Academic Skills Essay

Nguyen Thi Ngoc

Mass tourism Mai
is detrimental to the environment
International business school |ACADEMIC YEAR 2019/ 2020
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Definition of Mass Tourism....................................................................................................................2
Impacts of Mass Tourism on Environment.............................................................................................3
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Thanks to increase in income and globalization, the world tourism industry has

experienced a tremendous thriving. World Tourism Organization (2016), as cited in

Sundriyal et al., (2018, p.2277), announced an annual increase of 4.4% in the

number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2015. Compared to the previous year, there were

50 million more overnight visitors traveling to foreign tourist destinations. Tourism,

both domestic and international, contributes substantially to revenue and foreign

exchange generation in a given region or country. It plays a major role in boosting

the local economy by creating more job opportunities, and supporting other

subsegments like transportation, entertainment, and real estate etc. Therefore, it has

been used as a strategy to quickly achieve financial goals by many developed and

developing countries. In some places, local people, while trying to reap maximum

benefits from tourism development, prove to have neglected environmental

considerations, and are resultedly suffering from environmental deterioration. Water

shortage, land degradation, increased pollution and solid wastes are among issues

that have been observed in many tourism destinations. This paper will further

analyse the threats mass tourism is posing to the environment.

Definition of Mass Tourism

It is necessary to understand the term “mass tourism” before establishing the

connection between mass tourism and the environment. Mass tourism means

excessive influx of tourists in one place at one time (Dehoorne and Theng, 2015).

According to The Package Holiday Revolution (2019), Thomas Cook initially

established mass tourism in the UK in the late 1800's, which was revolutionary in the

idea of affordable group tourism. Through establishing partnerships with tour

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operators, airlines and hotels, Cook has gained a large amount of travel services

discounts and passed on those savings to its clients. The term also refers to budget-

friendly package tours, low-cost flights, inclusive resorts and cruises in modern times.

It enables a large number of passengers, typically during peak seasons, to descend

to a specific destination in a relatively short time. It is undoubtedly the most common

form of tourism. But most travel experts regard it as an unsustainable, exploitative

form of travel that consumes enormous amounts of resources while giving the local

community little return.

Impacts of Mass Tourism on Environment

A bloom in the travel industry may expose some localities to water supply

shortage. Bali, a small tropical island located in the centre of Indonesian archipelago,

is one of the most popular island holiday destinations. Thanks to the fantasy nature

that is commonly compared to paradise, Bali received millions of tourists each year.

Consequently, the local water supply cannot keep up with the skyrocket demand.

Water is considered as a core resource for the travel industry in Bali, as tourism

accounts for 65% of the island’s water consumption, according to Merit (2010), as

cited in Cole and Browne (2015, p.442). The increase in number of tourists leads to a

higher demand for services that consumes intensive water usage, such as resorts,

spas and golf courses. Water consumption by tourists is reportedly ten times over

that by the locals. According to Fogarty (2007), as mentioned in Cole and Browne

(2015, p.446), among 400 rivers in Bali, 60% have run dry and Lake Buyan has also

dropped by 3.5 metres since 2016. IDEP Foundation spokeswoman Dewie Anggraini

said to Germany’s Deutsche Welle that “tourism has sped up (the extent of drought)

that is happening right now, which we could have expected to happen in maybe 20 or

30 years, but it’s happening now”, which was mentioned in Stevens (2019). In

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conclusion, there is no doubt that mass tourism is one of the major causes of water

shortage, and its impacts should not be underestimated.

Land degradation, specifically in mountain destinations, is another

environmental concern caused by the upsurge in the number of tourists. Among the

world 14 mountains that are over 8,000m high, Nepal has an unbeatable advantage

by having 8 peaks located in the country, inclusive the Himalaya (Upadhyay, 2019).

However, this serves as a double-edged sword for the country. According to Nepal

(2017), as mentioned in Upadhyay (2019), Nepal received 940,218 tourists in 2017,

24.8% over the previous year. Unrestrained development of tourist facilities has

resulted in deforestation in order to keep up with the demand for more tourist

facilities. A research by Sundriyal et al. (2018) concluded that the areas near the

tourist spots are highly fragile due to their low in quality and absorption capacities. In

addition, human pressure increases fuelwood consumption, which further contributes

to the tree loss. As stated in Nepal (2002), in 224 lodges of the Everest region, about

9.2 tonnes of fuelwood were burned every day in 1997 Autumn. With thousands of

trekkers using the same trail, it would cause soil erosion as the trees’ roots get

exposed, and so does the sandy soil (Kuvan, 2005). However, this is something that

is not happening in Nepal but many places in the world at various scales. These

activities will have severe consequences on the local communities, tourists and the

whole ecosystem. In short, the land is highly sensitive to development of the mass

tourism.

There has been reportedly a continuous increase in air pollution by the tourism

sector, negatively affecting the environment and posing a threat to the biosphere as a

whole. Due to its convenience, more and more visitors prefer travel by air. As

recorded in The World Bank Data (2018), there were only 310 million air travellers

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back in 1970. However, 2018 saw 4.2 billion air passengers, up by 13.5 times. This

mass air travel is accountable for a great share of air emissions. According to a study

by Mayer Hillman (1998), a single round trip flight produces approximately half of the

CO2 emissions generated by other sources (car, lighting, heating etc.) that are

consumed by an average person annually. This has been proved by The World Bank

Data (2014), the carbon dioxide emissions in 2014 was 36 thousand kT, 2.4 times

more than the 1970 figure. Air pollution caused by carbon dioxide emissions not only

has severe impacts on local but also global air quality. It is correlated with

photochemical pollution, acid rain and global warming. To summarize, with the

expanded globalization and cheaper air transport costs, mass tourism has

contributed significantly to the CO2 emissions in specific, and global warming in

general.

For areas with high concentrations of visitor activities, and attractive natural

attractions, waste disposal is a severe issue. In general, the tourism industry

produces more waste per capita than the domestic residential sector. According to

UNEP (1997), each passenger on a cruise ship accounts for on average of 3.5

kilograms of wastes per day, compared to 0.8 kilograms by a normal person. Due to

limited conditions, most of these solid wastes are discharged illegally to the ocean

without proper treatment. This would lead to deterioration of marine fauna life,

consequently reduced economic activities like fishing. Dumping of untreated plastic

wastes could block a river course leading to potential floods (Eagle, Hamann and

Low, 2016). In some localities, recycled and unrecycled wastes are binned together

by hotels and resorts. Many coastal areas are flooded with tons of plastics wastes,

many of which are difficult to be decomposed, and garbage left by tourists, negatively

impacting the environment. The trash can cause an unpleasant smell making the

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locals uncomfortable (Pham Phu et al. 2018). The garbage attracts scavengers, and

rodents. When it rains, the water sips through the wastes and percolates into the soil.

Some locals may suffer from severe diseases like cholera due to consumption of the

polluted water source (Eagle and Low 2016). In short, solid waste disposal from

tourism activities would pose a threat to the marine fauna and fishing and cause

major health problems.

Opponents seeing mass tourism as benefiting to the environment may point

out that it helps providing jobs for local people and giving them the chance to move

up on the economic ladder. While tourism has improved the local economy, growing

disparities in affluence among the ethnic groups are also recorded. The gap between

the rich and the poor has been expanded by tourism, thereby establishing separate

social stratification (Nepal, 2002). Due to the growth of tourism, some of the natural

resources that were used to be accessible has now become limited to the poor. For

the wealthy, tourism has brought new ambitions, new lifestyles and a stable future.

Mass tourism mainly favour the interests of big business and fail to address equity

and poverty. As bizarre as it is, luxury tourism projects are defended by the investors

as it will help to battle the poverty. According to Anderson (2015), the UK Department

for International Development (DfID) has been receiving criticism for investing into

private sectors without focusing on poverty reduction. Approximately half of the aid

money went into building shopping centres, luxury hotels which costs $400/ night.

Consequently, the local economy will be disrupted as the real estate prices and living

costs soar. It is understandable as the locals see it as an insult to their minimal

conditions. They might lose their jobs, their lifestyles and their houses for the sake of

tourism industry. In conclusion, mass tourism might help the indigenous economies

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at the first glance, but it also creates stratification that mostly benefits the rich and

privileged.

Some may argue that mass tourism is a boon to economic growth and

improvement in the local living standards, hence, helping natural preservation efforts

in return. It is true that financial benefits from tourism would push local residents for

more environmental-friendly practices if they want to go long term and encourage

allocation of more funds to support the wildlife conservation. However, it is worthy of

note that a few in the top of the pyramid are among those who gain the most from

tourism activities. They are the biggest stakeholder with the most power in the

decision-making process. And unfortunately, in most cases, they are also the affluent

outsiders. As Cole and Browne (2015) argued, environmental considerations tend to

be mostly neglected by these stakeholders who aim for a quick and sizeable

investment return, since they would not experience direct impacts like the locals.

Most of the local residents have limited financial resources, technological and

managerial skills, impeding their tourism development efforts. The lowest, most

vulnerable socio-economic group is also the first affected by and most vulnerable to

any environment deterioration. To sum up, mass tourism would be environmental-

friendly if the stakeholders and shareholders work together for a sustainable

development on a long-term basis.

Conclusion
In summary, tourism is one of the fastest growing industry in the world, its role

in stimulating the economic growth is undeniable, but the adverse environmental

impacts should not be taken lightly. Mass tourism is detrimental to the environment

as it exploits the natural resources, causes air pollution and increases waste

disposal. The COVID-19 pandemic shows effects from slowdowns in tourism and

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other economic activities on the environment in addition to the sad side of the story –

pressure on the world health system, number of patients and deaths, shut down of

hospitality facilities, and economic losses etc. Pollution in China, the world biggest

production factory, has less been an issue; dolphins start to appear in Venice canals;

and the Arctic’s largest ozone hole has healed. Tourism should be pursued on a

sustainable basis taking care of the environment. Ecotourism should be introduced

as it takes into accounts all economic, environmental and socio-cultural aspects. If

properly planned and practised, sustainable tourism can benefit the entire

community.

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Bibliography

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