Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
borne pollutants. Tourist or special-event facilities may change the character of the urban
setting. Indeed, the location of a facility or attraction may be deliberately exploited in an
attempt to rejuvenate an urban area through the construction of new infrastructure, as
with the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle (Hall 1992b) or other hallmark events such as
the Olympic Games or World Fairs (see Chapter 5). The promotion of tourism without
the provision of an adequate infrastructure to cope with increased visitor numbers may
well cause a decline in urban environmental quality, for instance, in the impacts of
increased traffic flows (Schaer 1978). However, there are a wide range of tourism and
recreation impacts on the urban physical environment (Table 4.7) that may have
substantial implications for the longer term sustainability of a destination which are only
now being addressed in the tourism literature (Page 1995a; Hinch 1996).
Many of the ecological effects of tourist facilities may well take a long time to become
apparent because of the nature of the environment, as in the case of the siting of marinas
or resorts (Hall and Selwood 1987). The impact of outdoor recreation on the natural
environment has been well documented (Wall and Wright 1977; Mathieson and Wall
1982; Liddle 1997; Hammitt and Cole 1998; Mason 2003) and is discussed further in
Chapter 7. However, research on the physical impacts of tourism and tourism
development on the environment is still at a relatively early stage of development and
presents an important area of future research, particularly with respect to sustainable
tourism development (Farrell and McLellan 1987; Farrell and Runyan 1991; Hunter and
Green 1995; German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
Table 4.7:
The impact of tourism on the urban
physical environment
The urban physical environment
• land lost through tourism development which might have been used for other purposes
• changes to urban hydrology
Visual impact
• development of tourism/leisure districts
• introduction of new architectural styles
• potential reinforcement of vernacular architectural forms
• potential contribution to population growth
Infrastructure
• potential overloading of existing urban infrastructure with the following utilities and
developments:
- roads
- railways
- car parking
- electricity and ags
- sewage and water supply
• provision of new infrastructure
• additional environmental management measures to accommodate tourists and adapt areas for
tourist use
Urban form
• changes to land use as residential areas are replaced by accommodation developments
• alterations to the urban fabric from pedestrianisation and traffic management schemes which have
