Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
roads, golf courses, parks, resorts, to list a few, may either positively or nega-
tively affect people, animals, land, water bodies, plants and other elements of
the environment. While tourism can be used as a tool to address some envi-
ronmental problems and also improve the lives of people, animals and plants
(Southgate & Sharpley, 2002), it can also lead to exploitation of the environ-
ment either through the development of tourism infrastructure and facilities
or undue pressure on the environment by tourists (Keefe & Wheat, 1998;
National Catholic Reporter, 2002; Sindiga, 1999; see Chapter 9). On the posi-
tive side, states, supranational organisations, the tourism industry and lobby-
ing groups in partnership have made considerable progress towards sustainable
tourism development. Considering that the International Union for Conser-
vation of Nature brought the relationship between ecology, tourism and rec-
reation to the attention to the public as early as 1967, it took nearly half a
century for tourism to start seeing the results of its actions. Sustainable tour-
ism so far has focused more on protection and sustainable use of the environ-
ment and natural resources; however, increases in the welfare of the host
society have until recently been more of a spinoff from environmental efforts.
Not all forms of tourism development are able to incorporate sustainable tour-
ism development, even though UN and UN World Tourism Organization
advocate that all forms of tourism must be 'sustainable'.
On the negative side, however, tourism's role in development today has
also become a major cause of concern for fragile environments and ecosys-
tems. Over the past few decades, the massive development of infrastructure
and facilities has occurred around the world to meet the needs of ever-
growing numbers of tourists. As seen in Chapter 11, increasing demand for
airline flights will further increase the contribution of tourism to greenhouse
gas emissions as well as seeing the construction of more airports. As a result,
corresponding pressure is placed on natural resources to meet the growing
consumption needs of tourists. Exploitation of the environment and pressure
on nature's resources are increasingly becoming common issues in high
demand tourism destination areas. These developments often affect the lives
of local people in many ways. For example, local people whose lives depend
on farming and fishing may encounter problems cultivating farmland and
accessing fishing waters. This situation has the potential to worsen food secu-
rity crises for people in impoverished regions. Any tourism development that
exploits the environment and brings undue repercussions for the local popula-
tion clearly violates the human rights principles enshrined in Articles 13(c)
and 17(d) of the UN Declaration on Social Progress and Development (1969).
Slum tourism
Slum tourism has attracted several debates in tourism and development
discourse. Slum tourism occurs both in the developing and developed worlds.
Across the developing world, slum tourism occurs in India, Kenya, Brazil, the
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