Examine+the+economic+social+and+environmental+impacts+of+tourism.

** Economic benefits **

 * ==== Increase GDP directly and indirectly via multiplier effect ====
 * ==== Taxes increase government revenue ====
 * ==== Increased foreign exchange earnings ====
 * ==== Improves balance of payment through increased trade ====
 * ==== Creates employment, including unskilled occupations ====
 * ==== Promotes Foreign investments ====

** Economic costs **

 * ==== May divert government attention from needy areas of the economy ====
 * ==== Requires government expenditure on tourism ====
 * ==== Profits may go overseas ====
 * ==== Spread effect is limited and may therefore cause regional inequalities ====
 * ==== Inflated prices for land, housing, food and clothing ====

** Social benefits **

 * ==== May enhance role and status of women in society ====
 * ==== Encourages female education ====
 * ==== Encourages travel, mobility and social integration ====
 * ==== Improves services ====

** Social costs **

 * ==== Increases rift between rich and poor ====
 * ==== Breakdown of traditional family values which creates a materialistic society ====
 * ==== Social pathology, including and increase in prostitution, drug use and petty crime ====
 * ==== Increased health risks eg. AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases ====
 * ==== Break down in families due to stress between younger generation and the elderly ====

** Cultural benefits **

 * ==== It may save aspects of the indigenous culture of the people due to tourist interest in them ====
 * ==== Contact with other cultures may enrich domestic culture through widening of ideas ====
 * ==== Increases international understanding of diverse cultures ====
 * ==== Culture exchanges stimulate broadening horizons ====

** Cultural Costs **

 * ==== Impact of commercialization may lead to dilution of culture ====
 * ==== Mass tourism may create antagonism/hatred from host population ====
 * ==== Westernization of culture may lead to the depletion of the cultural heritage of the local people. ====
 * ==== Destruction of natural culture may lead to the depletion of the cultural heritage of the local people ====

** Environmental benefits **

 * ==== Improvement in landscape and architectural standards ====
 * ==== Establishment of nature reserves and national parks protects the environment ====
 * ==== Promotes interest in monuments and historic sites which encourages preservation and maintenance of the sites ====

** Environmental Costs **

 * ==== Tourist complexes do not reflect local architecture ====
 * ==== The natural environment and wild life habitat could be destroyed to allow for the development of secondary tourist facilities, such as hotels, nightclubs etc ====
 * ==== Excessive pressure leads to air, noise and visual pollution ====
 * ==== Traffic congestion and pollution ====

** EcoTourism **
====Ecotourism is a form of tourism that seems to protect the natural environment through appropriate management systems. Ecotourism is designed to preserve the natural environment and is interested in three main aspects:==== ====The opposite of ecotourism is mass tourism where tourism is focused on maximisation of profit. Tourists appear en masse without regard of the environment. This leads to litter and pollution, deforestation, disruption of animal life.====
 * ====The livelihood of the local people====
 * ====The natural environment and its preservation====
 * ====The tourism industry: it seeks to maximise profit without jeopardising the natural environment====

Characteristics of ecotourism

 * ====Involves understanding of the culture of the local people====
 * ====There is a balance between economic development and the conservation of the environment====
 * ====It involves the local people in the development process====
 * ====Eco-tourists travel in small groups with a common interest; bird-watching, skiing, canoeing, etc.====
 * ====Eco-tourists live with the local people====

Case studies of ecotourism:

 * ====Baboon sanctuary in Belize, Honduras. (g. 240-242 Geo Course Companion): Presentation: Keziah Quashie====

[[file:Ecotourism Presentation 2.pptx]]

 * ====Montverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica : Presentation by Yasmine Kudowor====

In rural areas where ecotourism is undertaken, conflicts could arise for the following reasons:

 * ====The provision of tourist infrastructure sometimes denies people access to their farmlands====
 * ====Conservation of the natural environment sometimes goes against the workings of the local people.====
 * ====When the tourists engage in unhealthy practices that goes against the culture of the local people, eg. Drumming and dancing at certain times of the year, sleeping with their women, etc.====

Reasons for increase in ecotourism

 * ====Increase in the number of NGOs interested in protecting the local environment: WWF, Friends of the Earth, Green Peace====
 * ====Increase in the number of NGOs that create awareness of animal rights: PETA====
 * ====Some animals are nearing extinction, thus nature reserves are created to preserve them. These become tourist sites ====

**Carrying Capacity **
====The UN Tourism Organisation 1992 defines carrying capacity as ‘The maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time without causing destruction of the physical economic and socio cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of the visitors’ satisfaction’====

Hunter’s definition of carrying can be classified into four main categories

 * ====Physical: t he limit of a tourist site beyond which environmental damage will begin to take place====
 * ====Economic: the ability of the tourist destination to absorb tourist activities without displacing or disrupting desirable local activities.====
 * ====Psychological: the lowest degree of enjoyment people are willing to accept before looking for alternative destinations====
 * ====Social: the level of tolerance by the host population for the presence and behaviour of the tourists in host area/the degree of crowding tourists are prepared to accept from tourists====

Factors that affect the carrying capacity of tourist destinations

 * ====Fragility of the landscape to development and change====
 * ====Existing level of tourism development infrastructure====
 * ====Level of organisation of tourism management====
 * ====Levels of exposure of communities and cultures to outside influences and lifestyles====
 * ====Level of unemployment and poverty====
 * ====Tourist Behaviour====
 * ====Tourist numbers====
 * ====Degree of emphasis placed on the environmental education of tourist====