THE IMPACTS OF TOURISM AND RECREATION - The Geography of Tourism and Recreation - page 211

awareness of impacts. One notable example during the 1980s and 1990s was the planning
for the UK's high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel where GIS
was used to model the optimum route for a tourist-transport infrastructure project, and
where political changes and lobbying directly altered the geographical routing and
distribution of its impacts (Goodenough and Page 1994). Nevertheless, no one discipline
will have all the answers. Given the complex nature of tourism phenomena, particularly
with respect to 'solving' environmental problems, the development of multidisciplinary
approaches towards recreation and tourism may provide an appropriate starting point for
the development of more sustainable forms of tourism.
QUESTIONS
• What are the key factors in determining the accuracy of the assessment of the economic
impacts of tourism?
• What may determine the acceptability of a recreation resource management model to
stakeholders?
• Why are the impacts of tourism on the natural environment poorly assessed?
• Is tourism necessarily a negative impact on a destination?
READING
Although now somewhat dated, one of the most influential topics on understanding the
impacts of tourism is
Mathesion, A. and Wall, G. (1982) Tourism: Economic, Physical and Social Impacts, London:
Longman.
Most general textbooks on recreation and tourism will include overview chapters on
the impacts of tourism (e.g. Davidson and Maitland 1997; S.Williams 1998; Mason 2003;
Mowforth and Munt 2003; Reid 2003). Interesting regional perspectives on the impacts
of tourism are to be found in
Duval, D.T. (ed.) (2004) Tourism in the Caribbean, London: Routledge.
Gössling, S. (2003) Tourism and Development in Tropical Islands: Political Ecology Perspectives,
Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
Hall, C.M. and Page, S.J. (eds) (1996) Tourism in the Pacific: Cases and Issues, London:
International Thomson Business Press.
Hall, C.M. and Page, S.J. (eds) (2000) Tourism in South and South-East Asia: Cases and Issues,
Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Excellent topics which deal with the environmental dimensions of tourism and
recreation and their management include
Fennell, D. (1999) Ecotourism: An Introduction, London: Routledge.
Holden, A. (2000) Environment and Tourism, London: Routledge.
Newsome, D., Moore, S. and Dowling, R. (2002) Natural Area Tourism: Ecology, Impacts and
Management, Clevedon: Channel View.