What tourists leave behind: hotels, tourist transport, and related activities consume huge amounts of energy, water, and other resources, and generate pollution and wastes, often in destinations that aren't able to deal with them. (Tourism).

The ecosystem along the coast of Florida is stressed, overloaded by the construction of hotels and condos. The Mediterranean Sea is an open cesspool because too many people flock to its beaches and resorts each year and not enough attention is paid to the pollution created by these crowds of tourists.

Since 1950, the number of international tourist arrivals has increased nearly twenty-eight-fold, reaching 698 million in 2000. These numbers are expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2020. If you count local people who travel within their own country the numbers are between four and ten times higher, depending on the location.

Many international travellers are looking for adventure and education. According to a study of U.S. travellers in the early 1990s, 40% were looking for "life-enhancing" travel. And, they're going to exotic locations. Just one percent of international tourists travelled to East Asia and the Pacific in 1950, compared to 16% in 2000. By 2020, this region is expected to be the most popular destination after Europe. According to one report, in the world's 49 least developed countries, most of which are in Africa and Asia, tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange after oil. North Americans and Europeans are going on safaris in Africa, mountain climbing in the Himalayas, hiking in the rainforests of Central and South America, and scuba diving in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.

But, in the process of looking for something different, they're threatening the very destinations they long for. The tens of thousands of vacationers landing in environmentally fragile regions--such as the Maldives, and Caribbean islands--are destroying local habitats and ecosystems. And, getting there is part of the problem. Increasingly, people are flying by wide-body jets to their destinations; civilian aircraft already contribute 3.5% of the world's greenhouse gases and this will increase rapidly as the number of tourist flights goes up. (It's estimated that 90% of a tourist's energy consumption is spent in getting to and from the destination.)

And, when they arrive, many tourists are not content with the simple lifestyles of the local people; they want all the comforts of home. Massive amounts of resources are used to pamper tourists--energy for heating and cooling their rooms, lighting hallways, and cooking meals, as well as water for washing laundry, filling swimming pools, and watering golf courses. Tourist facilities are helping dry up Israel's Dead Sea: in the last 50 years, water levels have dropped by about 40 metres, and environmentalists predict that, at this rate, the Dead Sea could disappear altogether by 2050.

In addition to their excessive consumption of resources, tourists create huge amounts of waste--the UN's Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that the average tourist produces about one kilogram of solid waste and litter a day. Many developing countries have inadequate, or non-existent, sewage treatment facilities. According to a 1994 study for the Caribbean Tourism Organization, hotels in the region released 80% to 90% of their sewage without adequate treatment in coastal waters, near hotels, on beaches, and around coral reefs and mangroves.

Cruise ships are another major drain on the environment: the number of people taking a cruise nearly doubled between 1990 and 1999 (to nine million passengers a year). It's been estimated that a one-week cruise generates 3.8 million litres of graywater (from sinks, showers, and laundry); 795,000 litres of sewage; 95,000 litres of oily bilge water; eight tonnes of garbage; 416 litres of photographic chemicals; and, 19 litres of dry cleaning waste. The world's cruise ships discharge about 90,000 tonnes of raw sewage and garbage into the oceans every day.

SUGGESTED ACTIVES:

1. Eco-tourism is defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people. But not all hotels and tour operators who promote eco-tourism are really conservationists. Research several eco-tourism ousts and report on whether or not they are committed to environmental preservation or just using the term as a marketing tool. Give details of the different types of holidays each provides. (Hint: check out the Si Como No resort in Costa Rica's Manuel Antonio National Park, which relies on solar energy, uses aerial bridges instead of roads or walkways, puts in native plants to halt erosion, sponsors beach cleanups, and asks guests to reuse sheets and towels.)

2. Make an argument in favour of eco-tourism, outlining some of its benefits for developing countries.

FACT FILE

Annual international tourists represent just 3.5% of the world's population, but that is expected to rise to 7% by 2020.

One in every five international tourists now travels from an industrial country to a developing one, up from only one in 13 in the mid-1970s; tourism growth rates in the developing world are expected to exceed 5% a year through 2020.

Websites

International Hotels Environment
Initiative--http://
www.ihei.org

Green Hotels Association--http://www.greenhotels.
com/grnideas.htm

Namibia Community Based
Tourism Association--http://www.nacobta.com.na

Kingdom of Bhutan--http://
www.kingdomofbhutan.com

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RELATED ARTICLE: Paving paradise.

The locals named MacMillan Park on Vancouver Island Cathedral Grove because sunlight streaming through the canopy of trees gives the impression of the interior of a sunlit cathedral. But, in 2001, trees in a nearby forest were threatened because of plans to build a parking lot for the 750,000 tourists who visit the park every year. Logging in the region already had destroyed adjacent areas that protect the park's ancient trees from fierce wind and rainstorms, and environmentalists were angry about the further destruction that a parking lot for tourists would cause. In September 2001, plans for the parking were delayed.