In modern era, tourism becomes a trend for individuals. Tourism is the act of visiting new places with religious and historical importance for recreation. Travelling helps people to interact with others, and gives the chance to expand knowledge and build strong overseas relations. Recently, there have been large number of persons who love visiting. Foreign investment is mostly done by tourisms. Travelling is not only for joy and rest but also to develop an industry. According to Hunsicker and Kraft (1941), tourism is not connected with earning activities. On the other hand, it is the collection of methods and bonding arising from the travels. Moreover, it has a major economic and social significant that is allowed in both developed and developing countries. Tourism may be depending on the needs of consumers such as physical needs (i.e., hunger, sleep), defense needs (i.e., threat of danger, love or social needs, esteem needs, achievements, self-confidence and many more). In present, travelling is important portion of national income for many countries. It has both pros and cons of journey on environment. The positive impact is that it increases the economy of the nation and also provide large number of new jobs for local individuals but has certain drawbacks too which I will discuss in the following paragraphs with suitable examples.
There are many bad effects of tourism on environment; the first one is air pollution. The movement of tourists from their home to the tourist destination involve transport via road, railways, air or combination of these modes of transports become the major cause of air pollution. For example, when a maximum number of people travel overseas then emission from automobiles and planes resulting CO2 and CO. These both gases produce a lot of air pollution which is harmful for human health. Mostly, 60% of the total population prefer to travel by plane and others use air-conditioned vehicles for their comfort which further pollute air. ICAO (2001) concluded that single flight emits 50% of carbon dioxide emissions as compared to other resources such as light, heat, car use, etc. Furthermore, travelling also causes land degradation. Pressure on land resources (i.e., minerals, fossil fuels, fertile soil, forests and wildlife) is increased due to increase in the construction of tourism and recreational activities. Its direct impact on natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable resources, visitors use land for accommodation, industries. For this purpose, they cut large number of forests which leads to deforestation. For example, one trekking tourist in Nepal, tourists use four to five kilograms of wood per day and this area is already suffering from the effect of deforestation (UNEP, 1999). Moreover, according to Croall (1995), journey is also threat for wildlife and ecosystem. It may be effects wildlife species, its age, gender, physical conditions and stage of breading, the change of habitat conditions it occupies whether it is close to other animals (Swenson 1979, Cooke 1980). Large amount of noise is created by travelling vehicles when entering and leaving the natural areas. Such noise is source of distress for wildlife. Furthermore, loud music used by the tourists disturb the living pattern of animals and cause noise pollution.
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Moving further, with solutions the first one is travel less. Encourage employees to use public transports rather than own vehicles and also use car-pooling. In addition, workers should try to do work from their homes whenever its possible and minimize the use of web conferencing, email and other low-emission communications for business travelling because most of the carbon monoxide is emitted by automobiles. (Andereck,1993, p.27). For example, workmates share their rides with each other if they live nearby. The another one is activated carbon which is used to control air pollution. Pollution filter is required in this method, and carbon is used to escape air pollutants from the air. When in use, toxins are removed from the air with the help of filter. Filter absorbs pollutants from the air and clean it for use. Pollution is dangerous for health causes many diseases such as cancer, breathing problem and many more and its prevention places an economic burden on the citizen. For reducing the air pollution, amendments to the Clean Air Act is passed in 1970 and 1977. Deforestation and degradation are the major complex problem created by tourisms. There are no proper solutions to solve this only effort can save the forests such as collaboration. If corporations have the ability to destroy the world’s forest, then they also save them by using some efforts. Besides this, companies can set up a goal to make ‘zero deforestation’ by reducing the demand of timber, beef, palm oil and paper etcetera. Corporations should build the target to use recycled products (i.e., wood, pulp, paper and fiber). Government should also provide seminars to individuals about how our everyday activities can affect forests around the surroundings. Authorities should develop programs to introduce more tree plants and reforestation for farming land, logging land and cleared land affected by deforestation. In this way we save our environment from the negative effects and also enjoy tourist places.
To recapitulate, natural environment and tourism can both co-exist and both are beneficial to each other. Travelling has both negative and positive impact on the environment but negative impacts can be reduced by taking some suitable steps towards conserving natural resources such as investing income in the form of taxes. Host communities learn more about their heritage and cultural practices with journey from one place to another. For developing the sustainable tourism industry co-operation of local, conservationists, tourism operators, property owners, policy makers and site managers in every place is important those prepared plans for national development and raise the preservation of natural resources for present and future generation (Voas,1995, p12). Due to advances in technology and transportation, infrastructure and facilities reaches at new levels, all these factors are shaping and changing the tourism industry and future research is necessary to decrease the harmful impacts of tourism upon the surrounding. Also, environment awareness among tourists increased the demands of green tourisms because tourist’s industry realizes how people base their decision on the aspect of destinations (Hunter and Green, 1995). At last, economic growth brought by tourism companies must contribute to the natural environment processes and sustainable use of natural resources.
References
- Andereck, Kathleen L. (1993). The Impact of Tourism on Natural Resources. Parks and Recreation, 28(6), 2632.
- Cooke, A.S. 1980.Observations on How Close Certain Passerine Species Will Tolerate an Approaching Human in Rural and Suburban Areas. Biological Conservation, 18:85-88.
- Croall, J.1995. Preserve or Destroy: Tourism and the Environment. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London.
- Hunter, C and Green, H. (1995) Tourism and Environment. A Sustainable Relationship? Routledge, London.
- International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) (2001), “CAEP Recommends Further Measures for Reducing Aircraft Noise, Engine Exhaust Emissions”, ICAO Update, January/February.
- Swenson, J.E.1979. Factors Affecting Status and Reproduction of Ospreys in Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife Management, 43:595-601.
- UNEP (1999), Ecolabels for the Tourism Industry.
- Voas, R.1995, Tourism: The Human Perspective, Lithe link ltd, UK.
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