Tourism, Development and the Environment - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 279

Amboseli landscape can easily be correlated with the rapid rise in the number
of tourist arrivals yet, in this case, environmental degradation is a culmina-
tion of complex interrelated social, political and physical phenomena.
Nevertheless, the tourism industry is often cited as the main cause of
negative impacts and, not infrequently, such criticism is justified. It is true
to say, for example, that many commercial operators adopt a short-term
perspective on tourism, and are essentially driven by the motive of profit
more than any altruistic (or indeed commercial) concern for future genera-
tions of the environment upon which they will depend (McKercher, 1993a).
At the same time, tourists themselves are also agents of environmental
change. No longer are vacations to the planet's most remote corners an élitist
luxury, but products available to the mass tourism market. Consequently,
the numbers of tourists descending upon destinations relatively untouched
by Western culture and all it entails have increased alarmingly. Thus, the
clear economic benefits of tourism development are often, though not quan-
tifiably, countered by the environmental harm generated by the two-week
holidaymakers and their own cultural idiosyncrasies. The demands placed
upon scarce water resources, for example, particularly in island destinations,
may have far reaching social and environmental consequences for the local
populations. As Mieczkowski (1995) controversially argues, it is not the
quantity of tourists necessarily that inflicts environmental harm, but also
the quality of the tourists. 'The involvement of everyone in the market . . .
has increased the potential for destructive behaviour by individuals with
lower educational, and occasionally, even moral levels. Thus, the mass tour-
ism market often includes individuals who lack the eco-conscience that
would inhibit them from harming nature' (Mieczkowski, 1995: 164). Such
an overtly élitist position typifies the polarity of the mass versus alternative
tourism debate (see Chapter 15), yet there is no doubt that, on occasion, the
lack of the 'attitudinal prerequisites' gives rise to all manner of environmen-
tally degrading activities, ranging from environmental vandalism, including
littering and creating noise pollution, to the unconscious degradation of frag-
ile ecosystems, whether through trampling or the collection of 'souvenirs'.
Not surprisingly, the tourism and development literature has long been
replete with examples of the industry's harmful impacts. Salem (1995) notes
that 15,000 cubic metres of water will supply 100 luxury hotel guests for 55
days, while it would serve the needs of 100 rural farmers for three years or
100 urban families for two years. Similarly, Keefe (1995) relates the case of
Nahua Indians in Mexico who protested against plans to build a golf course,
a five-star hotel and 800 tourist villas, estimated to consume 525,000
gallons of water a day. Pollution is one of the most common negative impacts
of tourism. For example, only 30% of the 700 towns on the European Medi-
terranean coastline treat sewage before discharging it into the sea (Jenner &
Smith, 1992), whilst in the Caribbean, only 10% of the sewage generated
by the annual influx of 100 million tourists is treated. Moreover, many