalists. Aviation is specifically exempted from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. There has been some success in encouraging the airline industry to take greater responsibility for the pollution created. After years of negotiations, an international agreement has been reached that seeks carbon-neutral aviation growth in the 2020s. This would be achieved through offset activities such as tree planting to soak up the CO2. It would also require airlines to purchase offsets if allowances are exceeded. Interestingly, the growth of high-speed rail routes across Europe in recent years has led more business travellers to switch from air to train travel, as companies begin to monitor (and offset) their carbon impact. Other forms of tourism transport make their own contributions to pollution. More than 400 passenger ships now ply world cruise routes, carrying in excess of 28 million passengers each year. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that, apart from the daily fuel burn, an average cruise ship with 3000 passengers generates some 21,000 gallons of sewage each day – not all of it properly disposed of. Indeed, several leading cruise companies have been prosecuted in recent years for pollution of the seas and rigging instruments to deceive inspections. Waterborne vessels of all kinds, whether on the high seas or on inland rivers, lakes and canals, by cleaning out their tanks or dumping waste overboard, significantly contribute to water pollution, which, in turn, impacts on aquatic wildlife. Even without such illicit dumping, the sheer number of cruise vessels plying popular waterways such as the Caribbean poses a threat through leakages and congestion at key ports. Bermuda is one of several islands now imposing restrictions on the number of cruise ship visits permitted each year.
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Cruise ship emissions
The expanding demand for cruises has seen expansion in both number and size of ships to serve these markets, and in consequence this sector of the industry is causing ever greater levels of environmental pollution. Maritime fuel is one of the dirtiest and most polluting of all diesels, churned out both at sea and when berthed. While in port and close to US and some European coasts, ships are required to burn low-sulphur fuel; newer ships now include pollution control equipment to further reduce emissions. Despite this, marine pollution analysts in Germany estimate that a large cruise ship burns 150 tonnes of fuel a day and emits more sulphur than several million cars. Sources: McVeigh, 2017; Vidal, 2016
ThE ENvIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM 147 Inland waterways are, if anything, even more fragile and endangered than coastal waters as a result of excessive use by waterborne leisure transport, whether private or public. Apart from the danger of pollution caused by fuel or oil leaks in rivers, lakes and canals, unless strict speed limits are enforced, riverbanks may be damaged or undermined by the wash from passing boats, causing soil erosion and endangering wildlife.
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Venice
Venice, with its network of canals, receives up to 20 million visitors every year (Kington, 2009). Most are transported by water during their stay and gondola trips are an expensive but popular form of excursion. The city is slowly sinking, and its paved areas are subject to frequent flooding. As public transport on the canals is largely motorised, the wash from these vessels is contributing to undermining the foundations of many historic buildings. The Italian government has given Venice the power to limit motorised transport, introduce speed limits and tolls on tourist boats and establish ‘blue zones’ where transport is limited to gondolas and rowing boats. It is estimated that 70% of the tourists are day trippers, arriving by bus, car, train and, increasingly, cruise ship. A ban on cruise ships travelling through the lagoon close to the city was overturned in 2014 but the cruise industry has agreed to voluntary restrictions that will keep the very largest of vessels away from this fragile area. However, with 650 ships and 1.8 million passengers passing though the city every year, the environmental impact remains significant. Finally, account must also be taken of the impact of the many millions of motorists using private and hire cars for their holidays and short breaks. While congestion is the more visible problem arising from the expansion in the numbers of vehicles at popular tourism destinations, pollution resulting from the concentration of exhaust gases in both city and rural tourist destinations can seriously affect the health of tourists and residents alike. The uncontrolled expansion of private vehicles in key tourist cities such as Bangkok can so adversely affect the visitor experience that it threatens to discourage visitors from either travelling there or staying in the city. A significant proportion of the petrol purchased all over the world is for leisure pur- poses, whether for touring or day trips; and in some regions the exhaust fumes from these vehicles, when added to those from local traffic, can damage the clean air that is the prime attraction for tourists. This is particularly true of mountainous destinations, where not only touristic appeal but also even plant and animal life can be adversely affected. Some popu- lar mountain resorts, such as Zermatt in Switzerland, have banned non-residential private vehicles from the town, requiring tourists to use park and ride services or rack-and-pinion railways into the resort. The latter provide a picturesque additional attraction to visitors staying there. The popularity of off-roading with sports utility vehicles (SUVs) is also damaging to the environment in sensitive areas of the world. This sport is popular among American tourists, and some wilderness areas are now under threat, particularly in Utah. Moab, south-east of Salt Lake City, has attracted significant numbers of such vehicles, as have sand dunes in several parts of the world, where these vehicles can destroy sparse scrubland and erode the landscape.
ThE ENvIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM 149 The physical pollution of popular destinations poses a growing threat for global tourism. Perhaps the most widespread example is seen in coastal resorts, where beach and offshore water contamination is visible and, in some cases, can be life-threatening to bathers. Across the EU water quality varies, although there have been efforts to encourage improvements across the region. Around 85% of bathing water sites have achieved an ‘excellent’ rating, with Luxembourg sites achieving 100% at this level, while at the other end of the spectrum only 44.2% of Bulgarian sites have received this rating. Italy, France and Spain have the highest total percentage of sites earning a ‘poor’ quality rating.
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Clean water in Europe
The European Union annually reports the quality of bathing waters, both coastal and inland, within the region. Each year, samples of water are taken and countries monitor concentrations of two microbiological factors – intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli (also known as E.coli). Figure 6. shows the percentage of bathing waters meeting excellent standards for each European country. 100
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0 20 40 60 80 100 Luxembourg Cyprus Austria Germany Italy Belgium Finland Lithuania France Netherlands Hungary Estonia Slovakia Romania Excellent quality % Excellent quality % FIGURE 6.1 Bathing water quality Source: European Environment Agency (EEA), 2018
150 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS Beaches in the UK are monitored in several ways. Key certification is in the hands of the environmental charity ‘Keep Britain Tidy’, awarding blue flags to beaches and bathing water satisfying certain minimal criteria, including water purity and freedom from litter and other pollutants on the beaches themselves. More criteria are applied to beaches qualifying as resorts rather than rural, but both require the beaches to meet at least the mandatory standards of bathing water applied in the EU. The Blue Flag campaign operates in some 45 countries in Europe, Japan, Africa, North and South America and the Caribbean. In 2018, more than 4500 beaches and marinas achieved this award.
VISUAL POLLUTION
Environmental pollution is as much aesthetic as physical. An area of scenic beauty attracts greater numbers of tourists, so more and more of the natural landscape is lost to development, the countryside retreating because of the growth in hotels and other amenities that spring up to cater for tourists’ needs. The eventual result is that the site is no longer seen as ‘scenic’ and the tourists move on to find somewhere more tranquil as well as beautiful. Similarly, without careful control, stately homes that try to meet the needs of visitors provide an ever-expanding range of facilities, such as larger car parks, cafés, shops, directional signposts and toilet facilities, all of which detract from the appeal of the main attraction. Extreme examples of despoliation of the scenery by signposting are readily found in the USA where both countryside and towns can be destroyed by directional signs and advertising hoardings (however, some might argue that, at night, the forest of illuminated signs in towns like Reno and Las Vegas are very much part of the attraction of the resort). Another aesthetic form of visual pollution is illustrated by the frequent insensitivity in the design of tourist buildings. Lack of planning control is often to blame, as developers prefer to build cheaply, resulting in high-rise hotels lacking character and being out of keeping with the surrounding architecture. In seaside resorts around the world, the concrete skyscraper hotel has become the norm. From Waikiki in Hawaii to Benidorm in Spain, tourists are confronted with architecture that owes nothing to the culture or traditions of the country in which it is found. Some far-seeing authorities have recognised the potential for this kind of damage and brought in controls to limit it. In some cases, this has led to an insistence that hotels be built using local materials or conform to the vernacular architecture; that is, styles indigenous to the region. Others require that buildings do not exceed a certain height. For example, Tunisia established development regulations which required that new hotel developments in tourist resorts should be no higher than the normal height of the palm trees that surround them. Similarly, the tourism development framework for Oman sets limits on the height of tourism construction in seaside and mountain resorts. Mauritius imposes constraints on both the architectural style and the materials employed in hotel building. While some critics have questioned the rather ‘staged’ results, with thatched cottages vaguely resembling African kraals, no one doubts the appeal these accommodation units have for tourists. Such legislation clearly must apply to all buildings, not just those for tourism.
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Visual pollution damaging to tourism in Cyprus
The Larnaca Tourism Board announced that it was having some success in reducing the visual pollution caused by ugly advertising hoardings. The city’s strategic tourism plan, which
152 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS human waste is buried. The authorities are being encouraged to build more permanent composting toilets in frequented areas, using the twin vault principle – each vault being used in alternate years to allow waste to decompose. Nutrients from composted waste can then be used to encourage rapid growth of willow trees, providing a much-needed source of timber for local villagers. Graffiti has become a common problem in the Western world, with thoughtless tourists desecrating ancient monuments with spray-painted, scratched and even chiselled mes- sages. This, of course, is no new development: the Romans were chiselling their names on Greek monuments 2000 years ago. The sheer scale of modern tourism, however, has forced authorities to take action. In extreme cases this had led to denial of access, as in the case of Stonehenge, where visitors are no longer permitted to walk among the stones themselves, but must be content to view them from a distance.
PROBLEMS OF CONGESTION AND EROSION
Perhaps the most self-evident problem created by mass tourism is that of congestion. In the previous chapter, we considered some of the social implications of overcrowding for tourists and, in this chapter, we will be equally concerned with the effects of overcrowd- ing, in particular on the natural environment. Awareness that the number of tourists in an area was finite led to a consideration of carrying capacities – the number of people an area can hold before the impacts caused are beyond recovery. Extensive academic research has explored the concept of overcrowding, especially within recreational settings, and, as a consequence, planning frameworks take into consideration the concept of the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC). Stankey et al. (1985), in their introduction to the approach, commented that the LAC is a reformulation of the carrying capacity concept, emphasis- ing the conditions desired in an area rather than the total use an area can tolerate. While there has been much criticism highlighting difficulties with the implementation of such an approach, its conceptual ideas have underpinned much of the protection that has occurred since (McCool and Lime, 2001). Carrying capacity Congestion is a complex problem because it exists at both a psychological and a physical level. The latter is more easily measured, in terms of the capacity of an area to absorb tourists. Car parks, streets, beaches, ski slopes, cathedrals and similar features all have a finite limit to the number of tourists that they can accommodate at any given time. Theoretically, this is also true of entire regions and countries, although defining the tourist capacity of a city or country has seldom been attempted. Most national tourist offices continue to develop policies aimed at creating an ever-expanding influx of tourists year on year, with little consideration for the ability of the areas to absorb those numbers, although some efforts may be made to divert these influxes to off-peak periods or to less crowded areas of the country. At the urban level, a few cities under extreme pressure, such as Florence and Venice, have taken action to control arrival numbers, including limiting access. This can, of course, lead to disappointment for tourists. In recent years, crowds visiting the Uffizi Gallery and Galleria dell’Accademia (the site of Michelangelo’s David) in Florence during peak holiday periods have become so great that the local authorities have had to take the unusual step of temporarily closing the buildings. Indeed, both Florence and Venice face exceptionally heavy demand from international tourists, the latter welcoming 19 million tourists to the Veneto region annually, with about half visiting the city itself. The authorities have responded by reducing coaches to the city from 500 to 150 a day, charging them high fees for the privilege and spot-checking arterial roads out of the city to enforce compliance.
ThE ENvIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM 153 The rapid escalation in deployment of mega-ships calling at popular coastal des- tinations has made management of such sites critical. Dubrovnik, a key port for these vessels, can witness four or more such vessels daily, disgorging over 12,000 passengers at a time into its narrow streets, resulting in pedestrians squeezing shoulder to shoulder in their efforts to visit shops and restaurants; in Venice, too, the influx of cruise visitors has resulted in massive congestion in the main shopping streets. The inevitable reaction of local populations is a clear indication of stage 4 in Doxey’s Irridex model, described in Chapter 5 (Figures 6.2a and 6.2b). FIGURES 6.2a and 6.2b Antagonism towards big ship cruising is now widely evident in destinations like Venice Photos: Chris holloway
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Manipulating demand at the Taj Mahal, India
Another tourist site suffering from extreme popularity is the Taj Mahal in India, with some 7 million visitors a year. The palace receives up to 50,000 tourists a day, during peak periods. Since 1995, a price differential was introduced, with higher entry charges for foreign visitors; in 2018 the entry fee for foreign tourists was 1000 rupees (around £11), with a reduced fee of 530 rupees (£5.80) for citizens from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSEC) countries (which includes Bangladesh and Sri Lanka), while Indian tourists pay 40 rupees (less than £0.50). However, such unique sites are highly price inelastic, thus only a rationing system is likely to limit demand. Further efforts to manage congestion have seen the Indian government impose a three- hour limit to the time who visitors can spend at the site. It is managed through a timed-ticket system, with visitors who exceed the three-hour limit required to buy a new ticket. Source: O’Shea, 2018 It is also necessary to understand the psychological capacity of a site – that is, the degree of congestion that tourists will tolerate before it starts to lose its appeal. Quantifying this is far more difficult than physical congestion as individual perceptions of capacity will differ, not only according to the nature of the site itself but also the market attracted to it. Expectations of a remote island paradise will mean that a beach in, say, Fiji will be judged overcrowded much more quickly than, say, a beach in the UK at Bournemouth, while in a resort such as Blackpool a much higher level of crowding may be tolerated, even welcomed, as part of the ‘fun experience’. One attempt to measure the psychological capacity of a beach was carried out at Brittas Bay in Ireland in the early 1970s. Aerial photographs were taken of the number of
ThE ENvIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM 155 The behaviour of tourists at wilderness sites will be a factor in deciding their psy- chological capacity. Many visitors to an isolated area will tend to stay close to their cars, so hikers who are prepared to walk a mile or so away from the car park will readily find the solitude they seek. This is obviously a key for tourism planners, as, by discouraging or forbidding car parking and access by vehicle to the more remote areas, they can then effectively restrict entry to these areas to those seeking solitude. Some authorities have tried to set standards for particular types of tourist activity as a guide to planners. Table 6.2 is based on one attempt, by the UNWTO (then, WTO), to lay down guidelines in terms of visitors per day per hectare. TABLE 6.2 Visitor capacity of selected sites Site/activity Visitors per day/hectare Forest park 15 Suburban nature park 15– high-density picnicking 300– Low-density picnicking 60– Golf 10– Fishing/sailing 5– Speedboating 5– Waterskiing 5– Skiing 100 (per hectare of trails) Nature trail hiking 40 (per kilometre) Nature trail horse riding 25–80 (per kilometre) Source : Inskip, 1991 The ecological capacity to absorb tourists must also be taken into account. While too many tourists in a built-up area can detract from tourism, the physical wear and tear on the environment is limited – at least, in the short term. Too many tourists in a rural or otherwise fragile environment, however, can destroy the balance of nature. This can be seen in the increase in tourists visiting African safari parks, where the number of vehicles hunting for the ‘big five’ at any one time can resemble a car rally in some areas of the parks. Erosion Some sites are particularly fragile. Many sand dunes have been destroyed or seriously eroded in the USA by the use of beach buggies and by four-wheel drive vehicles. In the UK, similar problems are thrown up by motorcycle rallying, which can easily uproot the few clumps of dune grass on which an ecosystem depends. It has been reported (European Environment Agency, 2001) that three-quarters of all sand dunes along the Mediterranean coastline between Spain and Sicily have disappeared as a direct result of the growth of tourism.
156 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS
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The Dune du Pilat
Located on the Atlantic coast of the south-west of France, this sand dune is the largest in Europe. It is estimated to be over 100 metres high and 500 metres wide, spanning some 2.7 kilometres of coastline. This natural phenomenon is not a static entity. The wind and tidal movements mean that the dune is constantly moving inland, by several meters each year. Consequently, it has eroded large areas of adjacent pine forest, while at the same time swallowing up some nearby camping sites. In recent years, improved infrastructure, including enhanced highways, expanded car parks and the development of a visitor centre, has made access to the site more convenient. As a consequence, more than a million visitors annually come to see and climb the sand dune. However, the height of the dune means that walking to the top can be physically taxing. Aware of the impact this may have on some, perhaps less fit and mobile, tourists, the managers of the site have installed a staircase which helps ease the climb to the top. Management of this unique site is the preserve of a public body representing the local commune (La Teste de Buch), the district council (Gironde) and the regional council (Nouvelle Aquitaine). Together, their mission includes the preservation and management of the site as well as ensuring a positive welcome for visitors. Operation of the site is guided by an advisory committee (which includes the Coastal Conservation Authority) and a scientific committee comprising archaeologists, geologists and environmental education groups. FIGURE 6.3 Tourists climbing the Dune du Pilat Photo: Shutterstock An idea of the effect of erosion can be gained from the experiences of the 15 UK national parks, which receive over 100 million visitors annually. The pressure on the land can be immense. Table 6.3 records the number of visitor days per square kilometre. Remember, however, that those using a park do not spread evenly over its area but are
158 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS off-road vehicles, can occur and regulations may be needed to ensure that the needs of different groups are met. The impacts from these groups can also differ, thus a variety of protective activities may be needed. There is, however, an inevitable trade-off between protection and economic wellbeing. Erosion of constructed sites by tourists Although constructed sites are generally less fragile than natural ones, these too can be affected by erosion in the long term – externally by weather, internally by wear and tear from multiple visitors. Sites exposed to the elements may have to restrict access, especially if they become so dilapidated that they pose a danger to visitors, as is the case with some historic castles. The Acropolis in Athens has had to be partially closed to tourists to avoid wear and tear on the floors of the ancient buildings, while the wooden floors and staircases of popular attractions such as Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon also suffer from the countless footsteps to which they are subjected each year. Stratford, with a population of only 26,000, receives 4.9 million visitors every year, a substantial proportion of whom will want to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. The high numbers led major attractions to construct artificial walkways above the level of the floor to preserve the original flooring. Nearly a million people visit Bath’s Pump Rooms and the Roman Baths complex each year and inevitably there are fears for the original stone flooring of the Baths. It may put the problem into context when it is revealed that Roman visitors, wearing hob-nailed boots, did even more damage to the original flooring than do contemporary visitors, though they were far fewer in number.
THE DANGER OF TOURISM TO FLORA AND FAUNA
Wildlife can be an important attraction for some tourist destinations. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is popular with snorkellers and scuba-divers keen to view the fish and the coral, while destinations across Africa attract safari tourists intent on viewing big game. However, tourism can cause many problems, harming the very wildlife the tourists have come to see. First, we need to recognise that the construction of tourist infrastructure, such as hotels, bars, restaurants and visitor centres, can reduce the land available to the wildlife. Fencing around developments can influence traditional grazing or migration patterns and can draw key resources, such as water, away from rivers and watering holes. There are also issues with the management of waste products; for instance, some wild animals may become scavengers if food remnants are left in accessible places. Animals may also scavenge through rubbish and be harmed by trying to consume plastic packaging, camera batteries and other such detritus. The construction process itself needs to be carefully managed to ensure that the noise does not scare away the wildlife and that it does not harm nesting grounds. Even where tourism infrastructure is not adjacent to the wildlife, many tourists will still journey to view amazing flora and fauna. As mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, transport can cause pollution, but we also need to recognise that frequent visits by tourists can impact on the breeding patterns of wildlife as well as their patterns for foraging for food and their natural defence responses to humans. Without careful management, these can lead to a decline in the population size. This has affected loggerhead turtles in Greece and Turkey, as well as in the Caribbean. They become distracted from laying their eggs by the bright lights of tourist resorts or the use of searchlights to observe their coming ashore to lay eggs on the beach.
ThE ENvIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM 159 At Philip Island, near Melbourne in Australia, 500,000 people a year come to sit and watch the evening ‘penguin parade’ of fairy penguins coming ashore to their nests. This event has become highly commercialised and the large crowds are proving hard to con- trol, even though ropes are in place to prevent people getting too close to the penguins. Flash photography is forbidden and wardens caution the audiences against noise or even standing up, all of which disturb and alarm the penguins. In practice, however, the public frequently ignore these strictures. Animal behaviour can change as a result of prolonged exposure to tourists. In some countries, food lures are used to attract wildlife to a particular locality. For example, in Samburu National Park, Kenya, goats are slaughtered and hung up for crocodiles or leop- ards. This modifies hunting behaviour and may encourage dependency on being fed by humans. In some wildlife parks, hyenas are known to watch for assemblies of four-wheel drive vehicles in order to take the prey from cheetahs’ hunts. ‘Bearjams’ are created in Yellowstone National Park, USA, as bears trade photo opportunities for offerings of food. The dolphins at Monkey Mia in Australia have long been a popular tourist attraction, with coach tours scheduling their arrival with feeding times (see Figure 6.4). FIGURE 6.4 Feeding the dolphins in Monkey Mia, Australia Photo: Claire humphreys
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Antarctic seabirds
As we mentioned earlier in the chapter, more than 45,000 tourists travel to Antarctica annually and the tourist ships travelling to the continent can be an issue for birdlife in the region. Birds – especially prion and petrel species – land on ships operating in the Southern Ocean and become stranded. The legs of petrels and prions are not designed to walk, so the seabirds have difficulty in taking off again. This happens because the birds are disoriented by the lights on the ship, with poor weather conditions such as fog and snow compounding the problem. To address this problem, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators has developed a protocol for the ship’s crew to minimise the impact on seabirds.
ThE ENvIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM 161 The desire to bring back souvenirs of animals seen abroad poses another form of threat to endangered species. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) imposes worldwide restrictions on the importation of certain animals and animal products from countries visited by tourists. Around 5000 endangered animal and 30, plant species have been identified, and the importation of many of these or their byprod- ucts is banned, including ivory, sea turtle products, spotted and striped cat furs, coral, reptile skins and seashells, as well as certain rare plants. Concern is also expressed about the ill-treatment of animals that are kept in captivity for the amusement of tourists. While performing bears have largely been removed from the streets of some Eastern European countries following EU pressure, they are still a common sight in China. Even within the EU, one can still find chimpanzees and monkeys exploited for tourist photographs in coun- tries such as Spain, and, of course, bullfighting remains not only legal but also a popular tourist attraction in that country and the South of France. A number of action groups in the UK have been set up to protect and free these animals.
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF MASS TOURISM
Many popular tourist towns have narrow roads, leading not only to problems of severe traffic congestion but also to potential damage to buildings, as tourist coaches try to navigate through these streets. Increasingly, cars and particularly coaches are restricted in terms of access to the centres of such towns, with park and ride schemes or other strategies employed to reduce traffic. Impeding coaches from picking up and setting down passengers in the centre of towns such as Bath, Cambridge or Oxford, however, can make it very difficult for coach companies to operate as many are on short stopover visits as part of a day trip. Many developing countries face similar problems of congestion and erosion as the popularity of long-haul travel expands. Goa in India was hailed by many operators as an ‘unspoilt paradise’, but its wide appeal since the 1990s has caused environmental lobbyists such as Tourism Concern to draw attention to the dangers the region faces. Water shortages in the area are aggravated by tourists’ consumption (one 5-star hotel uses as much water as five villages and locals face water shortages while swimming pools are filled) and sand dunes have been flattened. Apart from the environmental impacts, there are also social costs. The private beaches mean access by the locals is denied, and ‘Westernisation’ of the local carnival dilutes the traditional identity and culture of the region. The problems of Goa have been well publicised in recent years, but this has had little effect on reducing the number of visitors or ensuring that tourism in the area is sustainable. Sometimes, well-meaning attempts by tourist officials to ‘improve’ an attraction can have the opposite effect. Historic rock carvings over 3000 years old in Scandinavia were painted to make them stand out for visitors. When the paint eventually flakes off, a process that has speeded up with the effect of acid rain, it takes part of the rock surface with it. Any development of tourism will inevitably require the sacrifice of some natural land- scape to make way for tourist facilities. An extreme example of this is to be found in the demand for golf courses. It has been estimated that there are some 30,000 golf courses in the world. In recent years, new courses have been built in areas where water shortages would normally discourage their construction, such as in Dubai, Tunisia and the Egyptian desert, but the popularity of golf tourism drives their development. Golf as a holiday activ- ity, especially among Japanese tourists, has led to a huge increase in demand for courses in the Pacific region. For example, the island of Oahu in Hawaii, which had already con- structed 27 courses by 1985, received a further 30 applications after the Hawaii legislature agreed to allow them to be built on agricultural land. Apart from water use issues, the loss of natural scenery and wildlife habitats also needs to be considered.
162 DEFINING AND ANALYSING TOURISM AND ITS IMPACTS
THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF WINTER SPORTS TOURISM
One fragile ecosystem in Europe is under particular threat: the Alps. Because the system is spread across no fewer than seven countries, collaboration to prevent the worst of the environmental effects of tourism is made more difficult. The Alps receive over 120 million visitors a year and some 7 million passenger vehicles cross them each year. To accom- modate the huge increase in winter sports tourism that has occurred since World War II, some 3400 km^2 of ski areas have been constructed. The proliferation of ski-lifts, chalets and concrete villages above 6000 feet and the substantial deforestation required to make way for pistes have led to soil erosion, while the high volumes of traffic crossing the Alps contribute to air pollution. The increased use of snow cannons (providing artificial snow created using water and chemical and biological additives) to augment low levels of natu- ral snowfall further exacerbates the environmental impact (WWF, 2018). Furthermore, a new danger is posed by the introduction of roller skiing on grass and four-wheel-drive car racing in summer. Lillehammer in Norway, site of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games, took account of the problems already occurring in the Alps when designing its new facilities. Apart from efforts to minimise tree clearance, the authorities also took steps to avoid visual pollution in an area where comparatively few buildings exist. Ski jump runs were moulded into the mountainside to ensure that they did not project above the tree line and similar efforts were made to conceal bobsleigh and luge runs in the forests. The speed-skating stadium was built 20 yards away from the water’s edge to protect waterfowl, and leak-proof cooling systems were embedded underground in concrete containers. Private cars were excluded from the town during the period of the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee has since produced a ‘manual on sport and the environment’, designed to offer practical guid- ance on the sustainable development of sporting facilities. It is not only sports activities that threaten snowscapes. Glaciers, the ecosystems of which are invariably fragile, attract large numbers of sightseers when located in accessible regions. At the Columbia Icefield in Banff National Park, Canada, giant snow- mobiles are employed to bring tourists onto the glacier. The inevitable consequence will be damage to the surface of the site, unless strict control is exercised over the number of trips organised.
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Sustaining golf in the desert
Las Vegas is renowned as a casino destination. Visitors also head to the desert city for weddings, as a base for their visits to the Grand Canyon and to play golf; but the many golf courses require copious amounts of water, a precious resource. Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) introduced both incentives and penalties to encourage reduced water usage. Golf courses were set a water budget with punative fines for exceeding this level of use. At the same time, courses were encouraged to remove turf (primarily in areas out of play and on driving ranges) and allow the land to return to desert scrub. As an incentive, $1 per square foot was paid in this ‘cash for grass’ scheme. The cash received helped cover the cost of remodelling the landscape and ultimately reduced the annual water bill for each course. Estimates suggest that 836 acres of turf have been removed from golf courses, with savings in water usage of 2.7 billion gallons. Sources: Bennett, 2012; Kanigher, 2014
