Given environmental concerns, tourism in the developing world is unsustainable
Tourism is a significant source of employment to many regions, fields and countries. Tourism brings a heavy income into a local economy in the form of goods and services payment paid by the tourist. Because of tourism world trade is counting on 30% and there is 6% of export in goods and services. Other than this we all know important tourism is for people who are employed with it. Transportation services like airplanes, cruise ships, trains, etc; Accommodation including hotels and resorts, etc; places like amusement parks, restaurants, casinos, shopping malls, music venues, theatres, etc; are the major hospitality business which is benefitted by tourism.
International Tourism has reached 1.035 billion in 2012, from 996 within one year. According to the facts, it is asserted that the 2000 recession period loss was covered with tourism in 2011-12. Europe is the highly visited continent with France leading at 100.3 million international tourist arrivals and then Spain at the second highest with 81.8 million international tourists. with a very slight difference of 5.9 North America secures third position (75.9M). And then China (60.7M), Italy (55.9M), Mexico (39.3M), United Kingdom (37.7M), Turkey (37.6M), Germany (37.5M), Thailand (35.4 M) all fall respectively. With so many tourists the receipts generated are in hundred billion. even after having fewer visitors than France and Spain North America generates $205.5 billion (2016) whereas China is on the fourth position earned $114.1 billion.
Traveling outside a person’s local area for leisure during past ages was confined to the wealthy classes. Most of them used to travel for seeing different types of architecture, learning new languages, experiencing a new culture and to taste different cuisines. In 1500 BC. We can find Egyptians traveling for pleasure whereas in ancient China it was made a point to visit Mount Tai and all five sacred mountains. In the middle ages, pilgrimages were introduced by Christianity and Buddhism. The modern tour basically accounts of the grand tour of a traditional trip around Europe (Germany and Italy more precisely). These were educational journeys and one major outcome of this was the establishment of Italian opera in the Post- Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 18th -19th century Grand tours were a status symbol for high-className students. Leisure travel was first introduced by the UK during the time of Industrial Revelation. Modern-day tourism includes Mass tourism, Niche tourism, winter Tourism, Sustainable tourism, textile tourism, Ecotourism, Movie tourism, Volunteer tourism, pro-poor tourism, Recession tourism, Medical tourism, educational tourism, Event tourism, Creative tourism, Experimental tourism, dark tourism, Social tourism, Religious tourism, etc.
Climate change is making the 21st century’s international community at a great challenge. The melting glaciers of Himalayas and Africa are will wipe out the major rare species. for example, snow leopard at Sagarmatha was highly endangered. Scientists predict that the rising rising sea levels may cause Thames barrier unable to cope with the effects of climate change after 2030. The five areas which will be highly affected by the climate change are glaciers, Marine biodiversity, land biodiversity, archaeological sites and historical settlements
Most of the tourism relies on natural resources and culture of regional tourism. the physical environment (earth, air, water, vegetation, wildlife and made stuff) accounts most of the tour since the Greeks and Romans used to travel. But nowadays travels are influenced by various environmental factors. the same environmental factors which are being destroyed by the developing world. Due to global warming and many other environment degradation things many tourist spots have been ruined. For example due to rising ocean temperature coral bleaching is taking place in The Great Barrier Reef, Austria; reoccurring floods are making it hard to walk on Venice’s romantic streets ; The dead are becoming dead and shrinking its surface are day by day which makes it around four feet a year, Extreme droughts in Amazon have left the tree species parched which makes it more vulnerable to forest fires; the climbing tides are vanishing locals in the Maldives, etc . The tourist sites are not only being degraded but the environment is also being degraded by tourism. Tourism leads to overuse of water, tourism puts humungous stress on local land and leads to soil erosion, increased pollution, natural habitat loss, endangered species, tourism in all is the reason of 5% of global greenhouse gas emission. the great-grandson of Darwin Professor Richard Keynes claimed that the “The Galapagos are in danger of being over occupied by tourists and for a long time I have been worried about it. The number of visitors used to be under control and they could only land when conservationists were with them. Now there are so many tourists that they want to land a 1,000 people at a time and you simply cannot do that without destroying the islands.” "The president is right to control numbers. They will not make money if they lose the islands."
Dream destinations are vanishing. If we talk about the seven-world wonder, the most famous Taj Mahal is under the threat of air pollution. Its most famous element the white marble is turning yellow day by day. The Taj Mahal is a symbol of Love made by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his Wife Mumtaz Mahal. Due to the developing industrial age, chemicals are dumped into the air making it hazardous. Some of these industries are located along Th Taj Mahal. Daily emission of chemicals has turned the Taj green, brown and yellow. Since this time period, the supreme court has begun implementing various prevention laws. The very recent judgment passed was “Either we shut down the Taj, demolish it or you restore it “
All of such notions about the degrading environment ruining tourism was known to people since the time sustainable development was introduced. things like eco-tourism, green tourism, responsible tourism are being introduced which are alternatives to sustainable tourism. basically, it means to travel places and natural areas in a more responsible way by conserving the environment and improving well being of people. Tourists who ensure sustainable tourism should take care of the integrity of the site they are visiting. They should conserve resources. Thus, the pillars of responsible tourism and sustainable tourism have only one goal – sustainable development ((environment integrity, social justice, economic development).
According to responsible tourism government, product owners and operators, transport operators, community services, NGO’s and Community – based organisation, tourists, local communities, industry associations everyone involved in tourism must be responsible for goals related to sustainable development in this sector. This means a triple bottom line should be made within the sector of tourism. as it is growing very rapidly and gives high revenue it should work like many other organisations on three things – planet, people (being fair with human capital and working in their corporation), profit (profit should be based on social benefit).
Planet here talks using sustainable measure in the area of work. According to the TBL, tourism should work by benefiting the natural order of the environment by doing no harm to harm to it. Ecologically overuse of anything will not be considered appropriate. It is important to note that tourism encounters a lot of moving thus it should be also based on the ideas of sustainable transport or mobility. Thus, tourism should include the use of public transport, walking and cycling. If taken rightly these measures will give many positive outcomes like – no destruction of nature, no forest fires, less noise pollution, no scattered waste in coastal areas, lakes, rivers, fountains, parks and open spaces, no destruction of wildlife and plant species, life to endangered animals, etc.
But many times, we find that leisure travel is very less responsible. Thus, three main points should be focused on making tourism sustainable in developing countries – Different types of tourism needs a different type of solution. For example, “mass tourism should be managed buyer by improving controls on land use, strict rules for new construction, etc. National and regional plans for coastal and mountain areas should be different. strict implementation on noise, drinking, waste and water treatment and air emissions should be done. buffer zones should be created in sensitive areas.
Secondly, the behaviour of tourists should be managed by doing environmental awareness, liberalization of air and coach transport -TGV – network. Use of private cars should not be allowed instead public transport should be enforced to use. people should be made more aware by multimedia campaigns, co-operation and exchange of information.
Quality of tourist service should be improved by promoting new forms of tourism that care of the environment for example brochures. Training should be provided to people giving accommodation by educating the exchange of best practices, the building of environmental awareness in tourist areas, etc.
If the world is upgrading at one side, the other side is facing its consequences. We believe that there is insufficient action being taken in order to preserve tourism. sustainable development is the end of the hour in tourism. we cannot stop it as it a high paying sector and e all want to visit the world but it is important to understand our responsibility towards earth. being on a vacation doesn’t mean allowing exploitation. you are visiting a place because it's clean and the air there is fresh to breathe. If you find that the place is no cleaner you would stop coming here. If you would be responsible to make a sustainable trip the place would not get ruined. Taking a step forward for sustainable tourism in developing countries.
