Is Tourism a Problem?
Dhruv Moondra
Aug 11, 2024
Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world, employing 6-7% of the global population. It is also one of the top 5 exports in over 150 countries, and is a great way for low income countries to add value in their economy. But does this mean tourism is ideal for all countries?
Well let’s take a look.
On the economic side tourism is a very labour intensive industry which employs numerous people. Between 2014-19, tourism was responsible for creating 20% of all jobs globally despite only sharing 10.3% all jobs worldwide. This helps alleviate many people from poverty especially in poorer regions since many jobs within the industry such as waiters, tour guides and hotel staff require low skills while they earn decent wages. An example of this was seen in Mauritius, between 1979 and 1989 where the unemployment rate reduced from 20% to 3%. This was fueled by tourism as the industry grew at an excellent annual rate of about 10%.
With that being said, tourism surprisingly has many downsides economically. Firstly, it is highly seasonal since tourists only prefer to come during summer or winter such as the alpine regions in Europe dedicated towards winter sports. Thus it causes a lot of seasonal unemployment where people won’t have sources of income for many months, lowering the standard of living and GDP per capita.
Additionally, since profit is usually only earned during a specific time period, it makes countries highly vulnerable to global economic conditions, causing a lot of income instability. For instance Spain’s peak tourist season, March to May, was unfortunately beginning when WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020 itself. This resulted in a precipitous economic loss as the number of tourists in 2020 fell to just 33.8% of that of the preceding year, mainly because of bad timing.
Finally, one of the biggest issues in many tourist hotspots is that the cost of living becomes too high. With so many people sharing resources like shelter, food, water, energy and infrastructure, the demand becomes more than the quantity supplied causing prices to increase. In many developing countries with high levels of tourism, there are shortages of basic necessities like clean drinking water. Moreover, the problem is actually worse because the average tourist consumes 2-3 times more water than a resident. In places such as Zanzibar this gap is even wider since an average household consumes a little over 93 litres of water per day, compared to 989 litres in an average guesthouse. As a result, today the Zanzibar Water Authority says that only 50% of the islanders fresh water needs are being met.
What’s more, resource scarcity is not only a problem in developing countries but even in countries like Spain. Here, the excessive use of water has caused the UN to state that 75% of Spain’s land is already under the process of desertification.
In the case of Venice, housing prices have soared through the roof and today the overall cost of living in Venice is 35% higher than the rest of Italy. Furthermore, this along with the exploding population of tourists has significantly deteriorated the quality of life for locals as Venetians have to deal with congestion, excessive pollution and social tension on a day to day basis. Consequently, the local population in Venice has been constantly decreasing ever since 1950 due to a declining quality of life and increasing costs of living.
Having said all this, it’s evident that mass tourism interferes with economic activity in other sectors as well. For example, with the influx of so many tourists in a small area, roads and transportation systems all become overloaded. This inturn would cause logistical delays for many other businesses slowing down the production process leading to lower economic output.
In some cases tourism has even increased the high-school dropout rate. For example in many tourist regions in Spain such as the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and Andalucia, university dropout rates surpass an alarming 15%.This phenomenon is due to the fact that jobs in the tourism industry offer much higher wages than what university students might expect.
This causes a vicious cycle in which the workers are pulled away from other more value-adding industries of the economy because tourism seems like the most promising industry. This holds back the growth of the economy due to a lack of tertiary education which prevents it from diversifying and developing other sectors. Hence ,Spain is significantly dependent on tourism for income and employment compared to other EU countries.
Moreover, tourism also has a huge environmental footprint. It is a significant source of air pollution, water pollution, and habitat destruction, accounting for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted by cruise ships in Europe alone is 4 times greater than that produced by the entire continent’s cars. Sulphur dioxide damages trees, plant growth and harms sensitive ecosystems and water bodies. Therefore, tourism’s impact on the environment and global warming are both immense.
Next, tourism is also one of the leading sources of water pollution. Cruise ships alone are responsible for 4% of the total solid waste generated globally by maritime traffic. These include paper, cardboard, plastic, metals etc. which end up as debris in the ocean. Animals end up ingesting them or getting entangled causing severe injuries and deaths. In addition, a 3000-capacity cruise ship generates 150,000 gallons of sewage and graywater, enough to fill 10 swimming pools. Most of the time everything gets dumped into the oceans which depletes oxygen levels, spreads deadly bacteria and viruses onto marine animals and causes eutrophications, killing entire food chains. The results of these actions have been catastrophic in the Caribbean, home to the most cruise ship operations in which the number of coral reefs have declined by 50% since the 1970’s.
Therefore, mass tourism has really threatened sustainable development.
But are there any solutions?
Luckily yes, sustainable tourism/eco-tourism is an alternative concept that has found success in many places including Bhutan and Costa Rica. It prioritises sustainable travel and environmental conservation while simultaneously supporting communities and livelihoods. This approach has achieved great success in Costa Rica where 80% of visitors practise ecotourism. After making these changes, today it boasts a whopping 97.8% of safe water coverage for its population.
To accomplish this feat, Costa Rica has implemented several policies to keep tourism in check. Most of its hotels, resorts and eco-lodges are sustainable because of many tax breaks and financial incentives from the government. Sustainability certifications are promoted and provided by the government itself and there are very strict environmental laws in the country. As a result there is widespread use of energy efficiency, waste reduction, and water conservation practices throughout the country.
Moreover, Costa Rica has a vast network of national parks to protect biodiversity. Welcoming tourists helps in spreading awareness about endangered species as well as to fund the smooth functioning and control over these wildlife sanctuaries. This makes communities reliant on environmental preservation for their income and as a result they become more environmentally responsible. To top it all off, the government even pays landowners for the environmental services they provide such as carbon capturing, water regulation, biodiversity conservation as well as scenic beauty.
Ultimately, these changes have made Costa Rica famous around the world for its ecotourism practices and because of this, the revenue Costa Rica is expected to receive from tourism is expected to increase by more than 36% in just 5 years.
The country is a model for all other nations to follow so that the tourism industry doesn’t end up becoming a liability.
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