TOURISM’S RELATIONSHIP

WITH NATURE: HOW DOES

TOURISM IMPACT ON THE

ENVIRONMENT?

Key Questions

• What do we understand by the

‘natural environment’?

•The balance of material reality or

social construction?

•How does tourism have positive and

negative impacts on nature?

How do we form our beliefs &

opinions about the environment?

• Combination of religious, cultural and scientific beliefs and knowledge

• Pagan belief systems emphasise the presence of spirits in nature

• Christian- ‘Man’ is made in the image of God- ‘Great Chain of Being’-God was removed to a celestial high

• Nature loses its spiritual value- therefore can be used in an instrumental and utilitarian mode

• Notion of stewardship in the Bible

• Enlightenment- scientific enquiry- Descartes

• Industrial Revolution

• Romanticism

• Need for reflection on what is being impacted upon

Think Point

• What does the natural

environment mean to you?

• Which types of values do you

associate with nature i.e.

what is its use?

• Does it have a value in itself

(intrinsic)?

Time of re-evaluation of our

relationship with nature- growth

in awareness

• 1960s- ‘Spaceship Earth’; Carson’s ‘Silent Spring

• Callicott (1991) ‘Environmental Turn’

• 1970’s- origins of Greenpeace;; Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; Limits of Growth Report

• 1980s- global warming; ozone depletion; Chernobyl; rain forest depletion; origins of green consumerism; Brundtland Report; origins of alternative tourism

• 1990s- GM crops; animal rights; inequality in global trade; growth in organic crops; Earth Summit- PPT; responsible tourism; ST-EP

• 2000+– ‘Green Consumerism’, Climate Change; RIO+20; Paris Accord

How is tourism associated

with nature?

• Environmental constructs-escapism (Boorstin, 1964) or search for the authentic (MacCanell, 1992)

• Images of the ‘unspoilt’ by human agency

• Opposition to ‘modernity’

• Relaxation/emotional experience

• ‘Setting for dreams’

• Nature provides ‘resources’ for tourism

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

In

te

rn

atio

na

l A

rr

iv

als

(

millio

ns

)

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2010 2020

Year

International arrivals : (1950-2020)Acutal and projected figures

The tourism nature-

relationship is complex- a

reflection of a global

system, incorporating

economics, ethics,

environmental values we

place on nature that inform

constructs and various

stakeholder interests

•Intergovernmental agencies, eg.

UNEP, European Union,

governments; communities; private

sector; non-governmental

organisations (NGOs); tourists

•All will be searching for outcomes

from tourism

• Mix of economics and

environmental norms and ethics will

be important in determining the

balance of the tourism-nature

relationship

Stakeholders with an

interest in tourism

The nature-economic link

in the context of tourism

• Recreational tourism is dependent on high quality natural environments e.g. mountains; oceans, seas, lakes and rivers; wildlife; and coral reefs

• Often the quality of the environment is the main attraction for tourists-value of the aesthetic

• In an anthropocentric philosophy there is an economic logic to conserve nature for tourism as it lends it an economic value

BUT IT CAN GO

WRONG

WHY?

• Absence of policy and planning in tourism- incremental and cumulative impacts

• Limitations of conventional economics that fail to reflect environmental costs and negative externalities –market failure

• Lack of legal protection for nature- no acknowledgement of an independent right to existence

• A weak environmental ethic of society-the ‘instrumental’ use of nature

• Behavioural aspects of tourists

• Construction of tourism as a liminal activity

Pollution: global to

local

• Air- air travels contribution to

GHG emissions and global

warming; car travel- reliance

on carbon based energy

• Water- sewage; cruise ships

• Aesthetic – Mishan (1969)

‘Cost of Economic Growth’

• Noise

Over-use of resources

• Water- social/economic

issues

• Wildlife – rights of nature

• Nature as a sink- pollution

THINK POINT- Issues of

natural resource usage

• Why does it matter if tourism

harms nature and the

environment?

• How could the

problems/challenges be rectified?

Issues of assessing

tourism’s impacts

• Sometimes it may be difficult to attribute negative impacts caused by tourism vis-à-vis other industries

• Impacts of tourism are made difficult to assess because tourism development is often incremental and its effects are cumulative

• There is often a lack of a baseline to manage change against

• Tourism’s relationship with nature is a manifestation of the human to nature relationship that embraces social construction and environmental values

• The interaction involves a variety of stakeholders

• The approach to usage will be determined by a combination of market economics; policy and planning; and environmental ethics

Summary

Seminar Video- Safari

Kenya• https://www.youtube.com/wat

ch?v=RDCk9SgdEZY