Issues With Mass Tourism

Question 1

What is carrying capacity?

Answer 1

Capacity of an area to deal with numbers and demands of visitors using an area.

Question 2

What happens when thresholds are exceeded?

Answer 2

Physical components eg. Soil, water and human ones eg. Culture, QoL impacted.

Question 3

Physical carrying capacity (overcrowding)

Answer 3

Max no. Supported without causing adverse environmental impacts eg. Veg trampling, footpath erosion.
Easy to measure - impacts are obvious.
Setting numerical limit hard without damaging quality of visitor experience.
Some activities eg. Hill walking have lower C.C than beach holiday.
Conflicts between different tourist types in same area.
Peak District NP, zoning plans, conflicted users restricted to specific areas.

Question 4

Quality of visitor experience (overcrowding)

Answer 4

Max number supported without causing decline in visitor enjoyment
Limitless of Acceptable Change (LAC) controls tourism impact on area
Arches NP, Utah, surveys carried out to determine number of visitors acceptable in sites
CGI photos of sites occupied by 2-100 people and asked which were (un)acceptable
Rated impact People At Any One Time (PAOT) from -4 to +4
Positive=not adversely impacted, negative=adversely impacted
0=max without affecting quality of visitor experience

Question 5

Honeypot sites

Answer 5

Areas attracting large number of tourists
Often in rural areas with scenic/historic/other attractions
Created by rural planners to confine tourists to specific locations, leaving rest of area relatively tourist free
Facilities provided eg. Car park, picnic sites - attract many visitors
Pressure of numbers can lead to overcrowding, damaging potential
Eg. Castleton, Peak District NP had 641 pops. (2011) but 2 million annual visitors, most in peak holiday season
Geological sites, hill walking, cultural/historical sites
Remote areas so many come by car, congestion
Strategies eg. AONBs, ASSIs

Question 6

Forms of pollution

Answer 6

Damaged landscapes/habitats
Increased noise levels
Litter
Waste disposal issues

Question 7

Pollution in Mediterranean

Answer 7

Rapid influx in summer pressures waste disposal capacity - raw sewage in sea
1989 Salou+Benidorm had typhoid outbreak
Med. coast large scale building of high rise apartments/hotels - overcrowded beach, spoilt scenery
Artificial beaches (sand excavated+moved) alters natural balance between erosion+deposition
Bars, nightclubs etc. cause noise pollution, litter, anti-social behaviour

Question 8

Cruise ship pollution

Answer 8

Large ships burn 170,000l fuel daily
Cheap low grade diesel produces emissions inc. nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, CO2 and diesel particulates - damage air quality + resp. health
1 medium cruise ship produces as many pollutants as 5 million cars for same distance
Ship engines left on in port eg. Southampton’s air quality reduced
Ship waste dumped in sea, cruises produce 4.5m litres grey water and 1m litres sewage weekly

Question 9

Impact on coral reefs

Answer 9

Ships require dredging of coral reef habitats
Deliver 1000s tourists to sensitive areas eg. Caribbean reefs
Fragile landscapes vulnerable to pollution, harvesting or chunks being broken off for souvenirs
100+ countries have coral reefs:
-25% damaged beyond repair
-66% under serious threat

Question 10

Competition for resources

Answer 10

Tourism requires investment in:
-Infrastructure eg. Roads, airports
-Amenities eg. Hotels, shops, entertainment
These require money, land and water
Conflicts between needs of visitors and locals
Most serious in LEDCs

Question 11

Golf tourism (Cyprus)

Answer 11

14 new golf courses in 2009 bringing total to 17
Each uses 50 million litres water yearly, the total used by 1000 households
Water supply already a problem, reserves at lowest for century
Fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides washed into groundwater - freshwater supply contaminated

Question 12

Water consumption (Zanzibar)

Answer 12

Contrasts in water usage by locals and tourists
Daily domestic water consumption of locals in Zanzibar is 30L
Resorts here use 2000L per tourist daily
Hotels have guards to stop locals using water supply

Question 13

Displacement of indigenous population (Kenya)

Answer 13

Forcibly displaced from traditional lands to facilitate tourist developments
Little compensation
Tourism Concern campaigned against this

Question 14

Social sustainability definition

Answer 14

Ability of community to function and adapt to changing situations without having their attitudes and ways altered in an adverse manner.

Question 15

Change in employment profile (social sustainability)

Answer 15

Traditional occupations abandoned in favour of higher paid jobs e.g. young people leave rural farming community for higher paid work in service sector of tourist resorts
One positive is money is sent back to the communities - little leakage

Question 16

Seasonal jobs (social sustainability)

Answer 16

Tourism jobs are mostly seasonal
People work long anti-social hours for several months of the year - can cause family break ups

Question 17

Low wages/exploitation (social sustainability)

Answer 17

Most work offers lower wages than other sectors as tour companies wish to keep cost low particularly due to rising fuel costs in early 2000s and economic recession 2008
This plus abundant labour supply results in low wages

Question 18

Leakage (social sustainability)

Answer 18

Money brought into area through tourism is lost through leakage
This occurs when a proportion of the money brought in by the area by tourist is lost to the area - reducing economic benefit of tourism
Much of the tourist trade is MNC hands - money generated from tourism stays in the hands of MNCs and doesn’t benefit local community
e.g. in Kenya 17% of tourist earnings leak away from the economy

Question 19

Cultural conflicts (social sustainability)

Answer 19

Relaxed attitudes of modern tourist toward dress code and alcohol contrary to conservative local attitudes.
Eg. Tunisia, ISIS gunman shot 30 British tourists dead

Question 20

Traditional dances eroded (social sustainability)

Answer 20

Hula Hula girls, Hawaii
Maasai, Kenya
Traditional dances held for tourists
True meaning behind them gradually lost

Question 21

Cultural erosion eg. Calvia, Mallorca

Answer 21

Irish, English, German bars/restaurants established to serve increasing tourists from these areas
English spoken in practically all of the different establishments by late 70’s
V little traditional Spanish architecture/culture remaining in this region