Tourism and the environment—towards a symbiotic relationship

Man has sought the experience of different cultures and landscapes for a great many years but the phenomenon of mass tourism is a more recent occurrence, finding its origins in the emergence of mass transport facilities. It started with the development in the mid-19th century of the European railway network but came of age this century as first the motor car, and then the package holiday and (relatively) cheap air travel provided the means for millions of tourists to reach distant destinations with a minimum of effort and disturbance. Natural assets and attractions, sun, sea and sand, were usually the major reason for a destination's popularity but the resulting concentration and congestion of tourists on often sensitive landscapes inevitably produced environmental damage. Hotel buildings in profusion along stretches of the Spanish Mediterranean coast highlight, in many instances, the worst excesses of unbridled development and despoliation. Physical damage to the environment, however, was not the only consequence of the rapid spread and growth of mass tourism. Socio-cultural changes, though less tangible and not easily distinguished from non-tourism induced effects, have in some cases been just as profound as physical impacts. Against these negative impacts must be set the undoubted economic benefits and employment opportunities accruing from tourism. These obvious economic and employment benefits of an expanding tourist sector perhaps made many blind to the environmental harm being generated. However in recent years there has been a growing appreciation that environmental degradation can have very direct and undesirable effects on the industry as despoiled destinations become less and less attractive to more and more discerning tourists. The results of several recent surveys have confirmed the high priority that the majority of today's tourists place on their destination's cultural and natural heritage. The message is clear: ruin the natural attractions (resources) of popular destinations and a major reason for their popularity is eliminated. Such environmental concern was particularly timely in the context of so many global initiatives to integrate the conservation of natural resources within broader economic and social strategies. Building on the impetus generated by the Stockholm United Nations Human Environment Conference of 1972, global initiatives, reports and declarations have made considerable impact and progress in the 1980s. Two are