These days tourism has been widespread all over the world. People travel to every country and city for a short or long term. Travelling has become an essential part of human existence. Traveling helps people gain new skills, explore cultures, meet new people. These activities broad our mindset, enable us with unforgettable memories. However, “experience has proved that tourism always involves economic, environmental and social impact” (Zarabi & Parikhani, 2011) and in the contemporary world these impacts harm host country and their culture. Many places start to lose their uniqueness, water becomes contaminated, citizens of host country get irritated by the noise, new facilities require more land- all of these cause big problems to government and citizens as well. The aim of this essay is to show that these days tourism has more drawbacks rather than advantages.
New facilities and technologies help us travel all around the world easily. More and more people are getting involved in process of flying back and forward to many countries. Visiting tourists inhabit old cultural cities such as Rome, Barcelona, Vienna, Istanbul etc. Traveler’s coming has risen in Rome almost two percent in comparison to last year, also Rome is considered as the third most touristic city.
These touristic places not only develop their economy but also face huge problems with the newcomers. Since many people want to visit historically important places, it gets harder for the government to regulate the flow of tourist. Overflowing tourism results in loss of uniqueness in many countries. The most beautiful and fascinating areas become the most polluted and overcrowded. “Must go places” changes to the huge mass of people, the importance of traditional heritages gets lost. Moreover, some countries are famous for their recreational resorts which mostly are located near the beaches or in the mountains. These peaceful corners alter to normal touristic spots which cannot be counted as a “perfect place for vacation.”
Next aspect is that tourism has a great negative impact on the environment. First of all, flights that are taken by tourist become more frequent, that leads to huge carbon emission to the air. Moreover, some tourists prefer to take vehicles to move around in the visiting country, that also leads to air pollution in large amounts. Also, water contamination has an effect on citizen’s living. As water comes as the main source of living and money for some habitats, it is essential for them to keep it clean. However, the large concentration of tourists on the coastal line makes residents of the host country suffer, as many of the travelers leave their garbage on the beach as well as in the sea.
On top of that, some citizens get irritated just by the word “tourist”. Why? There are lots of reasons to be angry with that. First is that tourists’ crowds make a lot of noise since they are generally big and loud. Second is that the tourism industry requires new infrastructure, this also results that many citizens may lose their houses or flats. Due to demands of land, many people get thrown out from their usual place of living. Indeed, these actions can bring a lot of inconvenience to local people.
The last aspect that I would like to mention is that polluting activities may have a negative impact on habitats’ health. Since pollution issues more concentrated in big cities, citizens breath that air and as result, this might cause cancer or other serious illnesses.
Nowadays tourism industry has emerged to large scales due to the high development. In some countries, tourism is considered as the main source of income. Government mainly relies on their natural resources and cultural heritage to attract more tourists. Many people believe that the tourism industry has no harm to the environment, however, that is the wrong belief. The environment is under the big threat because of human beings. The government should make regulations in order to stop a big flow of tourists and also to preserve natural resources and their heritage.