Kaleab Mebratu Gebreigziabher Geography Assignment 02/04/20

Examine the extent to which the aims of sustainable tourism might be achieved

in two different environments?

Tourism is one of the activities which can benefit a country in vast ways. Tourism is

described as travel away from home for at least one night for leisure excluding day-trippers

(Yambilla, 2020). In the past few decades, tourism has become prominent amongst humans

with the advancement in technology and transport in general. That said, depending on its

carrying capacity which is defined as the maximum number of visitors a tourist destination

can accommodate without destroying the natural environment or causing displeasure to the

host population, tourism can be either unsustainable or sustainable. Sustainable tourism is

tourism that meets the requirements of present tourists and the local dwellers without

obliterating the ability of future tourists and locals to meet their needs (Yambilla,2020 ). In

this response, I am going to stress the many ways in which tourism achieves its sustainability

retaining the touristic sites for the next generation and I am hoping to accomplish this effect

by juxtaposing two different environments. 

The primary focus of sustainable tourism is to protect and conserve primary tourist

resources and support the livelihoods and culture of local peoples. There are many ways of

sustaining tourism. To start with the protection of natural environments, natural

environments are facing the biggest threat to their existence as humans nowadays are not

considerate of their environment resulting in destroying biodiversity. To prevent this from

happening we need to establish national parks where all animals are out of reach and warn

visitors to try and not to reach out for them for everyone’s safety. Tourism development can

put pressure on natural resources when there is an increase in consumption in places where

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the resources are limited (Ugur Sunlu, 2003). If restrictions are not placed on tourists about

using resources properly they can go on exploiting them such as water and fuelwood.

Therefore they must be banned from overexploiting resources and not be given direct

access to it. Through land degradation, forests suffer the adverse impact of tourism in the

form of deforestation posed by fuelwood collection. For example, in Nepal areas are

suffering the effects with four to five kilograms of wood a day (UNEP, 1990). These

predicaments can be solved thorough financial contributions from revenue from park

entrance fees, improved environmental management and planning, environmental

awareness-raising and protection and preservation. Also while visiting local wildlife, tourists

are not advised to come into close contact with dangerous animals as they can easily hunt

them down so tourists need to respect the local wildlife and comply with the rules and

regulations set by the government. Besides, protection of the ecosystem must be practiced

since we all live in it we need to be mindful of our actions.  

On the other hand, before planning to go to a different place for tourism, tourists need to

study and become aware of that country's norms and cultures so that they will not infringe

and offend the local people on their arrival. Some tourists disrespect local people in their

languages if they find them weird and different. This is an unpleasant thing for the host

people and they can abduct the tourists out of rage. To curb this, tourists need to be

deferential to the local people. We all have different customs and things we consider right

might be unwanted in the other country so tourists need to refrain themselves before

judging. For instance, Venice is a city in northern Italy, a place for intense leisure activities

where 50,000 people day-trippers come to visit each day. This city is a place for devout

catholic followers and unknowingly tourists lie down in front of the church causing

inconvenience. Due to this, the government made it prohibited to sit in front of cathedrals

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and those who disobey it are fined with $56 cash. Some tourists also pollute the sites by

littering wastes into several places making the place dirty so to utterly eradicate this

problem they need to be punished and charge the revellers.

In some popular destinations, the numbers of tourists coming are too much for the carrying

capacity. Following this, in the area overcrowding of people will be created and movement

is almost impossible. Places like Machu Picchu in Peru have made it a point to reduce the

number of visitors to 400 people per day who are allowed to climb the mountain. Since

tourists need transportation and there are thousands of them being outnumbered, traffic

will be caused creating displeasure to people. Sometimes, tourists can feel too generous to

even provide foods like grains to wild animals making them used to it. One day situations

like this coronavirus disease hit the world and travel restrictions are placed all over the

world. Due to this, monkeys were out roaming on the streets of Thailand hungry looking for

food. This is one of the many aftermaths of doing illegal things at tourist sites. Tourists are

not supposed to feed them as they increase their independence on easily accessible foods

and disrupt the lifecycle of animals. 

Economically, local people are disadvantaged as a result of growing tourism to some extent.

An explanation to this is that since tourists have enough money assuming they came with a

large sum of money they can easily afford infrastructures there like hotels and restaurants

and the government deliberately increases the price of facilities to get benefit from the

tourists. Eventually, inflation is on its way affecting most of the underprivileged people who

are not capable of coping up with it. In this process, the local people who are not affluent

enough are immensely affected as they have a dearth of money to enjoy the facilities. Prices

of goods are also raised. For example, in Venice, the government is trying to build more

affordable housing so locals can still afford to live (Yambilla, 2020). On the contrary, tourism

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brings job opportunities for local people reducing the unemployment rate in the country.

The locals will benefit either through trading or be participating in the industry. Moreover,

to increase the sustainability of tourism we should at least support the local people by

buying local goods.  

Apart from the things mentioned above there also some essential measures to be taken to

sustain tourism. The first one is to minimize the amount of waste and unrecyclable plastics

used in the site. Additionally, the place where the main activity takes place must be cleaned

regularly and do the necessary decoration to make the place look winning to attract as many

tourists. The local people also need to show some respect and smiley face to the tourist to

make them feel they are always welcome. Tourism brings globalization along with it. Locals

tend to pick up tourists' way of life. For instance, their dressing code and outrageous

behaviours.

To conclude, we are all aware of the benefits of tourism. In numerous countries, tourism is

cultivated as a strategy for development and has given those countries prosperity. However,

to keep this source of revenue all those countries need to strive hard to try and maintain it

the way it is so that it can even be inherited by the next generation without any pitfalls.

Tourism sustainability is achieved through those mechanisms I stated earlier in my essay

which has been applied in several countries and so far it has proven its efficacy. With

togetherness, we can make this planet a better place to live in expanding the scope of

tourism with sustainability.

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Work cited

 Sunlu, Ugur. "Environmental Impacts Of Tourism". Om.Ciheam.Org, 2003,

http://om.ciheam.org/om/pdf/a57/04001977.pdf. Accessed 2 Apr 2020.

 Yambilla, Enock. “Managing Tourism and Sport for the Future.” IB Geography
Revision, 5 Mar. 2020, yambilla.wordpress.com/geographic-themes/leisure-tourism-
and-sport/tourism-and-sport-at-the-international-scale-2/.
 Norton, Mary. “10 Effective Ways to Promote Sustainable Tourism.”
WanderWisdom, WanderWisdom, 15 Apr. 2019,
wanderwisdom.com/misc/sustainable-tourism-2.