Summer is here, and exams are done! Let’s travel! (btw sorry for the two weeks of silence here on SteamGreen, I had to study a lot for finals).
Yeah, when it comes to vacation usually we just want to relax, leave our ordinary lives behind and enjoy the free time without sorrows. But just take a moment to think about how impactful tourism is for the economy and the environment: 9% of worlds GDP is generated through touristic activity which leads to 5% of global emissions!
Therefore it is crucial to consider the effects of tourism on the environment, and more importantly it is necessary to build up some kind of a sustainable tourism that in it´s impact does not harm (in the long run) entire regions. Another big problem with tourism is the future forecast of the total amount of people that want to travel, in fact a useful indicator for the ongoing growth is the rising demand of air travelling. Some people predict that the number of flight passengers will double until 2050.
Mass tourism will always have a quite heavy impact on the environment, but there should be some ways on how to handle this kind of environmental pressure. Good examples for countries that invest a lot of money and effort in ecotourism to reduce it’s impacts on a healthy minimum for everyone are Costa Rica and Canada! Check out their official site to know more about the Costa-Ricanian way on sustainable tourism!
http://www.visitcostarica.com/ict/paginas/sostenibilidad.asp?tab=4
Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-tourism-travel-industry-duty
