positive effects of tourism to the environment

• About Us 👨‍👩‍👧

Positive Impacts of Tourism on the Environment

If you asked random people from different countries whether tourism has negative or positive impacts on the environment, none of the answers would most likely prevail since their opinion will be based on their personal experience from travels. Tourism and environment have important, yet controversial relationship, that needs to be in a perfect balance to benefit each other.

Beautiful natural landscapes or unique flora and fauna are the main drivers of tourism into an area. But when too many tourists visit natural sites, environment and its inhabitants rather suffer from the negative impacts, which easily outweigh all the benefits due to exceeding the natural carrying capacity of a place .

On the other hand, when the number of visitors is balanced with respect for the natural environment, tourism has great potential in supporting or even starting out new conservation projects that protect unique areas and benefit local residents.

Sustainable tourism helps protect the environment

Many countries around the world depend on tourism as their main industry in providing jobs in rural areas and bringing in funds that would be otherwise out of their reach. Financial resources and employment are critical for local livelihoods and security. But as more and more countries focus on expanding their tourism sites, they often encounter problems with overconsumption of their finite natural resources, pollution, and degradation. This easily spirals into undesirable situations of negative impacts on the local environment and society.

Tourism as a fast-growing industry must follow the principles of sustainability in order to last long term while maintaining positive impacts for an area. In terms of environment, this means consumption of natural resources within acceptable limits, protecting biodiversity and making sure that essential ecological processes can take place, while providing a pleasant experience to visiting tourists [1] .

A part of striving towards sustainability is also raising awareness about the unique natural features of an area and educating visitors about their sustainable management. This helps them to understand the rules set in place and respect differences.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to tourism

Tourism represents 10 percent of world GDP. The industry increasingly affects the environment, culture, and socio-economic development of a country. Due to such a great reach, it is a powerful tool in facilitating change.

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism contributes directly or indirectly to all the 17 goals of sustainable development (SDGs) that were defined together with additional 169 SDG targets to ensure safer future for life on Earth by 2030.

Since 2018, UNWTO operates even an online platform dedicated to achievement of SDGs through tourism. You can visit it here: https://tourism4sdgs.org/ . On the platform is detailed description of each sustainable development goal in relation to tourism. SDGs address areas ranging from the importance of biodiversity, protection of marine ecosystems to urgent call for sustainable production and consumption.

Following the guidelines, UNWTO has, for example, partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and launched a Global Tourism Plastics Initiative to mitigate the problem of plastic pollution in the industry.     

What are the positive impacts of tourism on the environment?

Sustainable tourism is the only way to go forward if the industry wants to grow. But throughout the last couple decades, tourism has been already growing and has introduced many new places to foreign visitors. In some regions, having the option of welcoming paying guests, tourism has brought many positive impacts on the environment. Let’s see their examples.     

#1 Awareness raising and first-hand experience

Beautiful landscapes, animals in their natural environment, exotic ecosystems attract visitors from around the world. They are the primary reason why people travel. To get rest from their daily blues and experience ultimate relaxation from the connection with natural world. Tourism is the best tool to raise awareness of environmental values.

You learn the best when you do get to experience something directly, when you see it, touch it, and when you witness what threatens to destroy it. Personal visit of natural areas introduces you to the values they have for life. It makes you care about them, since you get to enjoy their special feeling. And memories you will have will encourage you to be environmentally-conscious in travel and personal life.

In January 2021, alarming pictures of the most touristy beaches in Bali buried in plastic waste that washed up on the shore due to the monsoon weather, appeared on social media of travelers and in the news [2] . The images have drawn global attention and created a bad rep for single-use plastic items, making us (consumers) more aware of the true impact.

#2 Tourism for skills learning and education

This is a special side of tourism but plays also an important role in positive impacts of tourism on the environment. Visitors do not have to be drawn to places just for entertainment or relaxation, they may come with the primary mission of learning a new skill or gaining certain knowledge. Tourists come to see a special feature in an area and often pay for their stay, for food, or training, which is a nice way to support the work they came to admire. Additionally, they may also put the new knowledge to use for their own projects.   

One nice example of this form of tourism could be visiting a permaculture farm with the purpose to learn about the practices applied on the farm and exchange ideas on what might work at home. Another example, that could inspire many, is spending time on edible forest farms, learning about planting diversity of low maintenance plants on your piece of land. Or visiting villages excelling in agroforestry farming practices which have allowed them to harvest variety of products from their lands, while protecting sensitive mountainous environments, where intensive farming would not be an option.           

#3 Support of conservation and biodiversity protection activities

Africa is a prime example of a country where tourism has had a positive effect on wildlife protection. Wildlife tourism in Africa makes around 36 percent of the tourism industry, contributing over $29 billion to the continent’s economy and provides jobs to 3.6 million people [3] .

The opportunity of seeing wild animals in their natural environment is what Africa is the most known for. This form of tourism reduces poverty and helps to empower women directly by giving them jobs, but even indirectly by allocating funds to build infrastructure – schools, hospitals.

Africa, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific focus more and more on the value of their wild natural areas. With the growth of tourism appear even new national and wildlife parks that connect sustainable tourism with biodiversity preservation.

For example, iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa offers amazing experience for tourists who can choose between diving, snorkeling, kayaking or horseback riding in a landscape of 25,000 years old coastal dunes and swamp forests, while protecting the area’s sensitive ecosystems and unique species. The coastline is Africa’s only remaining nesting place of Loggerhead and Leatherback turtles [4] .

#4 Protection of endangered species

Countries begin to realize that their rare and endemic species are their symbol in the eyes of foreign visitors who are often attracted to the place because of them. Wild animals, virgin forests and a colorful palette of exotic plants are becoming an unusual sight in an economically developed world. The remaining spots that are still a home to this disappearing world are often turn to nature reserves and protected areas. This ensures better safety for endangered species that inhabit them.

Virunga National Park in East Africa has a story of conservation success to tell, even despite years of civil unrest and war in the surrounding areas, it has been declared an ecological pillar for the entire East and Central African biodiversity, having the largest concentration of birds and reptiles over other protected areas [5] .

Thanks to the initiative of the World Wildlife Fund and United Nations, the park has endured hard years and granted protection to endangered mountain gorillas, who were almost driven to extinction by human encroachment into their already limited habitat. Thanks to these extraordinary efforts and persistence, gorillas from the Virunga recovered and their number rose from 480 to over 600 [6] . The park is one of the most attractive tourist destinations, where you can see gorillas, chimpanzees, and many other iconic animals.

#5 Prevention of illegal trade and exploitation

Tourism brings new opportunities even to most remote places. The growing interest of tourists in visiting places where people live in connection with nature and animals gives chance to locals to sustain their families far from urban areas. In many cases, local communities quickly realize the need to protect what they have in order to attract tourists, as the stream of income from tourism is long-term and more advantageous than one-time sales of finite resources or poached animals.

A glimmer of hope sparked by the vision of attracting tourists takes place in two villages in Nepal that are known for being a transit points for illegal trade in pangolin meat and scales to Tibet and India.

The villages have joined a community-based pangolin conservation and education project . The goal of the project is to discourage local poachers from selling scales of pangolins to illegal traders, and thus interrupt the illegal trade pathway while protecting endangered pangolins . Participants of the project are also trained to help with long-term monitoring of pangolin population (species ecology, identification of threats and distribution).        

#6 Finance and job opportunities

One in ten jobs worldwide are directly or indirectly in the tourism industry. Tourism creates decent work opportunities and economic growth even in rural or remote areas. Tourism employs women and is often the first job experience of young people. Money from the tourism then often goes into improving local infrastructure, and sustainable management and protection of natural wonders that attract visitors.

Better infrastructure and services have a positive impact on the environment. They revolve around consumption of resources and their management. Modern infrastructure for wastewater cleaning saves water and promotes more efficient use of it. Waste management facilities focus on recycling materials rather than just dumping waste into sea or to landfills.

Tourism also directly helps to fund conservation activities of national parks, or other nature and wildlife preservation projects. Visitors are usually asked to pay entrance fees or a small tax that is meant to support the project.  

Costa Rica has one of the most successful rainforest conservation strategies, which enables the country to protect and care for its incredibly biodiversity rich rainforests, while at the same time generating income from tourism. A part of this income goes back to the rainforest conservation maintenance, research, and professional training of park guards. The rest sustains regional economy and creates balanced life opportunities for locals.       

#7 Adoption of sustainable practices and new legislation

We have partially tapped into this aspect already in the previous point. It is closely linked. More funds available to a region mean better possibilities to improve infrastructure and services. Modernization of infrastructure goes hand in hand with a transition to sustainable technologies and seeking of long-term solutions that will benefit people and the local environment.

Many travelers care about their impact on the environment. They are willing to pay for environmentally friendly services and accommodation when visiting a new place. Many destinations already follow the suit and are changing their approach to tourism by considering their environmental impact in their management.

Additionally, governments also respond to this pressure and often enforce regulations to further protect local natural resources by adopting sustainable practices in the industry.

You can see this trend in increasing numbers of eco-tourism lodges around the world; or recycling bins placed in public areas to collect different materials for more efficient waste management; in water saving measures and recommendations adopted by accommodation providers; or even large-scale renewable energy projects that power whole regions.

Several studies highlighted the benefits of renewable energy for maintaining healthy environment during the seasonal influx of tourists to island destinations. For example, a study of Mediterranean islands sees renewable energy projects as a tool to provide sufficient energy to residents and tourists during the periods of increased demand, while protecting already fragile and limited resources islands have.

Tourism and the environment could go well together

The success of tourism relies on good infrastructure and decent quality of services. The industry therefore helps the community development and brings new sources of inspiration and motivation for protection of biodiversity rich natural areas, wildlife, or whole ecosystems.

Many new conservation projects raise hope of local people in being able to sustain their families, while taking care of their home, of their legacy, of a place shaped by the nurturing hands of their ancestors. They hope that their effort will be appreciated and rewarded by respectful visitors.

Was this article helpful?

About greentumble.

Greentumble was founded in the summer of 2015 by us, Sara and Ovi . We are a couple of environmentalists who seek inspiration for life in simple values based on our love for nature. Our goal is to inspire people to change their attitudes and behaviors toward a more sustainable life. Read more about us .

• Agriculture
• Biodiversity
• Deforestation
• Endangered Species
• Green Living
• Solar Energy

Sliding Sidebar

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• My Account Login
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 31 May 2023

Eco-tourism, climate change, and environmental policies: empirical evidence from developing economies

• Yunfeng Shang 1 ,
• Chunyu Bi 2 ,
• Xinyu Wei 2 ,
• Dayang Jiang 2 ,
• Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5446-7093 3 , 4 &
• Ehsan Rasoulinezhad   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7726-1757 5  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  275 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

7563 Accesses

7 Citations

1 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Environmental studies

Developing ecotourism services is a suitable solution to help developing countries improve the status of sustainable development indicators and protect their environment. The primary purpose of this paper is to find out the effects of green governance variables and carbon dioxide emissions on ecotourism for 40 developing economies from 2010 to 2021. The results confirmed a uni-directional causal relationship between the green governance indicator and the inflation rate of the ecotourism indicator. In addition, with a 1% improvement in the green governance index of developing countries, the ecotourism of these countries will increase by 0.43%. In comparison, with a 1% increase in the globalization index of these countries, ecotourism will increase by 0.32%. Moreover, ecotourism in developing countries is more sensitive to macroeconomic variables changes than in developed economies. Geopolitical risk is an influential factor in the developing process of ecotourism. The practical policies recommended by this research are developing the green financing market, establishing virtual tourism, granting green loans to small and medium enterprises, and government incentives to motivate active businesses.

Similar content being viewed by others

Comprehensive green growth indicators across countries and territories

Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie, Phebe Asantewaa Owusu & John Taden

Role of foreign direct Investment and political openness in boosting the eco-tourism sector for achieving sustainability

Yunfeng Shang, Qin Yang & Yuanjie Pu

Ways to bring private investment to the tourism industry for green growth

Fengxiao Gong & Hui Chen

Introduction

The challenge of climate change has become a primary threat to living on the Earth in the last centuries (Rasoulinzhad and Taghizadeh-Hesary, 2022 ). Many meetings of the countries at the regional and international level are held on the topics of environment and climate change. Regardless of environmental issues, population growth, and the lack of control of greenhouse gas emissions, industrialization has been the most crucial cause of the climate change crisis. Chao and Feng ( 2018 ) address human activity as the leading cause of climate change and express that this challenge is a potential threat to living on Earth. Woodward ( 2019 ) argued that climate change threats include the rise in global temperature, the melting of polar ice caps, and unprecedented disease outbreaks. Therefore, urgent policies and solutions are essential to control and lower the risk of global change. One of the signs of climate change is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface. Figure 1 shows the temperature data from 1910 to 2021 for the four continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America.

Source: Authors from NOAA ( https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/global/time-series ).

The data in Fig. 1 shows that the air temperature has increased significantly over the past century, which has been more prominent in Asia and Europe. In 2021, we saw a decrease in temperature changes due to the spread of the Corona disease and a decrease in the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the role of the Asian continent in increasing the global temperature has been more than other continents due to its large population and excessive consumption of fossil fuels.

During the past decades, the world’s countries have tried to formulate and implement various environmental policies collectively in the form of agreements or separately to fight environmental threats. Regarding international agreements, such things as the Paris Agreement of 2015, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, the Montreal Protocol of 1987, and the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer in 1985 can be addressed whose primary purpose is to integrate the goals and motivation of the international community to the world’s environmental threats. However, a group of earlier studies, such as Zheng et al. ( 2017 ), Takashima ( 2018 ), and Roelfsema et al. ( 2022 ), emphasized the inefficiency of these global agreements, especially after the left the USA from the Paris Agreement on 1 June 2017. The most important cause of this inefficiency has been the need for more motivation of countries to fulfill their international obligations towards environmental issues. However, many governments consider the threat of climate change only within their geographical boundaries and have tried to formulate and implement green policies to advance their environmental protection goals. These policies include green financial policies (green taxes, green subsidies), monetary policies (such as green loans and green financing), and cultural and social policies in line with sustainable development. The ultimate goal of these green policies is a green economy, an environmentally friendly economy, a zero carbon economy, or a sustainable economy. Lee et al. ( 2022 ) define the green economy as a broad concept comprising green industry, agriculture, and services. Centobelli et al. ( 2022 ) express that environmental sustainability should be more attention in the service sector owing to its penetration into social life and interactions.

Tourism and travel-related services are among countries’ main parts of the service sector. By creating the flow of tourists, tourism services can lead to capital transfer, job creation, cultural exchange (globalization), and increasing welfare in the country hosting the tours. According to the Yearbook of Tourism Statistics published by the World Tourism Organization, international tourism has increased from 522.2 billion US dollars in 1995 to nearly 1.86 trillion US dollars in 2019. This increase shows the importance of tourism services in generating income for countries, especially in the era of Corona and post-corona. Casado-Aranda et al. ( 2021 ) express that tourism services can be a central driver of economic growth recovery in post COVID era. Jeyacheya and Hampton ( 2022 ) argue that tourism can make high incomes for host countries leading to job creation and economic flourishing in destination cities for tourists.

An important issue mentioned in the corona era and relies on the post-corona era is the revitalizing of green economic growth. An important issue mentioned in the corona era and relying on the post-corona era is the revitalizing green economic growth (Bai et al., 2022 ; Werikhe, 2022 ), an opportunity that countries should pay more attention to in order to rebuild their economic activities. In other words, countries should plan their return to economic prosperity with environmental issues in mind. To this end, the issue of tourism finds a branch called Ecotourism or sustainable tourism which has environmental concerns and tries to help countries to improve environmental protection policies. Ecotourism is an approach based on environmental criteria, which is opposed to over-tourism (a type of tourism that disrupts the protection of the environment and destroys natural resources). The International Ecotourism Society defines Ecotourism as an efficient way to conserve the environment and improve local people’s well-being. It can be said that Ecotourism, along with various economic advantages (income generation, job creation, globalization, poverty alleviation), will bring environmental protection to the world’s countries, achieving the goals of green economic growth recovery and sustainable development. Xu et al. ( 2022 ) consider Ecotourism as one of the essential components of achieving sustainable development in the post-corona era.

Ecotourism in developing countries has more priorities compared to developed economies. Firstly, developing countries are often countries with financial problems of the government, and the governments in these countries need more capital to advance sustainable development goals. Therefore, developing ecotourism services can be a suitable solution to help these countries improve the status of sustainable development indicators and protect their environment. Second, due to the spread of the Corona disease, developing countries have experienced numerous bankruptcy in the tourism services sector. Therefore, promoting ecotourism in these countries is of great importance in the post-corona era. Third, developing countries have a high share in the emission of greenhouse gases in the world due to their high dependence on fossil fuels and the lack of advanced green technologies. Fourth, due to bureaucratic processes, high cost, and lack of market transparency, greenwashing may happen in developing economies’ ecotourism industry, meaning that a company serving ecotourism services makes its activities seem more sustainable and ethical than they are. The term “greenwashing” can harshly impact the future development path of the ecotourism industry in developing economies. According to the reasons mentioned above, developing ecotourism in developing countries can be an essential factor in controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in these countries.

This paper tries to contribute to the existing literature from the following aspects:

Calculating the ecotourism index for selected countries based on the criteria for measuring sustainable tourism stated by the World Tourism Organization in the United Nations. Considering that there is no specific index for ecotourism, the calculation of ecotourism in this article will be innovative.

Measuring the green governance index as a proxy for environmental policies for selected countries based on the Environment Social and Governance (ESG) data.

Selecting a sample of 40 developing countries from different geographical regions to calculate the interconnections between ecotourism, green governance, and climate change

Making a further discussion to address the role of uncertainty and the developing level of countries in the relationship between ecotourism and explanatory variables.

The main results confirm the existence of a uni-directional causal relationship running from the green governance indicator and inflation rate to the ecotourism indicator. In addition, with a 1% improvement in the green governance index of developing countries, the ecotourism of these countries will increase by 0.43%. A 1% increase in the globalization index of these countries accelerates ecotourism by 0.32%.

Moreover, ecotourism in developing countries is more sensitive to macroeconomic variables changes than in developed economies. Geopolitical risk is an influential factor in the developing process of ecotourism. The practical policies recommended by this research are developing the green financing market, establishing virtual tourism, granting green loans to small and medium enterprises, and government incentives to motivate active businesses.

The paper in continue is organized as follows: section “Literature review” provides a short literature review to determine the gaps this research seeks to fill. Section “Data and model specification” argues data and model specification. The following section represents empirical results. Section “Discussion” expresses discussion, whereas the last section provides conclusions, policy implications, research limitations, and recommendations to research further.

Literature review

This part of the article analyzes and classifies the previous literature on ecotourism and sustainable development in a rational and structured way. The importance of tourism in economic growth and development has been discussed in previous studies. However, the study of the effect of tourism on climate change has received little attention. Especially the relationship between sustainable tourism, climate change, and environmental policies is a problem that has yet to receive the attention of academic experts.

A group of previous studies has focused on the place of tourism in economic development and growth. Holzner ( 2011 ) focused on the consequences of tourism development on the economic performance of 134 countries from 1970 to 2007. They found out that excessive dependence on tourism income leads to Dutch disease in the economy, and other economic sectors need to develop to the extent of the tourism sector. In another study, Sokhanvar et al. ( 2018 ) investigated the causal link between tourism and economic growth in emerging economies from 1995 to 2014. The main results confirmed that the linkage is country-dependent. Brida et al. ( 2020 ) studied 80 economies from 1995 to 2016 to determine how tourism and economic development are related. The paper’s conclusions highlighted tourism’s-positive role in economic activities.

Another group of previous studies has linked tourism to sustainability targets. Sorensen and Grindsted ( 2021 ) expressed that nature tourism development has a positive and direct impact on achieving sustainable development goals of countries. In a new study, Li et al. ( 2022 ) studied the impacts of tourism development on life quality (as one of the sustainable development goals defined by the UN in 2015) in the case of Japan. They found that tourism development positively impacts the quality of life of age groups in the country. Ahmad et al. ( 2022 ) explored the role of tourism in the sustainability of G7 economies from 2000–2019. The primary findings revealed the positive impact of tourism arrivals on sustainable economic development. Zekan et al. ( 2022 ) investigated the impact of tourism on regional sustainability in Europe. They concluded that tourism development increases transport, leading to increased carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, tourism development causes environmental pollution.

Tourism that can pay attention to environmental issues is called “ecotourism.” Many new studies have studied different dimensions of ecotourism. Lu et al. ( 2021 ) expanded the concept of the ecotourism industry. The significant results expressed that smart tourist cities are essential for efficient ecotourism in countries. Thompson ( 2022 ) expressed the characteristics of ecotourism development through survey methodology. The results confirmed the importance of transparent regulations, government support, and social intention to promote ecotourism. In another study, Heshmati et al. ( 2022 ) employed the SWOT analysis method to explore the critical success factors of ecotourism development in Iran. They found that legal documentation and private participation are major influential factors in promoting ecotourism in Iran. In line with the previous research, Hosseini et al. ( 2021 ) tried to explore the influential factors in promoting ecotourism in Iran by employing a SWOT analysis. They depicted that attracting investors is essential to enhance ecotourism projects in Iran. Hasana et al. ( 2022 ) reviewed research to analyze the earlier studies about ecotourism. The conclusions expressed that ecotourism is necessary for environmental protection. However, it is a challenging plan for the government, and they should carry out various policies toward ecotourism development. Kunjuraman et al. ( 2022 ) studied the role of ecotourism on rural community development in Malaysia. The significant results confirmed that ecotourism could transfer-positive impacts.

Several earlier studies have concentrated on the characteristics of ecotourism in different developed and developing economies. For example, Ruhanen ( 2019 ) investigated the ecotourism status in Australia. The paper concluded that the country could potentially make a larger share of ecotourism to the entire local tourism industry. Jin et al. ( 2022 ) studied the role of local community power on green tourism in Japan. They concluded that the concept of agricultural village activity and regional support positively influences the development of green tourism in Japan as a developed economy. Choi et al. ( 2022 ) sought to find aspects of ecotourism development in South Korea. The preliminary results confirmed the importance of green governance and efficient regulation to promote a sustainable tourism industry. Baloch et al. ( 2022 ) explored the ecotourism specifications in the developing economy of Pakistan. They found that Pakistan’s ecotourism needs government support and the social well-being of the visited cities. Sun et al. ( 2022 ) studied ecotourism in China. They concluded that there is imbalanced development of ecotourism among Chinese provinces due to the need for more capital to invest in all ecotourism projects throughout the Chinese cities. Tajer and Demir ( 2022 ) analyzed the ecotourism strategy in Iran. They concluded that despite various potentials in the country, insufficient capital, lack of social awareness, and political tension are the major obstacles to promoting a sustainable tourism industry in Iran.

Another group of earlier studies has drawn attention to promoting eco-tourism in the post COVID era. They believe that the corona disease has created an excellent opportunity to pay more attention to environmental issues and that countries should move towards sustainable development concepts such as sustainable (eco) tourism in the post-corona era. Soliku et al. ( 2021 ) studied eco-tourism in Ghana during the pandemic. The findings depicted the vague impacts of a pandemic on eco-tourism. Despite the short-term negative consequence of the pandemic on eco-tourism, it provides various opportunities for developing this sector in Ghana. Hosseini et al. ( 2021 ) employed the Fuzzy Dematel technique to find solutions for promoting eco-tourism during COVID-19. They found out that planning to increase the capacity of eco-tourism and incentive policies by governments can help promote the eco-tourism aspect under the pandemic’s consequences. Abedin et al. ( 2022 ) studied the consequence of COVID-19 on coastal eco-tourism development. The primary findings confirmed the negative impacts of a pandemic on the development of eco-tourism.

A review of previous studies shows that tourism can positively impact green growth and sustainable development. Sustainable tourism can be used as a policy to deal with the threat of climate change. This issue needs more attention in the corona and post-corona eras. Because in the post-corona era, many countries have sought to revive green economic growth, and ecotourism can be one of the tools to achieve it. As observed, a detailed study of the relationship between climate change, ecotourism, and environmental policies has yet to be done. Therefore, this research will address and fill this literature gap.

Data and model specification

Data description.

The paper seeks to find the relationship between climate change, ecotourism, and environmental policy for the panel of 40 developing economies from different regions from 2010 to 2021 (480 observations). The sample size could have been more extensive due to the lack of information on some variables. However, there are 480 observations in the data analysis of the data panel; therefore, the number of samples selected is acceptable.

To determine the proxies for main variables, CO2 emissions per capita are selected as the proxy for climate change. Many earlier studies (e.g., Espoir et al., 2022 ) have employed this variable as an appropriate variable representing the status of climate change. Regarding ecotourism, the World Tourism Organization proposed some measurements of sustainable tourism, and also following Yusef et al. ( 2014 ), the entropy weight method is employed to calculate a multi-dimensional ecotourism indicator comprising per capita green park area (square meters), gross domestic tourism revenue (US dollars), the ratio of good air quality (%), green transport, renewable water resources (km3) and deforestation rate (%). It is a novel ecotourism indicator that can show the ecotourism status in countries.

In addition, the green governance index is calculated as a proxy for environmental policy. Principally, the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) data from World Bank are gathered to calculate this variable. With the improvement of the Green Governance Index, the quality of environmental policies will also increase, and vice versa. With the adverseness of the Green Governance Index, the efficiency of environmental policies will decrease.

Regarding control variables, the inflation rate as an influential factor in tourism flows is selected. The importance of this variable to promoting/declining tourism flows has been drawn to attention by some earlier studies, such as Liu et al. ( 2022 ). The inflation rate can raise the total cost of travel, causing a reduction in tourism flows, while any reduction in the inflation rate can increase the intention of tourists to travel. In addition, the KOF globalization index provided by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute is another control variable. A country with a higher degree of globalization means more readiness to accept tourists from countries with different cultures and religions.

Model specification

According to the variables mentioned above, 40 examined developing countries from 2010 to 2021, the panel co-integration model can be written as Eq. 1 :

ETOR indicates the ecotourism index, while CO2, GGI, INF, and GLOB denote Carbon dioxide emissions per capita, green governance index, inflation rate, and globalization index, respectively. i is 1,2,…,40 and shows examined developing economies, while t is time and contains 2010, 2011,..,2021.

Prior to the estimation of coefficients of Eq. 1 , the panel unit root tests are employed to find out whether the series is stationary. To this end, three tests of LLC (Levin et al., 2002 ), Breitung’s test ( 2000 ), and the PP-Fisher test (Philips and Perron, 1988 ). If all the variables are stationary at the first level of difference (I(1)), a panel co-integration test can be conducted to explore whether the model is spurious. To this end, Kao’s co-integration test ( 1999 ) and Pedroni’s residual co-integration test ( 2004 ) are conducted. If the co-integration relationship exists among variables, the panel causality test can be run to determine the causal linkages among variables. In this paper, the two steps of Engle and Granger (1987)‘s test, which is based on the error correction model (ECM) is used as Eqs. 2 – 6 :

In the above Equations, Δ is the first differences of variables, while θ and ECT represent the fixed country effect and error correction term.

The next step is the long-run panel co-integration estimations. To this end, Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) as robustness checks are conducted, which are two famous panel co-integration estimators (Rasoulinezhad, 2018 ). The FMOLS estimator has various advantages. It allows serial correlation, endogeneity, and cross-sectional heterogeneity (Erdal and Erdal, 2020 ).

Empirical results

In this section, we will implement the experimental research model. The purpose of implementing an econometric model based on panel data is to find the effects of green governance variables and carbon dioxide emissions on ecotourism. As the first step, the panel unit root tests are conducted. The results are reported in Table 1 as follows:

According to Table 1 , all three-panel unit root tests depict that all series are non-stationary at the level and become stationary after a first difference. Next, the panel co-integration tests are conducted, and their results are represented in Tables 2 and 3 :

The two-panel co-integration tests’ findings confirm the presence of co-integration linkages among variables.

The panel causality test studies the short-term and long-term causal relationship among variables. Table 4 reports the results of the panel causality check as follows:

According to Table 4 , there is a uni-directional causal relationship between the green governance indicator and the inflation rate of the ecotourism indicator. At the same time, there is a bi-directional causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and ecotourism indicators, confirming the existence of the feedback effect. In addition, there is only short-term causality from the green governance indicator to carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, ecotourism and the globalization index have a uni-directional causal linkage. In the short term, improving ecotourism can cause globalization and reduce carbon emissions in developing economies. Regarding the long-term causality, it can be concluded that the ECT of ecotourism, green governance index, and globalization index are statistically significant. These three variables are major adjustment variables when the system departs from equilibrium.

In the last stage, the long-run estimations are done through FMOLS and DOLS estimators. Table 5 lists the results of the estimations by these two-panel co-integration estimators:

Based on FMOLS estimation, it can be concluded that the Green Governance index has a positive and significant coefficient in such a way that with a 1% improvement in the green governance index of developing countries, the ecotourism of these countries will increase by 0.43%. By improving the state of green governance, the quality of formulated and implemented green policies in these countries will increase, improving the conditions of ecotourism development. This finding aligns with Agrawal et al. ( 2022 ) and Debbarma and Choi ( 2022 ), who believe that green governance is essential to sustainable development. In the case of carbon dioxide emissions, the coefficient of this variable is not statistically significant. In other words, the variable of carbon dioxide emissions per capita has no significant effect on ecotourism in developing countries. The inflation rate has a significant negative effect on ecotourism. With a 1% increase in the general prices of goods and services in developing countries, ecotourism will decrease by 0.34%. This finding aligns with Rahman ( 2022 ), who showed a negative relationship between inflation and sustainable development in their research. An increase in inflation means an increase in the total cost of a tourist’s trip to the destination country, inhibiting the growth of tourist services.

Regarding the globalization variable, this variable has a significant positive effect on the ecotourism of developing countries. With a 1% increase in the globalization index of these countries, ecotourism will increase by 0.32%. Globalization means more interaction with the world’s countries, acceptance of different cultures and customs, more language learning in society, more acceptance of tourism, and development of tourist services in the country. This finding is consistent with the results of Akadiri et al. ( 2019 ), who confirmed that globalization is one of the crucial components in tourism development.

The DOLS estimator was also used to ensure the obtained findings’ validity. The results of this method are shown in Table 5 . The signs of the coefficients are consistent with the results obtained by the FMOLS method. Therefore, the validity and reliability of the obtained coefficients are confirmed.

In this section, we will briefly discuss the relationship between ecotourism and climate change and the environmental policy considering the uncertainty and the relationship between variables in developed and developing countries.

Consideration of uncertainty

Uncertainty as a primary reason for risk has become a research issue in recent decades. Uncertainty can make the future unpredictable and uncontrollable, affecting economic decision-making. Regarding tourism, the impacts of uncertainty have been drawn to attention by several earlier studies (e.g., Dutta et al., 2020 ; Das et al., 2020 ; and Balli et al., 2019 ; Balli et al., 2018 ). In general, uncertainty in the tourism industry reflects tourists’ concerns and consumption habits in the way that by increasing uncertainty, it is expected that tourists make sense of risks and postpone their tourism activities, and vice versa; in the sphere of certainties, the various risks are clear, and tourists can make rational decisions for their tourism plans and activities. In order to explore the impacts of uncertainties on eco-tourism of the examined developing economies, the geopolitical risk index (GPR) as a proxy for economic policy uncertainty index is gathered and added as a control variable to Eq. 1 . The estimations results by FMOLS are reported in Table 6 as follows.

According to Table 6 , the uncertainty (geopolitical risk) has a negative coefficient meaning that with a 1% increase in geopolitical risk, the eco-tourism industry in the examined developing countries decreases by approximately 0.69%. The signs of coefficients of other variables align with the earlier findings, represented in Table 5 . In addition, the magnitude of the impact of geopolitical risk is larger than the impacts of other variables highlighting the importance of lower geopolitical risk in these economies to reach sustainable tourism targets.

Difference in developed and developing economies

Considering the different structures and financial power of these two groups of countries, the relationship between the variables mentioned in these two groups is expected to be different. In the previous section, the results for the group of developing countries showed that the Green Governance index has a positive and significant coefficient. In the case of carbon dioxide emissions, the coefficient of this variable is not statistically significant. The inflation rate has a significant negative effect on ecotourism. Regarding the globalization variable, it can be mentioned that this variable has a significant positive effect on the ecotourism of developing countries. In order to analyze the relationship between variables in the developed countries, the top 10 countries with the highest HDI in 2021 are selected (Switzerland (0.962), Norway (0.961), Iceland (0.959), Hong Kong (0.952), Australia (0.951), Denmark (0.948), Sweden (0.947) and Ireland (0.945)). The selected variables, explained in section “Data and model specification”, are collected from 2010 to 2021. The panel unit root tests confirmed that all series are non-stationary at the level and become stationary after a first difference. In addition, the presence of co-integration linkages among variables is revealed by the panel co-integration test. The panel co-integration estimator of FMOLS is employed to study the long-term relationship among variables. The findings are reported in Table 7 as follows:

According to the estimated coefficients, the green governance indicator positively and statistically significantly impacts ecotourism in the examined developed economies. However, the magnitude of the impact of this variable is more considerable for developing countries because these countries have more imbalances in markets and regulations. Therefore, the presence of good green tourism can have a more positive effect on advancing the goal of ecotourism. Contrary to the findings of developing countries, carbon dioxide emission in developed countries has a negative and significant effect, meaning that with an increase of 1% in carbon dioxide in developed countries, the level of ecotourism becomes more unfavorable by 0.034%. Moreover, inflation and globalization variables have significant negative and positive coefficients, respectively. However, the magnitudes of these two variables’ coefficients are also higher in developing countries. Ecotourism in developing countries is more sensitive to changes in macroeconomic variables such as green governance, globalization, and inflation.

Another difference between eco-tourism in developed and developing economies may be interpreted through the term “greenwashing,” introduced by Westerveld in 1986 (Maichum et al., 2016 ). In developing countries, due to the economic structure, limited knowledge, bureaucratic process, lack of legal eco-certification, and imperfect competition, a company involved in the eco-tourism industry makes an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into accepting the company’s services are in line with environmental protection policies. Hence, green governance in developing countries should have another role in regulating the eco-tourism market to lower the threat of greenwashing in eco-tourism services.

Conclusions and policy recommendations

Concluding remarks.

The findings of econometric modeling revealed the relationship between environmental policies, climate change, and ecotourism. Based on the findings of the econometric model, the following conclusions can be presented:

A uni-directional causal relationship runs from the green governance indicator and inflation rate to the ecotourism indicator, which means that any changes in green governance and inflation rate cause changes in ecotourism, which is vital for developing economies where governance and inflation rate are two crucial issues.

There is a bi-directional causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and ecotourism indicators, confirming the existence of the feedback hypothesis, expressing that in developing economies, any policies related to ecotourism cause changes in CO2 emissions and vice versa.

There is only short-term causality from the green governance indicator to carbon dioxide emissions, whereas there is a uni-directional causal linkage from ecotourism to the globalization index. In other words, in the short term, improving ecotourism can cause globalization and reduce carbon emissions in developing economies.

By improving green governance in developing economies, the quality of formulated and implemented green policies in these countries will increase, improving the conditions of ecotourism development.

An increase in the inflation rate raises the total cost of a tourist’s trip to developing economies, inhibiting the growth of eco-tourist services.

Globalization means more interaction with the world’s countries, acceptance of different cultures and customs, more language learning in society, more acceptance of tourism, and development of tourist services in developing countries.

Policy implications

In order to achieve the promotion of ecotourism in developing countries, the implementation of integrated and effective strategic and practical policies is of great importance. According to the concluding remarks mentioned, practical policies are presented as follows for enhancing ecotourism in developed countries. The development of ecotourism requires the improvement of various infrastructures and mechanisms, which depends on the implementation of projects related to ecotourism in developing countries. Because most countries do not have enough financial power to invest in such projects, developing the green financing market can be one of the critical practical solutions. The green financing tool can increase the investment risk and return on investment in such projects, and as a result, the participation of the private sector in these projects will increase. With information and communication technology development, virtual tourism can solve many environmental issues related to human physical presence. Virtual tourism is one of the branches of tourism services that provide people with destinations, places of interest, and tourist attractions with full quality but in virtual form. Another practical policy is granting green loans to small and medium enterprises active in ecotourism. Despite the organizational agility, these companies do not have the significant financial power to develop different sectors of ecotourism; therefore, the cooperation of the banking industry of developing countries by providing green loans (with low-interest rates) can motivate small and medium-sized companies in the field of activities related to ecotourism. Government incentives to motivate businesses active in ecotourism and government deterrent policies (green tax) from businesses active in the field of tourism to lead them to increase the share of ecotourism in their activities can be a proper operational strategy. In developing countries, the role of government and green governance is vital in advancing the goals of ecotourism. By improving the level of its green governance, the government can create efficient policies, regulations, and social tools to create motivation and desire to accept ecotourism, an essential and undeniable issue in developing societies. Creating a guarantee fund for ecotourism companies in developing countries is another practical policy to support these companies financially. Guarantee funds can be established with the participation of the people of ecotourism destinations in order to strengthen the financial strength of ecotourism companies in these destinations.

Limitations and recommendations to further research

This research had a practical and innovative contribution to the literature on ecotourism in developing countries. The findings obtained from the econometric model analysis provided appropriate practical and strategic policies to the policymakers of countries interested in the development of ecotourism. However, access to data related to the ecotourism index and sustainable development of developing countries due to the lack of community in a specific database is considered one of the critical limitations of this research. This limitation caused many developing countries to be excluded from the research sample, which may have created a deviation in the research. Adding more countries to the test sample in future research is suggested to obtain complete and accurate results. Also, due to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic at the end of 2019 and the Russia-Ukraine war since the beginning of 2022, it is suggested that these two variables be included in the econometric model as an illusion in order to analyze their effects on the ecotourism of the countries of the world. Using other econometric methods, such as artificial neural networks, is suggested to model ecotourism in different countries. Complex modeling by taking into account trends and trends to predict the relationship between variables in the future will be an essential step in formulating effective programs in ecotourism.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abedin Z, Handayani W, Zaky E, Faturrahman A (2022) Perceived risk and attitude’s mediating role between tourism knowledge and visit intention during the COVID-19 pandemic: implementation for coastal-ecotourism management. Heliyon 8(10):e10724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10724

Article   Google Scholar  

Agrawal A, Brandhorst S, Jain M, Liao C, Pradhan N, Solomon D (2022) From environmental governance to governance for sustainability. One Earth 5(6):615–621

Article   ADS   Google Scholar  

Ahmad N, Youjin L, Hdia M (2022) The role of innovation and tourism in sustainability: why is environment-friendly tourism necessary for entrepreneurship? J Clean Prod 379(Part 2):134799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134799

Akadiri S, Alola A, Akadiri A (2019) The role of globalization, real income, tourism in environmental sustainability target. Evidence from Turkey. Sci Total Environ 687:423–432

Article   ADS   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Bai X, Wang K, Tran T, Sadiq M, Trung L, Khudoykulov K (2022) Measuring China’s green economic recovery and energy environment sustainability: econometric analysis of sustainable development goals. Econ Anal Policy 75:768–779

Balli F, Shahzad SJH, Uddin GS (2018) A tale of two shocks: what do we learn from the impacts of economic policy uncertainties on tourism? Tour Manag68:470–475

Balli F, Uddin GS, Shahzad SJH (2019) Geopolitical risk and tourism demand in emerging economies. Tour Econ 25(6):997–1005

Baloch Q, Shah S, Iqbal N, Sheeraz M, Asadullah M, Mahar S, Khan A (2022) Impact of tourism development upon environmental sustainability: a suggested framework for sustainable ecotourism. Environ Sci Pollut Res https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22496-w

Breitung J (2000) The local power of some unit root tests for panel data. In: Baltagi B (ed.). Nonstationary panels, panel cointegration, and dynamic panels, advances in econometrics. vol. 15. JAI Press, Amsterdam. pp. 161–178

Brida J, Gomez D, Segarra V (2020) On the empirical relationship between tourism and economic growth. Tour Manag 81:104131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104131

Casado-Aranda L, Fernandez J, Bastidas-Manzano A (2021) Tourism research after the COVID-19 outbreak: insights for more sustainable, local and smart cities. Sustain Cities Soc 73:103126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103126

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Centobelli P, Cerchione R, Esposito E (2022) Environmental sustainability in the service industry of transportation and logistics service providers: systematic literature review and research directions. Transp Res Part D Trans Environ 53:454–470

Chao Q, Feng A (2018) Scientific basis of climate change and its response. Glob Energy Interconnect 1(4):420–427

Google Scholar  

Choi Y, Oh C, Chon J (2022) Applying the resilience principles for sustainable ecotourism development: a case study of the Nakdong Estuary, South Korea. Tour Manag 83:104237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104237

Das D, Dutta A, Bhadra A, Uddin GS (2020) Role of presidential uncertainties on the hotel industry. Ann Tour Res 81:102762

Debbarma J, Choi Y (2022) A taxonomy of green governance: a qualitative and quantitative analysis towards sustainable development. Sustain Cities Soc 79:103693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.103693

Dutta A, Mishra T, Uddin GS, Yang Y (2020) Brexit uncertainty and volatility persistence in tourism demand. Curr Issue Tour 24(16):2225–2232

Erdal H, Erdal G (2020) Panel FMOLS model analysis of the effects of livestock support policies on sustainable animal presence in Turkey. Sustainability 12:3444. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083444

Espoir D, Mudiangombe B, Bannor F, Sunge R, Tshitaka J (2022) CO2 emissions and economic growth: Assessing the heterogeneous effects across climate regimes in Africa. Sci Total Environ 804:150089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150089

Hasana U, Swain S, George B (2022) A bibliometric analysis of ecotourism: a safeguard strategy in protected areas. Region Sustain 3(1):27–40

Heshmati M, Gheitury M, Shadfar S (2022) Factors affecting possibility of ecotourism development and sustaining natural resources using SWOT approach in west Iran. Int J Geoheritage Parks 10(2):173–183

Holzner M (2011) Tourism and economic development: the beach disease. Tour Manag32(4):922–933

Hosseini S, Paydar M, Keshteli M (2021) Recovery solutions for ecotourism centers during the Covid-19 pandemic: utilizing Fuzzy DEMATEL and Fuzzy VIKOR methods. Exp Syst Appl 185:115594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2021.115594

Hosseini S, Paydar M, Triki C (2021) Implementing sustainable ecotourism in Lafour region, Iran: applying a clustering method based on SWOT analysis. J Clean Prod 329:129716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129716

Jeyacheya J, Hampton M (2022) Pathway choice and post-Covid tourism: Inclusive growth or business as usual? World Dev Sustain 1:100024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2022.100024

Jin C, Takao M, Yobuta M(2022) Impact of Japan’s local community power on green tourism. Asia Pacific J Region Sci 6:571–591

Kao C (1999) Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data. J Economet 90(1):1–44

Article   MathSciNet   MATH   Google Scholar  

Kunjuraman V, Hussin R, Aziz R (2022) Community-based ecotourism as a social transformation tool for rural community: a victory or a quagmire. J Outdoor Recreat Tour 39:100524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2022.100524

Lee C, Wang C, Ho S (2022) The dimension of green economy: Culture viewpoint. Econ Anal Policy 74:122–138

Levin A, Lin CF, Chu CS (2002) Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties. J Economet 108(1):1–24

Li J, Ridderstaat J, Yost E (2022) Tourism development and quality of life interdependence with evolving age-cohort-based population. Tour Manag 93:104621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2022.104621

Liu A, Kim Y, Song H (2022) Toward an accurate assessment of tourism economic impact: a systematic literature review. Ann Tour Res Empirical Insight 3(2):100054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annale.2022.100054

Lu C, Huang J, Chen C, Shu M, Hsu C, Bapu T (2021) An energy-efficient smart city for sustainable green tourism industry. Sustain Energy Technol Assess 47:101494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101494

Maichum K, Parichatnon S, Peng KC (2016) Application of the extended theory of planned behavior model to investigate purchase intention of green products among Thai consumers. Sustainability 8:1077

Pedroni P (2004) Panel cointegration: asymptotic and finite sample properties of pooled time series tests with an application to the PPP hypothesis. Economet Theory 20(3):597–625

Phillips PCB, Perron P (1988) Testing for a unit root in time series regressions. Biometrika. 75(2):335–346

Rahman M (2022) The effect of taxation on sustainable development goals: evidence from emerging countries. Heliyon 8(9):e10512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10512

Rasoulinezhad E (2018) A new evidence from the effects of Russia’s WTO accession on its foreign trade. Eur Econ Rev 8(1):73–92

Rasoulinezhad E, Taghizadeh-Hesary F (2022) Role of green finance in improving energy efficiency and renewable energy development. Energy Efficiency 15(2):14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-022-10021-4

Roelfsema M, Soest H, Elzen M, Coninck HH, Kuramochi T, Harmsen M, Dagnomilis I, Hohne N, Vuuren D (2022) Developing scenarios in the context of the Paris Agreement and application in the integrated assessment model IMAGE: a framework for bridging the policy-modelling divide. Environ Sci Policy 135:104–116

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Ruhanan L (2019) The prominence of eco in ecotourism experiences: an analysis of post-purchase online reviews. J Hosp Tour Manag 39:110–116

Sokhanvar A, Ciftcioglu S, Javid E (2018) Another look at tourism-economic development nexus. Tour Manag Perspect 26:97–106

Soliku O, Kyiire B, Mahama A, Kubio C (2021) Tourism amid COVID-19 pandemic: impacts and implications for building resilience in the eco-tourism sector in Ghana’s Savannah region. Heliyon 7(9):e07892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07892

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Sorensen F, Grindsted T (2021) Sustainability approaches and nature tourism development. Ann Tour Res 91:103307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2021.103307

Sun Y, Ding W, Yang G (2022) Green innovation efficiency of China’s tourism industry from the perspective of shared inputs: Dynamic evolution and combination improvement paths. Ecol Indica 138:108824. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108824

Tajer E, Demir S (2022) Ecotourism strategy of UNESCO city in Iran: applying a new quantitative method integrated with BWM. J Clean Prod 376:134284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134284

Takashima N (2018) International environmental agreements between asymmetric countries: a repeated game analysis. Jpn World Econ 48:38–44

Thompson B (2022) Ecotourism anywhere? The lure of ecotourism and the need to scrutinize the potential competitiveness of ecotourism developments. Tour Manag 92:104568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2022.104568

Werikhe A (2022) Towards a green and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Curr Res Environ Sustain 4:100124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100124

Woodward A (2019) Climate change: disruption, risk and opportunity. Glob Trans 1:44–49

Xu L, Ao C, Liu B, Cai Z (2022) Cotourism and sustainable development: a scientometric review of global research trends. Environ Dev Sustain https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02190-0

Yusef N, Rahman F, Jamil M, Iranmanesh M (2014) Measuring the quality of ecotourism services: case study–based model validation. Sage Open, https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014538270

Zekan B, Weismayer C, Gunter U, Schuh B, Sedlacek S (2022) Regional sustainability and tourism carrying capacities. J Clean Prod 339:130624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130624

Zheng H, Dai H, Lai H, Wang W (2017) U.S. withdrawal from the Paris agreement: reasons, impacts, and China’s response. Adv Clim Change Rese 8(4):220–225

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Hospitality Administration, Zhejiang Yuexiu University, Zhejiang, China

• Yunfeng Shang

School of Economics, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin, China

Chunyu Bi, Xinyu Wei & Dayang Jiang

School of Global Studies, Tokai University, Tokyo, Japan

Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary

TOKAI Research Institute for Environment and Sustainability (TRIES), Tokai University, Tokyo, Japan

Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Ehsan Rasoulinezhad

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yunfeng Shang , Dayang Jiang or Ehsan Rasoulinezhad .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Additional information.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Shang, Y., Bi, C., Wei, X. et al. Eco-tourism, climate change, and environmental policies: empirical evidence from developing economies. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 275 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01777-w

Download citation

Received : 11 November 2022

Accepted : 18 May 2023

Published : 31 May 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01777-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Spatial effects of green finance development in chinese provinces under the context of high-quality energy development.

• Fangbin Qian

Economic Change and Restructuring (2024)

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

Transforming tourism for climate action.

Sustainable development

• Biodiversity

Climate Action

• Global Tourism Plastics Initiative
• Hotel Energy Solutions (HES)
• Resource Efficiency in Tourism
• Small Islands Developing States (SIDS)
• Travel facilitation
• UNGA Sustainable Tourism Resolutions

share this content

• Share this article on facebook
• Share this article on twitter
• Share this article on linkedin

Find out about the Glasgow Declaration

The tourism sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and at the same time contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), which cause global warming. Accelerating climate action in tourism is therefore of utmost importance for the resilience of the sector. Climate action is understood as the efforts to measure and reduce GHG emissions and strengthen adaptive capacity to climate induced impacts. 1

There is a growing consensus among tourism stakeholders as to how the future resilience of tourism will depend on the sector’s ability to embrace a low carbon pathway and cut emissions by 50% by 2030

According to UN Tourism/ITF latest research , released in December 2019 at UNFCCC COP25, CO 2 emissions from tourism are forecasted to increase by 25% by 2030 from 2016 levels, against the current ambition scenario. The report provides insights into the evolution of tourism demand across the different global regions from 2016 to 2030 and presents transport-related CO2 emissions for the period. In 2016, transport-related emissions from tourism contributed to 5% of all man-made emissions and were set to increase to 5,3% by 2030 against a current ambition scenario. 

Find Transport-related CO 2 Emissions of the Tourism Sector - Modelling

Therefore, the need to scale up climate action in tourism is of utmost importance, especially even more now that the sector has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2023 reaching 88% levels of the international tourist arrivals in 2019. The cost of inaction with regards to climate will be in the long run larger than the cost of any other crisis.

UN Tourism is committed to accelerate progress towards low carbon tourism development and the contribution of the sector to international climate goals by: 

• Strengthening the measurement and disclosure of CO 2 emissions in tourism
• Accelerating the decarbonization of tourism operations
• Engaging the tourism sector in adaptation and carbon removal

In order to support the tourism stakeholders to advance on measuring their GHG emissions, in March 2023, UN Tourism published the report on CLIMATE ACTION IN TOURISM SECTOR: AN OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS TO MEASURE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS . The report was developed with support from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection of Germany (BMU) and released in collaboration with UN Climate Change (UNFCCC).   Read the full report here .

In order to support National Tourism Administrations, in March 2024 UN Tourism launched the Policy Guidance with support from the UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) and technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The  Policy Guidance has been developed to assist governmental agencies dedicated to tourism in the development of tourism climate action policies and initiatives to support the low-carbon transition for tourism. This policy guidance provides examples of good practice from around the world to illustrate how NTAs can implement climate-enabling policy and other initiatives as well as benefit from climate initiatives in other sectors. The policy guidance is complemented by a Glasgow Declaration signatory Pack for NTAs which provides practical recommendations on how to get started with climate action.

RELATED ACTIVITIES

The glasgow declaration: a commitment to a decade of climate action in tourism.

The Glasgow Declaration aims to act as a catalyst for increased urgency about the need to accelerate climate action in tourism and to secure strong actions and commitment.

The signatories of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism are committing to act now and accelerate climate action to support the global goals of cutting emissions by at least a half over the next decade and reach Net Zero emissions as soon as possible before 2050.  Signatories of the Glasgow Declaration are developing climate plans aligned with  5 pathways : measure, decarbonize, regenerate, collaborate, finance, and reporting progress on an annual basis.

UN Tourism outlined the collective progress with the first Glasgow Declaration Implementation Report (2023) .The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism Implementation Report 2023 presents the results of a systematic review of all progress updates received from signatories during the first reporting exercise conducted between January and June 2023 (over 400 updates), which in many cases include the submission of a Climate Action Plan. The report represents a first-of-its-kind picture of the rapidly developing engagement of the tourism sector with the challenges of climate action.

Please visit the One Planet network website to learn more about:

Participation at UN Climate Change Conferences of the Parties (COP)

Since 2019, COP25, UN Tourism has been participating on an annual basis to the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to position the important role that the tourism sector can play to support international climate goals.

Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism

Related links

• Access UN Tourism/ITF research on transport-related CO2 emissions from tourism
• Access additional information on the official side-event at COP25
• Watch the Climate Panel from the 23rd UN Tourism General Assembly
• Download the report “Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges"
• Global Survey of Climate Action in Tourism

Tourism Stakeholders Invited to Share Progress on Climate Action

• The Road to Climate Neutrality: Experiences, Challenges and Support for the Caribbean tourism sector

Tourism at COP28 – Delivering on the Climate Action Commitments of the Glasgow Declaration

UN Tourism Welcomes Mexican States to Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism

New Report to Support Climate Action in the Tourism Sector

UN Tourism at COP27: Uniting Tourism Around Tangible Climate Action Plans

Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism Surpasses 500 Signatories

Tourism unites behind the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action at COP26

Launch of the Glasgow Declaration: A commitment to a decade of climate action in tourism

The Glasgow Declaration: An urgent global call for commitment to a decade of climate action in tourism

Tourism’s Carbon Emissions Measured in Landmark Report Launched At COP25

1. View Goal 13 Targets 2   Carbon Brief 3. Cut Global Emissions by 7.6 Percent Every Year for Next Decade to Meet 1.5°C Paris Target - UN Report

14 important environmental impacts of tourism + explanations + examples

Disclaimer: Some posts on Tourism Teacher may contain affiliate links. If you appreciate this content, you can show your support by making a purchase through these links or by buying me a coffee . Thank you for your support!

The environmental impacts of tourism have gained increasing attention in recent years.

With the rise in sustainable tourism and an increased number of initiatives for being environmentally friendly, tourists and stakeholders alike are now recognising the importance of environmental management in the tourism industry.

In this post, I will explain why the environmental impacts of tourism are an important consideration and what the commonly noted positive and negative environmental impacts of tourism are.

Why the environment is so important to tourism

Positive environmental impacts of tourism, water resources, land degradation , local resources , air pollution and noise , solid waste and littering , aesthetic pollution, construction activities and infrastructure development, deforestation and intensified or unsustainable use of land , marina development, coral reefs, anchoring and other marine activities , alteration of ecosystems by tourist activities , environmental impacts of tourism: conclusion, environmental impacts of tourism reading list.

The quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential to tourism. However, tourism’s relationship with the environment is complex and many activities can have adverse environmental effects if careful tourism planning and management is not undertaken.

It is ironic really, that tourism often destroys the very things that it relies on!

Many of the negative environmental impacts that result from tourism are linked with the construction of general infrastructure such as roads and airports, and of tourism facilities, including resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses and marinas. The negative impacts of tourism development can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which it depends.

It’s not ALL negative, however!

Tourism has the potential to create beneficial effects on the environment by contributing to environmental protection and conservation. It is a way to raise awareness of environmental values and it can serve as a tool to finance protection of natural areas and increase their economic importance.

In this article I have outlined exactly how we can both protect and destroy the environment through tourism. I have also created a new YouTube video on the environmental impacts of tourism, you can see this below. (by the way- you can help me to be able to keep content like this free for everyone to access by subscribing to my YouTube channel! And don’t forget to leave me a comment to say hi too!).

Although there are not as many (far from it!) positive environmental impacts of tourism as there are negative, it is important to note that tourism CAN help preserve the environment!

The most commonly noted positive environmental impact of tourism is raised awareness. Many destinations promote ecotourism and sustainable tourism and this can help to educate people about the environmental impacts of tourism. Destinations such as Costa Rica and The Gambia have fantastic ecotourism initiatives that promote environmentally-friendly activities and resources. There are also many national parks, game reserves and conservation areas around the world that help to promote positive environmental impacts of tourism.

Positive environmental impacts can also be induced through the NEED for the environment. Tourism can often not succeed without the environment due the fact that it relies on it (after all we can’t go on a beach holiday without a beach or go skiing without a mountain, can we?).

In many destinations they have organised operations for tasks such as cleaning the beach in order to keep the destination aesthetically pleasant and thus keep the tourists happy. Some destinations have taken this further and put restrictions in place for the number of tourists that can visit at one time.

Not too long ago the island of Borocay in the Philippines was closed to tourists to allow time for it to recover from the negative environmental impacts that had resulted from large-scale tourism in recent years. Whilst inconvenient for tourists who had planned to travel here, this is a positive example of tourism environmental management and we are beginning to see more examples such as this around the world.

Negative environmental impacts of tourism

Negative environmental impacts of tourism occur when the level of visitor use is greater than the environment’s ability to cope with this use.

Uncontrolled conventional tourism poses potential threats to many natural areas around the world. It can put enormous pressure on an area and lead to impacts such as: soil erosion , increased pollution, discharges into the sea, natural habitat loss, increased pressure on endangered species and heightened vulnerability to forest fires. It often puts a strain on water resources, and it can force local populations to compete for the use of critical resources.

I will explain each of these negative environmental impacts of tourism below.

Depletion of natural resources

Tourism development can put pressure on natural resources when it increases consumption in areas where resources are already scarce. Some of the most common noted examples include using up water resources, land degradation and the depletion of other local resources.

The tourism industry generally overuses water resources for hotels, swimming pools, golf courses and personal use of water by tourists. This can result in water shortages and degradation of water supplies, as well as generating a greater volume of waste water.

In drier regions, like the Mediterranean, the issue of water scarcity is of particular concern. Because of the hot climate and the tendency for tourists to consume more water when on holiday than they do at home, the amount used can run up to 440 litres a day. This is almost double what the inhabitants of an average Spanish city use. 

Golf course maintenance can also deplete fresh water resources.

In recent years golf tourism has increased in popularity and the number of golf courses has grown rapidly.

Golf courses require an enormous amount of water every day and this can result in water scarcity. Furthermore, golf resorts are more and more often situated in or near protected areas or areas where resources are limited, exacerbating their impacts.

An average golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs 1500kg of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides per year and uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers.

Important land resources include fertile soil, forests , wetlands and wildlife. Unfortunately, tourism often contributes to the degradation of said resources. Increased construction of tourism facilities has increased the pressure on these resources and on scenic landscapes.

Animals are often displaced when their homes are destroyed or when they are disturbed by noise. This may result in increased animals deaths, for example road-kill deaths. It may also contribute to changes in behaviour.

Animals may become a nuisance, by entering areas that they wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) usually go into, such as people’s homes. It may also contribute towards aggressive behaviour when animals try to protect their young or savage for food that has become scarce as a result of tourism development.

Picturesque landscapes are often destroyed by tourism. Whilst many destinations nowadays have limits and restrictions on what development can occur and in what style, many do not impose any such rules. High rise hotels and buildings which are not in character with the surrounding architecture or landscape contribute to a lack of atheistic appeal.

Forests often suffer negative impacts of tourism in the form of deforestation caused by fuel wood collection and land clearing. For example, one trekking tourist in Nepal can use four to five kilograms of wood a day!

There are also many cases of erosion, whereby tourists may trek the same path or ski the same slope so frequently that it erodes the natural landscape. Sites such as Machu Pichu have been forced to introduce restrictions on tourist numbers to limit the damage caused.

Tourism can create great pressure on local resources like energy, food, and other raw materials that may already be in short supply. Greater extraction and transport of these resources exacerbates the physical impacts associated with their exploitation.

Because of the seasonal character of the industry, many destinations have ten times more inhabitants in the high season as in the low season.

A high demand is placed upon these resources to meet the high expectations tourists often have (proper heating, hot water, etc.). This can put significant pressure on the local resources and infrastructure, often resulting in the local people going without in order to feed the tourism industry.

Tourism can cause the same forms of pollution as any other industry: Air emissions; noise pollution; solid waste and littering; sewage; oil and chemicals. The tourism industry also contributes to forms of architectural/visual pollution.

Transport by air, road, and rail is continuously increasing in response to the rising number of tourists and their greater mobility. In fact, tourism accounts for more than 60% of all air travel.

One study estimated that a single transatlantic return flight emits almost half the CO2 emissions produced by all other sources (lighting, heating, car use, etc.) consumed by an average person yearly- that’s a pretty shocking statistic!

I remember asking my class to calculate their carbon footprint one lesson only to be very embarrassed that my emissions were A LOT higher than theirs due to the amount of flights I took each year compared to them. Point proven I guess….

Anyway, air pollution from tourist transportation has impacts on a global level, especially from CO2 emissions related to transportation energy use. This can contribute to severe local air pollution . It also contributes towards climate change.

Fortunately, technological advancements in aviation are seeing more environmentally friendly aircraft and fuels being used worldwide, although the problem is far from being cured. If you really want to help save the environment, the answer is to seek alternative methods of transportation and avoid flying.

You can also look at ways to offset your carbon footprint .

Noise pollution can also be a concern.

Noise pollution from aircraft, cars, buses, (+ snowmobiles and jet skis etc etc) can cause annoyance, stress, and even hearing loss for humans. It also causes distress to wildlife and can cause animals to alter their natural activity patterns. Having taught at a university near London Heathrow for several years, this was always a topic of interest to my students and made a popular choice of dissertation topic .

In areas with high concentrations of tourist activities and appealing natural attractions, waste disposal is a serious problem, contributing significantly to the environmental impacts of tourism.

Improper waste disposal can be a major despoiler of the natural environment. Rivers, scenic areas, and roadsides are areas that are commonly found littered with waste, ranging from plastic bottles to sewage.

Cruise tourism in the Caribbean, for example, is a major contributor to this negative environmental impact of tourism. Cruise ships are estimated to produce more than 70,000 tons of waste each year. 

The Wider Caribbean Region, stretching from Florida to French Guiana, receives 63,000 port calls from ships each year, and they generate 82,000 tons of rubbish. About 77% of all ship waste comes from cruise vessels. On average, passengers on a cruise ship each account for 3.5 kilograms of rubbish daily – compared with the 0.8 kilograms each generated by the less well-endowed folk on shore.

Whilst it is generally an unwritten rule that you do not throw rubbish into the sea, this is difficult to enforce in the open ocean . In the past cruise ships would simply dump their waste while out at sea. Nowadays, fortunately, this is less commonly the case, however I am sure that there are still exceptions.

Solid waste and littering can degrade the physical appearance of the water and shoreline and cause the death of marine animals. Just take a look at the image below. This is a picture taken of the insides of a dead bird. Bird often mistake floating plastic for fish and eat it. They can not digest plastic so once their stomachs become full they starve to death. This is all but one sad example of the environmental impacts of tourism.

Mountain areas also commonly suffer at the hands of the tourism industry. In mountain regions, trekking tourists generate a great deal of waste. Tourists on expedition frequently leave behind their rubbish, oxygen cylinders and even camping equipment. I have heard many stories of this and I also witnessed it first hand when I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro .

The construction of hotels, recreation and other facilities often leads to increased sewage pollution. 

Unfortunately, many destinations, particularly in the developing world, do not have strict law enrichments on sewage disposal. As a result, wastewater has polluted seas and lakes surrounding tourist attractions around the world. This damages the flora and fauna in the area and can cause serious damage to coral reefs.

Sewage pollution threatens the health of humans and animals.

I’ll never forget the time that I went on a school trip to climb Snowdonia in Wales. The water running down the streams was so clear and perfect that some of my friends had suggested we drink some. What’s purer than mountain fresh water right from the mountain, right?

A few minutes later we saw a huge pile of (human??) feaces in the water upstream!!

Often tourism fails to integrate its structures with the natural features and indigenous architecture of the destination. Large, dominating resorts of disparate design can look out of place in any natural environment and may clash with the indigenous structural design. 

A lack of land-use planning and building regulations in many destinations has facilitated sprawling developments along coastlines, valleys and scenic routes. The sprawl includes tourism facilities themselves and supporting infrastructure such as roads, employee housing, parking, service areas, and waste disposal. This can make a tourist destination less appealing and can contribute to a loss of appeal.

Physical impacts of tourism development

Whilst the tourism industry itself has a number of negative environmental impacts. There are also a number of physical impacts that arise from the development of the tourism industry. This includes the construction of buildings, marinas, roads etc.

The development of tourism facilities can involve sand mining, beach and sand dune erosion and loss of wildlife habitats.

The tourist often will not see these side effects of tourism development, but they can have devastating consequences for the surrounding environment. Animals may displaced from their habitats and the noise from construction may upset them.

I remember reading a while ago (although I can’t seem to find where now) that in order to develop the resort of Kotu in The Gambia, a huge section of the coastline was demolished in order to be able to use the sand for building purposes. This would inevitably have had severe consequences for the wildlife living in the area.

Construction of ski resort accommodation and facilities frequently requires clearing forested land.

Land may also be cleared to obtain materials used to build tourism sites, such as wood.

I’ll never forget the site when I flew over the Amazon Rainforest only to see huge areas of forest cleared. That was a sad reality to see.

Likewise, coastal wetlands are often drained due to lack of more suitable sites. Areas that would be home to a wide array of flora and fauna are turned into hotels, car parks and swimming pools.

The building of marinas and ports can also contribute to the negative environmental impacts of tourism.

Development of marinas and breakwaters can cause changes in currents and coastlines.

These changes can have vast impacts ranging from changes in temperatures to erosion spots to the wider ecosystem.

Coral reefs are especially fragile marine ecosystems. They suffer worldwide from reef-based tourism developments and from tourist activity.

Evidence suggests a variety of impacts to coral result from shoreline development. Increased sediments in the water can affect growth. Trampling by tourists can damage or even kill coral. Ship groundings can scrape the bottom of the sea bed and kill the coral. Pollution from sewage can have adverse effects.

All of these factors contribute to a decline and reduction in the size of coral reefs worldwide. This then has a wider impact on the global marine life and ecosystem, as many animals rely on the coral for as their habitat and food source.

Physical impacts from tourist activities

The last point worth mentioning when discussing the environmental impacts of tourism is the way in which physical impacts can occur as a result of tourist activities.

This includes tramping, anchoring, cruising and diving. The more this occurs, the more damage that is caused. Natural, this is worse in areas with mass tourism and overtourism .

Tourists using the same trail over and over again trample the vegetation and soil, eventually causing damage that can lead to loss of biodiversity and other impacts. 

Such damage can be even more extensive when visitors frequently stray off established trails. This is evidenced in Machu Pichu as well as other well known destinations and attractions, as I discussed earlier in this post.

 In marine areas many tourist activities occur in or around fragile ecosystems. 

Anchoring, scuba diving, yachting and cruising are some of the activities that can cause direct degradation of marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. As I said previously, this can have a significant knock on effect on the surrounding ecosystem.

Habitats can be degraded by tourism leisure activities.

For example, wildlife viewing can bring about stress for the animals and alter their natural behaviour when tourists come too close. 

As I have articulated throughout this post, there are a range of environmental impacts that result from tourism. Whilst some are good, the majority unfortunately are bad. The answer to many of these problems boils down to careful tourism planning and management and the adoption of sustainable tourism principles.

Did you find this article helpful? Take a look at my posts on the social impacts of tourism and the economic impacts of tourism too! Oh, and follow me on social media !

If you are studying the environmental impacts of tourism or if you are interested in learning more about the environmental impacts of tourism, I have compiled a short reading list for you below.

• The 3 types of travel and tourism organisations
• 150 types of tourism! The ultimate tourism glossary
• 50 fascinating facts about the travel and tourism industry

Liked this article? Click to share!

• News & Events
• Eastern and Southern Africa
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia
• Mediterranean
• Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
• North America
• South America
• West and Central Africa
• IUCN Academy
• IUCN Contributions for Nature
• IUCN Library
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species TM
• IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas
• IUCN World Heritage Outlook
• IUCN Leaders Forum
• Protected Planet
• Union Portal (login required)
• IUCN Engage (login required)
• Commission portal (login required)

Data, analysis, convening and action.

• Open Project Portal
• SCIENCE-LED APPROACH
• INFORMING POLICY
• SUPPORTING CONSERVATION ACTION
• GEF AND GCF IMPLEMENTATION
• IUCN CONVENING
• IUCN ACADEMY

The world’s largest and most diverse environmental network.

CORE COMPONENTS

• Expert Commissions
• Secretariat and Director General
• IUCN Council

• IUCN WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS
• REGIONAL CONSERVATION FORA
• CONTRIBUTIONS FOR NATURE
• IUCN ENGAGE (LOGIN REQUIRED)

IUCN tools, publications and other resources.

Get involved

Can tourism be nature-positive?

Wildlife tourism provides essential income to support communities and conservation in many places in the Global South, but mismanaged tourism is also a major cause of nature loss. The tourism sector must reform to protect the unique places people travel to see, and every IUCN Member has a part to play in this transformation - write Cam Do and Olivia Schlaepfer of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute, an IUCN Member organisation.

Originally from Viet Nam, Cam Do graduated from Yale with a Bachelor’s in Global Affairs with Distinction and a Certificate in Data Science. At Yale, Cam was a member of the Dwight Hall Socially Responsible Investment Fund, the nation’s first undergraduate-run fund of its kind. She plans to pursue a career at the intersection of finance and corporate and environmental sustainability.

A Swiss-American senior at Yale University with a passion for conservation, Olivia Schlaepfer has worked with the IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group on post-Congress monitoring of Motion 130 on sustainable tourism since 2021. Following graduation from Yale with a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies and a Certificate in Advanced Language Study in French in 2023, she plans on pursuing a Master’s in environmental communications and corporate responsibility.

Cape Town, South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic drove the global tourism industry to a grinding halt. With would-be travelers stuck at home, many tourist destinations were left deserted. In the Global North, news articles and social media posts led us to believe that wildlife had flourished during our absence. The phrase ‘nature is healing’ became a popular refrain, following reports of decreased pollution and unanticipated animal sightings in urban areas.

But was nature really healing? In reality, the decline in global travel decimated essential income for many protected areas, where biodiversity and local communities need it most. The sudden drop in tourism led to job losses and food insecurity, forcing households to return to wildlife and natural resources to survive. Poaching surged in some places in the Global South.

Before the pandemic, wildlife tourism had been steadily increasing. A 2019 study found that it had grown to have a direct economic value of USD 120 billion annually, providing over USD 344 billion of wider economic benefits and supporting 21.8 million jobs worldwide. With more visitors came more funding; with greater funding, better protection. For example, in the Philippines, Kenya and Zambia, over half of funding for protected areas comes from visitors. In Botswana, it’s more than 80%.

Mismanaged wildlife tourism can do more harm than good. Long before the pandemic, construction of infrastructure for tourists was a major cause of habitat loss.

However, research also shows that mismanaged wildlife tourism can do more harm than good. Long before the pandemic, the construction of large and luxurious accommodation, roads and other infrastructure for tourists was a major cause of habitat fragmentation and loss in popular destinations. Single-use disposables worsened plastic pollution problems. Greenhouse gas emissions from travel intensified climate change, and demand for extravagant food, hot showers and uninterrupted battery charging over-exploited local energy resources in remote areas.

Cozumel, Mexico

Keenly aware of the need for the tourism industry to address its negative impacts while preserving its positive impacts, members of the IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS Group) set out to highlight the issue by bringing Motion 130 to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille. With insights from decades of research, IUCN Member Instituto de Ecología Aplicada (ECOLAP) emerged to sponsor the Motion. ECOLAP works with communities and wildlife reliant on ‘nature-based tourism’ and being based in Ecuador, home to the Galapagos Islands, is all too familiar with the opportunities and challenges tourism entails.

The Motion – now Resolution 130 - received overwhelming support from IUCN Members, who voted to invest more resources and further integrate tourism into the Union’s Programme. Work is ongoing to bring the Resolution to life through new ideas, projects and networks that help ensure nature-based tourism supports conservation and communities. But organisations like ECOLAP, the TAPAS Group and a handful of environmental NGOs cannot do this on their own. Every IUCN Member has a part to play, but ultimately individual tourists and tourism businesses must ensure the unique flora and fauna people travel to see are preserved.

We call on tourism businesses to join the Nature-positive Travel & Tourism Alliance, and demand that airlines and governments reinvest profits back into habitat conservation, communities and carbon mitigation.

Progress was made at last year’s UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), when the World Travel & Tourism Council, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and numerous travel and tourism industry ‘heavyweights’ came together to make a pact to become guardians, rather than consumers, of nature. As signatories to the Nature-positive Travel & Tourism Alliance, almost 150 businesses have committed to give more importance to biodiversity and ecosystem health in their decision making. This pact helps guarantee that companies will strive to reduce the environmental footprint of tourism operations and value chains; increase their biodiversity impact monitoring; provide more support for Indigenous rights; and promote education for travelers, partners and communities about the need for conservation. It is a monumental step for the industry and an indication that the private sector can help reimagine nature-based tourism. We call on every tourism business to make the same commitment.

Machu Picchu, Peru

T ourists must step up too and make sustainable choices that minimise our individual footprint when travelling.

Individual tourists must step up too. Importantly, as tourists we must be cognisant of our choices and select companies and destinations that are sustainable, equipped to handle the experiences we seek, and able to contribute positively to nature and local communities. When travelling, we must be aware of our individual footprint and aim to minimise it. We must ask for opportunities for ‘voluntourism’ - in which tourists participate in voluntary work - and demand that airlines and governments reinvest profits back into habitat conservation, communities and carbon mitigation. Most of all, we must hold businesses and ourselves to higher standards of sustainable use, for example by maintaining appropriate viewing distances for wildlife; even if that means our vacations are a little less extravagant and our photographs a little ‘less wild'.

Today, the opportunities for sustainable tourism are rich and diverse. Well-managed it can share cultures, connect people with biodiversity, support local economies and provide vital funding for conservation, so long as we take care of the places we visit. Guided by Resolution 130, it’s the responsibility of us all - governments, businesses and individual visitors - to make sure that we do.

The authors would like to thank Dr Yu-Fai Leung, Dr Shane Feyers, Dr Kelly Bricker and Dr Anna Spenceley for their crucial support for Resolution 130 and its implementation.

Disclaimer Opinions expressed in posts featured on any Crossroads or other blogs and in related comments are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of IUCN or a consensus of its Member organisations.

IUCN moderates comments and reserves the right to remove posts that are deemed inappropriate, commercial in nature or unrelated to blog posts.

User Information User name: Sandra Nickel Roles:

Thank you for outlining these important steps to make tourism nature-positive. These are reminders we all need to hear.

Monitoring the resolution

User Information User name: Ron Mader Roles:

Very interesting, and good to see Resolution 130. That said, I don't quite get it. Can someone explain what the resolution calls for? For example, who and how will this resolution be monitored by the IUCN and others? 🌏 https://www.planeta.com/iucn2020-motion130

totally agree! Just happen…

User Information User name: Juan De Dios Morales Roles:

totally agree!

Just happen to be a very fine Line between carrying capacity, Tourism-based development and Market (Price for travelling) and democratization of Tourism. At the end, natural areas should be take care way more than a Urban monument of a City, but how to compete to that kind of cheaper that can also hold larger amount of people. Perhaps, then is when tourism should be redesigned and clients be able to pay higher prices. And, in that way find the correct income threshold.

Nature-Positive Tourism

User Information User name: Paul Rogers Roles:

Hi - a very nice article, although I'm a little surprised it didn't refer directly to the Nature-Positive report recently produced by the World Travel and Tourism Council and specifically the accompanying tool-box to enable companies of all sizes to develop nature-positive action plans? While I've heard some suggest the toolbox is too challenging for businesses to engage with, I'm not convinced this is case and think we need case studies and examples to showcase the successes and challenges...

Questions about the report

Interesting. Downloading the report now - https://action.wttc.org/vision-for-nature-positive-travel-and-tourism - and asking how this vision and toolbox will be used in a practical manner. I will be updating links on Planeta.

Add new comment

Sign up for an IUCN newsletter

What are the positive environmental impacts of tourism?

The negative environmental impacts of tourism are all pretty clear. We know that the transportation sector is a big part of the greenhouse gas emissions globally. And we also know that the tourism industry more or less has been growing every year since the early 1950s. The industry actually had a small decline in travelers after the horrible attacks on 9/11, but since then we have seen steep growth every year. This article is quite helpful in order to understand why tourism is bad for the environment and why some tourist spots/countries have to regulate the number of tourists. When we have reached that point in history, we know that we are in trouble.

But on the other side, is it actually possible to see any positive impact on the environment by people traveling?

Table of Contents

Three ways that tourism can be eco-friendly, first: what is not good about tourism, education and mindset, helps small societies around the world.

The travel industry is heavily researched. In other words: there are loads of scientific papers available that covers this topic. After reading a bunch of these papers, I started to get a nice overview of the positive environmental consequences of tourism.

There are mainly three positive elements that scientists believe in:

– Tourism can help people to get educated about the beautiful nature that we have. Going on a trip to the most beautiful nature in the world is like watching an episode of “Planet Earth”. You are much more likely to feel that we got something to loose.

– Increased revenue and economy might lead to better conservation of wildlife or protected natural areas.

– More tourism might force governments to develop more eco-friendly transportation methods. The high speed train between Shanghai and Beijing is a direct consequence of people traveling more frequently between these cities.

From an environmental perspective, there are loads of things that is wrong with the big tourist industry. You can either read the full article that I linked to previously in the article. Or you can read this summary:

– Tourism is equal to that people are moving . They are mainly doing so by using airplanes, trains, cars or buses. These transport methods have one thing in common: they pollute. Some more than others, but they all contribute to climate change through pollution.

– People tend to have a very different mindset when they are on holiday. Recycling does not seem to be very interesting. Tourists simply do not want to think about saving the environment when they are traveling.

They say that “ traveling broadens the mind ”. .And that can absolutely be true. If you travel to other countries where the culture and language differ from your own, you can definitely learn something. From an environmental perspective, you will also possibly be able to see how people “ live in one with nature ”. Most people in Europe and the USA live close to cities. But there are people around the world that have never seen, or never will see, a skyscraper in their life. They simply live like Europeans lived 100 years ago, which is quite remarkable.

When you actually travel and see how dependent people are on fish and other sea creatures to survive, you better start to feel a bit bad. Not because they are considered “poor”. But because you probably at some point in your life have purchased unnecessary plastic items that end up in nature. And that is why 90 % of all fish in the sea now got fractions of plastic in their stomach.

In this sense, traveling can have the same effect as watching a good documentary. Many wildlife documentaries are made in order to force people to take action. And they work. As soon as people get educated in this way, they are more likely to act in order to fix that problem.

When we talk about “ helping the environment ”, we should not limit our thoughts to nature. Well, we should – but there are many factors involved. Let me try to explain.

If the economy grows in an area, chances are that this area will see an increased social environment. People simply have better jobs, a better economy and live better. There are some cities in this world that have 90 % of their income from tourists . That is not sustainable. But we know that 11 % of all jobs in this world is directly or indirectly related to tourism. That is quite a high number.

This is a small market that I visited when I was in Seoul, Korea. The buildings were apparently semi-famous as people walked around taking pictures of them, but it was the small, local shops with authentic souvenirs (not the “ I LOVE SEOUL ” t-shirt) that I really enjoyed:

You see that me and my travel partner even were offered archery?! For free! 🙂 What a lovely place Seoul is.

In other words, tourism brings in an awful lot of money in certain areas. This money are often put towards maintaining small communities and their surrounding areas. Some national parks are more or less 100 % driven by the money spent by tourists.

I don’t think we can conclude that traveling or tourism got much positive impact on the environment. There are so much greenhouse gas emissions that can be directly linked with many of the elements of traveling. We just have to accept that.

What people could do instead is tend to more and more care about the environment when going to different places. For instance, I wrote this article about eco-conscious traveling . It is a quite handy guide for everyone who is going on holiday – especially for those of you that will travel a long way. It is a rather long article, so I would just summarize some main points:

– Use train or bus (public transport) instead of airplanes, taxis, etc. when that is possible.

– Do not support companies that hold animals in captive in exchange for some extra money for tourists. The “elephant rides in the Thailand Jungle” –companies springs to mind.

– Eat local instead of imported food. That should also be a huge part of the experience when traveling to new places.

I think we can summarize by saying that people are not going to stop traveling. In fact, all trends show that people want to see more and more of the world. And with increased availability, that is probably going to happen as well. But be careful about your carbon footprint when you are out traveling and please respect other cultures and religions.

Learn 10 ways to protect marine wildlife when diving.

About The Author

Related Posts

The (very) best documentaries about sustainability

5 everyday products you didn’t know hurt the environment

5 thoughts on “what are the positive environmental impacts of tourism”.

Hello, thanks for your article there. So about 11 % of all jobs in the world are somehow related to tourism?

That is new information to me. I was also quite shocked to see that so many cities are 100 % dependent on tourists to even survive. There are loads of people that try not to travel too much simply because it leaves a huge carbon footprint. Especially if you want to travel to another continent. On the other side, I feel that this is something that maybe governments around the world need to figure out?

How can they push people to travel in a more eco-friendly way?

There are some things you really should NOT do when you are on holiday. For instance, supporting cruise ships or airplane companies. Every time I see huge cruise ships filled with Asian tourists driving into the beautiful fjord landscape of Norway, I feel sad. This is not how we should take care of our nature.

There are so many reasons why we should not travel in the way we do right now. We need to stop the current madness.

Hello Non-traveler, you are right. Cruise ships are actually among the worst when it comes to pollution. Luckily, EU have decided to put some quite heavy restrictions on the fuel they are allowed to use. I don’t think that will solve the problem, but it will definitely help quite a bit.

I am concerned about the development in the travel industry. Yesterday I read an article saying that China will build 200 airports in 2019 alone. That’s not very good for the environment (to say at least).

Traveling in general is not exactly very environmental friendly. If you can help someone that are struggling in the jungle by supporting them financially: great. But it does not take away the fact that mass tourism is a very bad thing for the environment.

Greenhouse emissions that can be traced back to the TRAVEL INDUSTRY are massive.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Start typing and press enter to search

Positive and Negative effects of Tourism on Environment

Introduction Tourism is regarded as one of the largest industries in the world. It even surpasses oil export industry, ‎food industry and automobile industry. Inbound tourism contributes towards increasing the economic development of the country and create ample job opportunities too. On the other hand, outbound tourism is seen to promote cross-cultural goodwill and understanding. It is worldwide known that tourism is linked with the economic, intellectual and cultural aspects of a nation.

When seen in terms of environment, tourism industry has its own share of benefits and drawbacks. It positively forms social bonds and cultural identity of local people while causing a few qualitative and social reduction of a region. This leads to degradation in nature.

Positive effects of Tourism on Environment

• Tourism has been seen to encourage cultivation. It boosts sharing of local food, customs festivals and traditions.
• National parks and open spaces spread all across the country serves as a good way to replenish mind, body and soul.
• Tourism impacts nature in a positive way. Visiting new destinations impacts the minds of children. They learn to interact with “live” animals that they have only seen till date in television. Looking at the impressive landscapes and fields, they get a motivation to plant trees on their own. By observing wild ecosystems in its entirety, it makes them grow into an eco-conscious adult.
• Tourism, specifically ecotourism, assists in promoting peservation of wildlife. It plays an important role in conserving natural resources like rain forests that are regarded as a major tourism asset.
• Tourism assist in generating funds that helps in assuring proper and effective maintenance of marine parks and animal preserves.
• By generating alternate means of employment, it lessens problems related to deforestation and over-fishing in developing countries.
• In several destinations it has been seen that tourism assisted in ensuring effective protection of nature and higher water quality.
• It produces additional resources that helps in making investment in environmental services and infrastructures.
• Eco-tourism proves to be advantageous to local communities by providing them complete control over the way the tourism develops. It also assists locals to make efficient use of their resources and lands in a more maintainable way.

Negative effects of Tourism on Environment

Tourism begins to impact the environment in a negative way when the number of visitors who visits a tourist spot is succeeds the ability of environment to cope with their use. Uncontrolled tourism poses risks to several natural areas all across the world.

• It puts a lot of pressure on the land and results in increased pollution , harmful discharge of waste in the sea, soil erosion, increased pressure on rare species, natural habitat loss, and possibility of catching forest fires.
• Tourism often seen to put strain on one of the most major natural resources i.e., water. It forces locals to compete to obtain this critical resource that is already scarce. This adverse impact of tourism on environment is considerably large. It results in the exhaustion of natural resources, waste issues and pollution. The entire tourism industry overconsumes water resources in different ways like hotels, golf courses, swimming pools, and personal purpose by tourists. Unnecessary wastage of water results in its shortage, and rise in utility bills too.
• Tourism is also seen to result in huge stress on local use of land. It results in soil erosion, loss of natural habitat, increased pollution, and pressure on vanishing species. All these negative effects gradually harm the biological resources that forms the basis of the tourism industry.
• Tourism generally contributes towards more than five percentage of total emission of global greenhouse gas. Transportation is responsible for causing nearly ninety percentage of gas emission.
• Tourism also has the potential to create enormous pressure on local resources such as energy, raw materials and food, that are available in short supply. Greater transport and extraction of all these resources aggravates the physical effects linked with their misuse. Tourism puts a high demand on all these resources to fulfill the high expectations that tourists mostly have. These can be availability of hot water, warm room temperature, adequate heating, etc.).
• Key land resources such as fossil fuels, minerals, forests, fertile soil, wildlife and wetland are severely impacted by tourism. With increased recreational facilities and construction of tourism, the pressure is exerted on all the above stated scenic landscapes and land resources.
• Forests are seen to suffer a lot from the negative impact of tourism. Deforestation is often caused due to collection of wood for fuel production as well as land clearing.
• Tourism is also a significant reason behind pollution. Gas emissions, solid waste, littering, noise, oil, chemicals, architectural or visual pollution and releases of sewage, all leads to polluting the environment in so many ways.

In this way tourism impacts the environment in a positive and a negative way. It is required for the government to identify ways of workable tourism development to eliminate negative effects and promote the positive ones.

• Latest Posts

• Tulip Mania – The Story of One of History’s Worst Financial Bubbles - May 15, 2022
• The True Story of Rapunzel - February 22, 2022
• The Blue Fugates: A Kentucky Family Born with Blue Skin - August 17, 2021

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

What Is Ecotourism? Definition, Examples, and Pros and Cons

• Chapman University
• Sustainable Fashion
• Art & Media

Ecotourism Definition and Principles

Pros and cons.

• Examples of Ecotourism
• Frequently Asked Questions

Ecotourism is about more than simply visiting natural attractions or natural places; it’s about doing so in a responsible and sustainable manner. The term itself refers to traveling to natural areas with a focus on environmental conservation. The goal is to educate tourists about conservation efforts while offering them the chance to explore nature.

Ecotourism has benefited destinations like Madagascar, Ecuador, Kenya, and Costa Rica, and has helped provide economic growth in some of the world’s most impoverished communities. The global ecotourism market produced $92.2 billion in 2019 and is forecasted to generate $103.8 billion by 2027.

A conservationist by the name of Hector Ceballos-Lascurain is often credited with the first definition of ecotourism in 1987, that is, “tourism that consists in travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas.”

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of ecotourism since 1990, defines ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education [both in its staff and its guests].”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) looks at ecotourism as a significant tool for conservation, though it shouldn’t be seen as a fix-all when it comes to conservation challenges:

“There may be some areas that are just not appropriate for ecotourism development and some businesses that just won’t work in the larger tourism market. That is why it is so important to understand the basics of developing and running a successful business, to ensure that your business idea is viable and will be profitable, allowing it to most effectively benefit the surrounding environment and communities.”

Marketing an ecosystem, species, or landscape towards ecotourists helps create value, and that value can help raise funds to protect and conserve those natural resources.

Sustainable ecotourism should be guided by three core principles: conservation, communities, and education.

Conservation

Conservation is arguably the most important component of ecotourism because it should offer long-term, sustainable solutions to enhancing and protecting biodiversity and nature. This is typically achieved through economic incentives paid by tourists seeking a nature-based experience, but can also come from the tourism organizations themselves, research, or direct environmental conservation efforts.

Communities

Ecotourism should increase employment opportunities and empower local communities, helping in the fight against global social issues like poverty and achieving sustainable development.

Interpretation

One of the most overlooked aspects of ecotourism is the education component. Yes, we all want to see these beautiful, natural places, but it also pays to learn about them. Increasing awareness about environmental issues and promoting a greater understanding and appreciation for nature is arguably just as important as conservation.

As one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry, there are bound to be some downsides to ecotourism. Whenever humans interact with animals or even with the environment, it risks the chance of human-wildlife conflict or other negative effects; if done so with respect and responsibility in mind, however, ecotourism can reap enormous benefits to protected areas.

As an industry that relies heavily on the presentation of eco-friendly components to attract customers, ecotourism has the inevitable potential as a vessel for greenwashing. Part of planning a trip rooted in ecotourism is doing research to ensure that an organization is truly providing substantial benefits to the environment rather than exploiting it.

Ecotourism Can Provide Sustainable Income for Local Communities

Sustainably managed ecotourism can support poverty alleviation by providing employment for local communities, which can offer them alternative means of livelihood outside of unsustainable ones (such as poaching).

Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that communities in regions surrounding conservation areas in Costa Rica had poverty rates that were 16% lower than in areas that weren’t near protected parks. These protected areas didn’t just benefit from conservation funds due to ecotourism, but also helped to reduce poverty as well.

It Protects Natural Ecosystems

Ecotourism offers unique travel experiences focusing on nature and education, with an emphasis on sustainability and highlighting threatened or endangered species. It combines conservation with local communities and sustainable travel , highlighting principles (and operations) that minimize negative impacts and expose visitors to unique ecosystems and natural areas. When managed correctly, ecotourism can benefit both the traveler and the environment, since the money that goes into ecotourism often goes directly towards protecting the natural areas they visit.

Each year, researchers release findings on how tourist presence affects wildlife, sometimes with varying results. A study measuring levels of the stress hormone cortisol in wild habituated Malaysian orangutans found that the animals were not chronically stressed by the presence of ecotourists. The orangutans lived in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, where a local community-managed organization operates while maintaining strict guidelines to protect them.

Ecotourism May Also Hurt Those Same Natural Ecosystems

Somewhat ironically, sometimes ecotourism can hurt ecosystems just as much as it can help. Another study in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution found that ecotourism can alter animal behaviors in ways that put them at risk. If the presence of humans changes the way animals behave, those changes may make them more vulnerable by influencing their reaction to predators or poachers.

It's not just the animals who are at risk. As ecotourism activities become too popular, it can lead to the construction of new infrastructure to accommodate more visitors. Similarly, more crowds mean more pressure on local resources, increased pollution, and a higher chance of damaging the soil and plant quality through erosion. On the social side, these activities may displace Indigenous groups or local communities from their native lands, preventing them from benefiting from the economic opportunities of tourism.

Ecotourism Offers the Opportunity to Experience Nature

Renown conservationist Jane Goodall has a famous quote: “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.” It can be difficult to understand something that we haven’t seen with our own eyes, and ecotourism gives travelers the opportunity to gain new experiences in natural areas while learning about the issues they face. 

Ecotourism also educates children about nature, potentially creating new generations of nature lovers that could someday become conservationists themselves. Even adult visitors may learn new ways to improve their ecological footprints .

EXAMPLES OF ECOTOURISM

The East African country has some competitive advantages over its neighbors thanks to its rich natural resources, paired with the fact that it has allocated over 25% of its total area to wildlife national parks and protected areas. Because of this, an estimated 90% of tourists visit to Tanzania seeking out ecotourism activities. Ecotourism, in turn, supports 400,000 jobs and accounts for 17.2% of the national GDP, earning about $1 billion each year as its leading economic sector.

Some of Tanzania’s biggest highlights include the Serengeti, Mount Kilimanjaro , and Zanzibar, though the country still often goes overlooked by American tourists. Visitors can take a walking safari tour in the famous Ngorongoro Conservation area, for example, with fees going to support the local Maasai community.

The country is also known for its chimpanzees , and there are several ecotourism opportunities in Gombe National Park that go directly towards protecting chimpanzee habitats.

Galapagos Islands

It comes as no surprise that the place first made famous by legendary naturalist Charles Darwin would go on to become one of the most sought-after ecotourism destinations on Earth, the Galapagos Islands .

The Directorate of the Galapagos National Park and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism require tour providers to conserve water and energy, recycle waste, source locally produced goods, hire local employees with a fair wage, and offer employees additional training. A total of 97% of the land area on the Galapagos is part of the official national park, and all of its 330 islands have been divided into zones that are either completely free of human impact, protected restoration areas, or reduced impact zones adjacent to tourist-friendly areas.

Local authorities still have to be on their toes, however, since UNESCO lists increased tourism as one of the main threats facing the Galapagos today. The bulk of funding for the conservation and management of the archipelago comes from a combination of governmental institutions and entry fees paid by tourists.

Costa Rica is well-known throughout the world for its emphasis on nature-based tourism, from its numerous animal sanctuaries to its plethora of national parks and reserves. Programs like its “Ecological Blue Flag” program help inform tourists of beaches that have maintained a strict set of eco-friendly criteria.

The country’s forest cover went from 26% in 1983 to over 52% in 2021 thanks to the government’s decision to create more protected areas and promote ecotourism in the country . Now, over a quarter of its total land area is zoned as protected territory.

Costa Rica welcomes 1.7 million travelers per year, and most of them come to experience the country’s vibrant wildlife and diverse ecosystems. Its numerous biological reserves and protected parks hold some of the most extraordinary biodiversity on Earth, so the country takes special care to keep environmental conservation high on its list of priorities. 

New Zealand

In 2019, tourism generated $16.2 billion, or 5.8% of the GDP, in New Zealand. That same year, 8.4% of its citizens were employed in the tourism industry, and tourists generated $3.8 billion in tax revenue.

The country offers a vast number of ecotourism experiences, from animal sanctuaries to natural wildlife on land, sea, and even natural caves. New Zealand’s South Pacific environment, full of sights like glaciers and volcanic landscapes, is actually quite fragile, so the government puts a lot of effort into keeping it safe.

Tongariro National Park, for example, is the oldest national park in the country, and has been named by UNESCO as one of only 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Its diverse volcanic landscapes and the cultural heritage of the indigenous Maori tribes within the create the perfect combination of community, education, and conservation.

How to Be a Responsible Ecotourist

• Ensure that the organizations you hire provide financial contributions to benefit conservation and find out where your money is going.
• Ask about specific steps the organization takes to protect the environment where they operate, such as recycling or promoting sustainable policies.
• Find out if they include the local community in their activities, such as hiring local guides, giving back, or through initiatives to empower the community.
• Make sure there are educational elements to the program. Does the organization take steps to respect the destination’s culture as well as its biodiversity?
• See if your organization is connected to a non-profit or charity like the International Ecotourism Society .
• Understand that wildlife interactions should be non-invasive and avoid negative impacts on the animals.

Ecotourism activities typically involve visiting and enjoying a natural place without disturbing the landscape or its inhabitants. This might involve going for a hike on a forest trail, mountain biking, surfing, bird watching, camping, or forest bathing . 

Traveling in a way that minimizes carbon emissions, like taking a train or bike instead of flying, may also be part of an ecotourism trip. Because these modes of travel tend to be slower, they may be appreciated as enjoyable and relaxing ecotourism activities.

The Wolf Conservation Center ’s programing in New York State is an example of ecotourism. This non-profit organization is dedicated to the preservation of endangered wolf species. It hosts educational sessions that allow visitors to observe wolves from a safe distance. These programs help to fund the nonprofit organization’s conservation and wildlife rehabilitation efforts.

Stonehouse, Bernard. " Ecotourism ." Environmental Geology: Encyclopedia of Earth Science , 1999, doi:10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_101

" What is Ecotourism? " The International Ecotourism Society .

" Tourism ." International Union for Conservation of Nature .

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1307712111

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033357

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.09.010

https://doi.org/10.5897/JHMT2016.0207

" Galapagos Islands ." UNESCO .

" About Costa Rica ." Embassy of Costa Rica in Washington DC .

https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/tourism-satellite-account-2019

• Costa Rica’s Keys to Success as a Sustainable Tourism Pioneer
• What Is Sustainable Tourism and Why Is It Important?
• What Is Community-Based Tourism? Definition and Popular Destinations
• How to Be a Sustainable Traveler: 18 Tips
• What Is Overtourism and Why Is It Such a Big Problem?
• Defeating Deforestation Through Rum, Chocolate, and Ecotourism
• Empowering Communities to Protect Their Ecosystems
• Best of Green Awards 2021: Sustainable Travel
• Why Bonobos Are Endangered and What We Can Do
• Why Are National Parks Important? Environmental, Social, and Economic Benefits
• IUCN President Tackles Biodiversity, Climate Change
• The World’s Smallest Tiger Is Inching Towards Extinction
• Ecuador Expands Protected Galapagos Marine Reserve by More Than 23,000 Square Miles
• What Is Voluntourism? Does It Help or Harm Communities?
• Regenerative Travel: What It Is and How It's Outperforming Sustainable Tourism
• New Zealand Aims to Become World's Largest 'Dark Sky Nation'

Environment Go!

The Environment | Nature | Humans

13 Impact of Tourism on the Environment

Both positive and negative effects of tourism are felt in popular tourist areas.

Economic, sociocultural, and environmental dimensions are the typical categories used to define the impacts of tourism.

A higher standard of life, greater job opportunities, and increased tax and personal income are just a few of the positive economic consequences of tourism.

Interactions between people from different cultural backgrounds, attitudes and behaviors, and links to material possessions are all examples of sociocultural influences.

Degradation of habitat , vegetation, air quality, water bodies, the water table, wildlife, and changes to natural phenomena are examples of direct environmental impacts.

Indirect effects include increased harvesting of natural resources for food, indirect air pollution, and changes to natural phenomena (including flights, transport, and the manufacture of food and souvenirs for tourists).

In recent years, the impact of tourism on the environment has been a critical topic that needs to be discussed in our time as climate change is what we see and there are various ways in which our environment and climate are changing.

Tourists and stakeholders alike are now acknowledging the importance of environmental management in the tourism industry due to the development of sustainable tourism and the increase in initiatives for being environmentally friendly.

Table of Contents

What is Tourism?

United Nations World Tourism Organization estimates that in 2008

Traveling outside one’s typical area for personal, business, or professional reasons is known as tourism, and it is a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon.

Visitors—tourists, excursionists, residents, or non-residents—are these individuals, and tourism has to do with their activities, some of which imply spending on tourism.

Spending time away from home in search of leisure, relaxation, and pleasure while utilizing the commercial provision of services is referred to as tourism.

Since the satisfaction, safety, and enjoyment of consumers are particularly important to the businesses in the tourism sector, it is a dynamic and competitive industry that necessitates the ability to adapt continuously to the changing demands and desires of customers.

13 I mpact of T ourism on the E nvironment

There are both positive and negative impacts of tourism on the environment

Positive Impacts of Tourism on the Environment

In general, the positive impacts of tourism on the environment are

• Provides foreign currency to manage natural resources
• Financial and employment prospects
• Encourages conservation efforts
• Supports environmentally responsible growth
• Increasing awareness of and sensitivity to possibilities for sustainable tourism
• The adoption and application of legal requirements
• Conservation of Endangered species

1. Provides foreign currency to manage natural resources

The management of natural resources is generally greatly aided by tourism. It may take the form of preserving natural areas or even species.

As tourists seek out outdoor adventures, we are now creating numerous natural parks and reserves.

Additionally, they bring in foreign currency to support the maintenance of these reserves.

For instance, all visitors to the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa are required to pay the conservation charge either when making reservations or after checking out.

After that, we use this money to manage wildlife, with a focus on stopping rhino poaching.

Additionally, travelers and tour guides might charge extra for conservation efforts.

Governments may also impose levies on certain conservation efforts.

2. Financial and employment prospects

Indirectly or directly, the tourist sector supports one in ten employment globally.

Even in rural or distant places, tourism generates decent employment prospects and economic progress.

Women work in the tourism industry, which is frequently a young person’s first job experience.

The money generated by tourism is therefore frequently invested in enhancing local infrastructure as well as in the sustainable management and preservation of the world’s natural beauties.

The environment benefits from improved infrastructure and services. They are centered on managing and consuming resources.

Modern wastewater treatment facilities conserve water and encourage its more effective usage.

Instead of simply dumping waste into the ocean or landfills, waste management facilities emphasize recycling items.

To protect and maintain its extraordinarily diverse rainforests while also generating cash from tourism, Costa Rica has one of the most effective rainforest conservation methods.

A portion of this cash is used to maintain, research, and professionally train park rangers in rainforest protection.

The remainder supports the local economy and offers residents chances for a balanced quality of life.

3. Encourages conservation efforts

Utilizing resources sustainably is referred to as conservation. In essence, tourism is reliant on the environment.

As a result, several locations are increasingly enticing tourists by utilizing their resources sustainably.

As a result, as more travelers visit natural regions, conservation efforts in tourism locations are encouraged.

If not, governments might plunder the resources or even raze the land to make way for development.

Africa is a perfect example of a nation where tourism has benefited the preservation of wildlife.

3.6 million people are employed by wildlife tourism in Africa, which accounts for over 36% of the continent’s total tourism revenue and over $29 billion in economic output.

What Africa is most known for is the chance to observe wild creatures in their natural habitat.

By giving them work, this type of tourism lowers poverty and empowers women, but it also indirectly does so by funding the construction of essential infrastructures like schools and hospitals.

The significance of their untamed natural areas is becoming more and more important across Africa, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific.

Even new national and wildlife parks that link sustainable tourism with biodiversity preservation have emerged along with the expansion of tourism.

4. Supports environmentally responsible growth

Tourism companies must adopt ecologically friendly methods as customers become more concerned about the environment.

Undoubtedly, many tourist destinations use a variety of green techniques to attract visitors.

Utilizing renewable energy sources and utilizing natural drainage ponds are two examples.

The tourism industry is reorganizing itself to be more sustainable.

As tourists become more aware of their effects, there is less disruption in natural areas.

Hotels are making investments in cutting-edge equipment like automatic bathrooms to reduce waste.

Food wholesalers are supporting planting and farming organically.

5. Increasing awareness of and sensitivity to possibilities for sustainable tourism

Tourism has gradually raised awareness about the need to preserve, protect, and maintain the ecosystem’s fragile, unusual, and frequently almost extinct, flora and wildlife.

Ahead of the sustainable tourism agenda, organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, UN Environment Programme, and Nature Conservancy have established plans, policies, and programs.

Tourists from abroad and locally, as well as residents, are more conscious of the importance of protecting and sustaining the environment.

6. The adoption and application of legal requirements

The government has been able to counteract a lot of harmful environmental effects by implementing regulations to limit the potential negative features of tourism.

These efforts include regulating the number of tourists that visit, establishing protected regions and imposing access restrictions there, and enacting stringent environmental regulations like carbon offset schemes.

Maintaining the vitality and integrity of tourist destinations as well as the protection of the local ecosystems and natural resources has been simpler with the implementation of these rules.

7. Conservation of Endangered species

Countries start to understand that their endangered and unique animals serve as their national emblem in the eyes of foreign tourists who are frequently drawn to the area because of them.

Wild creatures, untamed forests, and an array of exotic plants with vivid colors are becoming uncommon sights in a world with a developed economy.

Nature reserves and other protected places are frequently used as the few remaining locations where this fading world can still be found.

The endangered species that live there are better protected as a result.

N egative I mpact of T ourism on the E nvironment

The following are a few detrimental effects of unsustainable tourism activities that need to be highlighted:

• Natural Resource Depletion
• Increased Waste Generation
• Sewage contamination rises when more tourism-related amenities are constructed.
• Contribution of greenhouse gas emissions to global warming
• Land degradation and soil erosion
• Physical ecosystem deterioration and biodiversity loss

1. Natural Resource Depletion

The environment of a region will suffer if tourism is promoted there in the absence of suitable resources.

The native flora and wildlife may lack the resources they require to survive in such locations.

For instance, using a lot of water to run hotels, swimming pools, maintain golf courses, and other tourist-related operations.

As a result, there may be less water available for local people, plants, and animals, and the quality of the water may deteriorate.

Resources other than water are also being depleted.

Other resources like food, energy, and other resources may be under stress as a result of the tourism industry’s unsustainable activities.

2. Increased Waste Generation

What does a pleasant vacation in a lovely seaside town often look like?

Good meals, beach drinks, little refreshments, beautiful scenery, and a range of unwinding activities are all available.

Most of us wish to forget about our daily obligations when on vacation.

This involves organizing our meals, keeping a refillable water bottle on hand, and using long-lasting products like comfortable slippers or reusable shopping bags.

Many people rely on disposable single-use plastic goods when engaging in that novel experience.

Compared to long-term inhabitants, tourists can generate twice as much waste every day.

According to estimates, the amount of marine debris in the Mediterranean rises by up to 40% during the busiest months.

According to UNEP, a visitor to a new location might produce between 1 and 12 kg of solid garbage each day.

Numerous variables, including location, lodging type, personal preferences, and the nature of the trip, affect the numbers.

If nations do not embrace sustainable practices of addressing product cycle and trash disposal, we will anticipate an increase in solid waste output due to tourism of 251% by 2050.

Ecosystems can suffer from solid waste and trash, which can also change the way the area looks.

Marine debris damages marine life, frequently resulting in their demise and deteriorates delicate, distinctive, yet crucial ecosystems.

3. Sewage contamination rises when more tourism-related amenities are constructed.

Sewage overflow in lakes and oceans harms aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, particularly delicate coral reefs that are frequently a location’s main draw.

Any form of waterway pollution can cause eutrophication, excessive algal growth, and changes to the salinity and siltation of water bodies.

Native plants and animals find it difficult to thrive as a result of these environmental changes.

3. Pollution

Over time, tourism as a whole and particular visitor behaviors, such as littering and other forms of environmental degradation, have hurt the destination locations’ air, land, water, and soil quality.

Some visitors leave trash or waste, such as plastic wrappers and cigarette butts, in the area, which pollutes the soil, the plastic environment, and the air, respectively.

Recreational boating-related water contamination has also been documented.

For example, Ocean Conservancy estimates that cruise ships in the Caribbean emit 70,000 tons of effluent annually, which has an impact on the natural habitat of marine life.

When hiking and camping routes are made, bushes are cut down, and wood fuel is obtained, this can sometimes result in soil erosion, which is another form of land degradation .

Due to the high noise levels from recreational vehicles, buses, planes, and holiday celebrations, which can disturb wildlife and even change their regular activity patterns, tourism is also strongly linked to noise pollution at these times.

Additionally, given that tourism accounts for more than 60% of global air travel, it also contributes significantly to air pollution through travel-related air emissions.

4. Contribution of greenhouse gas emissions to global warming

Climate change and rising global temperatures are mostly caused by greenhouse gases, which are emitted into the atmosphere in large quantities by the tourism industry.

This is simply because tourism involves individuals moving from their homes to new locations.

Environmental experts blame increased greenhouse gas emissions, which trap sunlight, for the continuously rising global temperatures.

Carbon dioxide is one of the principal greenhouse gases, and it is primarily emitted into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels and natural gas to produce power, in industries, and vehicles.

Over 55% of all traffic movements worldwide are related to tourism, which accounts for an estimated 3% of all carbon dioxide emissions.

As the number of visitors increases over time, emissions will also increase, which will likely worsen the effects of climate change.

5. Land degradation and soil erosion

Reckless development and rapid infrastructure expansion, insufficient infrastructure (such as a lack of parking spaces or overcrowded natural areas), and deviating from the course can all quickly initiate erosive processes and hasten site degradation.

Recreational and tourism activities frequently alter soil characteristics, particularly when the number of visitors exceeds the ecosystem’s capacity to handle them.

In the most popular locations, visitors trample the vegetation around trails, gradually resulting in wider sections of a surface devoid of vegetation.

Erosion is largely caused by the construction of new resorts or their expansion into nearby natural regions, coastlines, or mountain sites.

The first step in many projects is the removal of vegetation, which reduces the soils’ capacity to absorb water and frequently leaves the soils exposed and susceptible for years before the project is complete.

Roads, parking lots, and the area around lodging units all have impervious surfaces that prevent water from penetrating the ground.

Because of the increased surface runoff, soil fragments are removed even more quickly.

6. Physical ecosystem deterioration and biodiversity loss

According to estimates, the average rate of tourism growth in industrialized countries is 3 percent, but it can reach 8 percent in developing nations.

The sector has a significant physical impact on the area where growth occurs, and more transient tourists stop by to enjoy the location.

Numerous well-known tourist attractions are situated close to fragile ecosystems.

Ecosystems like rain forests, wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds, and alpine regions are frequently in danger as a result of their appeal to developers and visitors seeking the unique experience of being near nature’s beauties.

Deforestation, extensive pavement, sand mining, wetland drainage, and coastal development are all examples of construction and infrastructure development.

Unsustainable land use techniques can cause soil and dune erosion as well as the degradation of the environment.

In conclusion, it is good to know that tourism has both negative and positive impacts on the environment and so, we should try as much as possible to minimize our impact on the environment be it from tourism or any other action.

 Impact of Tourism on the Environment – FAQs

How does tourism affect environment.

Tourism contributes to better water quality control, environmental preservation, and local natural resource management in a variety of locations. It could produce more money to spend on environmental services and infrastructure. Tourism significantly impacts local land use, which can result in soil erosion, increased pollution, the loss of natural habitats, and greater stress on endangered species. The environmental resources that tourism itself depends on may eventually be destroyed by these impacts.

Recommendations

• How Homes Can Be Eco-Friendly Despite The Modern Aesthetic .
• 16 Effects of Hurricanes on the Environment .
• 16 Best Water Treatment Companies in Canada .
• 23 Positive and Negative Effects of Volcanoes .
• Geothermal Energy Advantages and Disadvantages .
• How To Reduce Your Business’s Carbon Footprint

Providence Amaechi

A passion-driven environmentalist by heart. Lead content writer at EnvironmentGo. I strive to educate the public about the environment and its problems. It has always been about nature, we ought to protect not destroy.

• Providence Amaechi https://environmentgo.com/author/amaechi-providence/ 3 Environmental Services in a Hospital
• Providence Amaechi https://environmentgo.com/author/amaechi-providence/ 19 Environmental Startups in Boston
• Providence Amaechi https://environmentgo.com/author/amaechi-providence/ Environmental Analysis, Types, Techniques, Importance, and Examples
• Providence Amaechi https://environmentgo.com/author/amaechi-providence/ Environmental Accounting, Types, Objectives, Examples
• Environment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

• Top 10 Longest-Living Moth Species (Photos)
• 5 Negative Environmental Impacts of Soy Milk
• Best Business Practices for Sustainable Landscaping
• 3 Environmental Services in a Hospital
• 19 Environmental Startups in Boston

• EN - English
• PT - Portuguese
• ES - Spanish
• How it works
• Become a Host
• Download the app

Top Destinations

• United States
• United Kingdom

What type of experience are you looking for?

• Non-Profit School
• Permaculture project
• Eco Village
• Holistic Center
• Guest House
• How Worldpackers works

Learn from the most experienced travelers of the community

Traveling with worldpackers, planning and budgeting for travel, make a living while traveling as a lifestyle, travel with worldpackers.

• Using Worldpackers
• Work exchange
• Social impact

Plan your trip

• Women traveling
• Budget travel
• Solo travel
• Language learning
• Travel tips
• Get inspired
• Digital nomads
• Travel jobs
• Personal development
• Responsible travel
• Connect with nature

Top destinations

• South America
• Central America
• North America
• More destinations
• WP Life WP Life
• Exclusive discounts Discounts

How ecotourism benefits the environment and local communities

Ecotourism is all about respecting the local culture and environment. Learn how to reduce your carbon footprint and, why not, how to volunteer and give back to the community.

Raquel www.solanomundo.com.br

May 31, 2023

Ecotourism is becoming more and more popular, and one of the reasons is that the new generations are no longer just looking for to the next destination, but to travel with purpose. 

If you are looking for new life experiences , to learn about other ways of living and meet like-minded people, stay tuned for great ideas. From supporting local communities to protecting nature and fighting climate change, this different form of travel is a whole new way of looking at packing and setting off on a new adventure .

What is ecotourism?

Travel to natural areas is a great opportunity to discover amazing landscapes , but it can also help preserve delicate ecosystems, provide economic benefits to local communities and promote conservation efforts. 

To fully realize the potential of ecotourism, minimal environmental impact and stable and equitable economic growth must be paramount. Ecotourism is also an exciting option for your next volunteer experience with Worldpackers. Where you can visit ecological projects with the added bonus of supporting local communities .

You can practice ecotourism now, by supporting local businesses and having an eco-friendly mindset . But you can also be part of a larger community with different projects and causes. These practices help protect nature for future generations while making a positive impact. 

This form of tourism focuses on environmental sustainability and responsible travel practices . It involves visiting national parks to observe wildlife, learn about local cultures, and appreciate the beauty of nature . And if you are an outdoor enthusiast, ecotourism can include activities like hiking, camping, bird watching, and kayaking.

When traveling with an eco-friendly mindset it’s important to remember that your actions have consequences. This means being mindful of how you interact with the environment around you, from avoiding littering to respecting cultural customs , these actions benefit everyone involved -including yourself.

Keep reading :  Discover India's top 3 best ecotourism 

The benefits of ecotourism

Travelers want to explore nature while minimizing their impact on the environment. One of the main benefits of ecotourism is that it reduces pollution and waste by promoting responsible use of natural resources . By limiting energy consumption, using renewable sources such as solar power, and avoiding single-use plastic, ecotourists help protect ecosystems from further damage.

But ecotourism can bring many benefits to both travelers and local communities . It can help support local economies by creating jobs and income opportunities for people living near touristic destinations. And in the other hand, ecotourists have the opportunity to learn more about a culture’s customs, beliefs, language, and food habits . This helps travellers to gain an understanding of different perspectives from around the globe.

Another benefit of ecotourism is that it educates travelers about the importance of preserving nature and protecting wildlife habitats. Through guided tours or volunteer programs, visitors can learn more about the environment they are visiting while helping with conservation efforts such as beach cleanups or tree planting initiatives . This type of education can be invaluable in raising awareness about global issues related to climate change or endangered species conservation .

How ecotourism benefits local communities

Ecotourism has the potential to benefit local communities in many ways, from creating jobs and boosting the economy to conserving natural resources . With responsible ecotourism practices, travelers can ensure that their impact is positive and meaningful.

Whether you’re backpacking through South America or trekking through Asia , choosing ecotourism can provide economic opportunities for local communities by creating jobs in hospitality, conservation, and other related fields. These jobs can help reduce poverty levels and improve the quality of life for locals. Instead of opting for large hotel or restaurant chains where sustainability may not be a top priority, opt for smaller establishments . That way, you'll help ensure that your money goes to those who are actively working to protect the environment , rather than just exploiting it for profit.

Ecotourism also promotes sustainable development by providing funds for conservation projects that benefit both people and wildlife. For example, ecotourism can provide funds for the protection of endangered species or develop educational programs about the importance of protecting natural resources . In addition, ecotourism companies often use locally sourced materials when building facilities such as lodges or hiking trails, which boosts the local economy.

How ecotourism benefits the environment

A good example of this is visiting national parks or other protected areas: Be careful not to disturb plants or animals by sticking only to designated trails and paths. Also, do not leave behind litter such as plastic bottles or packaging, as these can damage the local ecosystem if not removed.

Responsible ecotourism has proven to be beneficial in reducing negative impacts on local ecosystems such as deforestation or pollution from tourist activities like fishing or camping without proper waste disposal. Educating tourists on how to behave responsibly during their visit will ensure that these areas remain protected.

The main principles of ecotourism

1. Respect the local culture

Respect the customs, beliefs, and traditions of locals wherever you go. This includes dressing appropriately at religious sites, not taking photos without people's permission, and being mindful of cultural sensitivities when it comes to food or language.

2. Support local businesses

Whenever possible, try to support local businesses by buying locally made products or eating at restaurants run by locals rather than large chains or resorts. Not only does this help keep money in the community, but it’s also a great way to have an authentic experience that you wouldn’t find elsewhere.

3. Do not take souvenirs from protected areas

When visiting natural areas like national parks always remember to take your trash with you when leaving – never leave anything behind. Also, do not take souvenirs from protected areas as this can have negative impacts on wildlife habitats and ecosystems over time.

4. Use sustainable transportation

When possible, opt for more sustainable modes of transportation such as cycling or walking instead of driving, which produce harmful emissions into the atmosphere – plus, they’re usually cheaper too.

These small changes can make a big difference when it comes to preserving our planet's resources. By following these tips for responsible ecotourism, you can ensure that your travels have a positive impact on the environment and local communities.

Why should you choose ecotourism?

Ecotourism is an opportunity to explore beautiful places while learning about local cultures , customs, and traditions. But besides that, choosing this type of tourism can also help protect natural resources. It is possible to reduce your carbon footprint by minimizing energy consumption during your travels , as well as helping preserve wildlife habitats and ecosystems for future generations to enjoy.

Ecotourists often have the opportunity to participate in meaningful activities, such as volunteering with conservation efforts or participating in educational workshops on sustainability practices. Ecotourism also helps create jobs for locals by providing them with employment opportunities related to tourism services like guiding or transportation .

Before embarking on your next trip, research the destination thoroughly so that you know what kind of environmental regulations are in place. This way, you can ensure that your visit will not negatively affect the environment or disrupt animal habitats unnecessarily.

It is also important to be mindful when interacting with wildlife - never feed wild animals (even if they seem friendly). This could out them in dangerous situations where they rely on humans instead of finding their own food sources . It is also important to always respect local customs and laws; be aware that some activities may be prohibited depending on the destination, so make sure you understand all relevant rules before engaging in any activity.

Read more on how to be a conscious traveler  and how to find ecotourism jobs .

Disadvantages of ecotourism

While ecotourism has many benefits, it can also have negative impacts if not well managed. Travellers who want to travel responsibly can choose from a variety of  ecotourism destinations . But these beautiful natural parks and desert beaches are seen as profit opportunities by some companiers and may face overtourism . Other drawback is the greenwashing. Many companies, resorts and restaurants advertise being sustainable, but in reality do nothing for the environment or local communities.

This is why it is so important to -not only choose ecotourism, but also to be a responsible traveller and ask questions. Among the potential disadvantages of ecotourism are the exploitation and displacement of local communities . They may benefit little from tourism and be exposed to negative impacts, such as increased traffic and noise. As operators prioritise profit over conservation, communities may also be forced to relocate to make way for tourism-related infrastructure.

Ecotourism volunteering with Worldpackers

Participating in volunteer programs during your travels often involves helping out in conservation areas, such as wildlife sanctuaries or reforestation efforts that directly benefit communities and the environment. Volunteering with Worldpackers allows you to gain valuable experience and develop new skills while making a positive impact on your community.

Ecotourism is a form of responsible travel that focuses on preserving the environment and creating sustainable livelihoods for local communities. Through ecotourism, travelers can enjoy unique experiences while helping to protect nature and support local economies. Volunteers are also encouraged to visit natural areas such as national parks or wildlife reserves to learn more about and respect nature. By visiting these places, ecotourists can help protect them from destruction while providing much-needed economic support for conservation efforts

The process of finding a volunteering opportunity with Worldpackers is simple. First, you can create a profile on the platform and indicate your areas of interest and skills . Then, you can browse the available opportunities, and once you find one that matches your interests, you can become a verified member and reach out to the host to discuss details and make arrangements.

Volunteering with ecotourism in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is one of the most important destinations for ecotourism , and ideal for animal lovers. It’s a tropical destination with rainforests, countless beaches, volcanoes, and mountains. The ‘pura vida’ lifestyle, means pure life—and is the true philosophy of Costa Rica.

With Worldpackers volunteer opportunities in Costa Rica, you can work on projects to protect sea turtles   and  rescued and endangered species , such as feeding and caring for animals, cleaning enclosures, and assisting with rehabilitation and release programs.

This eco-village in Drake Bay  is looking for help to build its agro-ecological farm and produce organic food through regenerative agriculture and hydroponics. They are looking for volunteers with green fingers who want to learn how to produce bio-inputs, such as soil, fertilizers, repellents and microorganisms, and how to process and prepare food. Volunteers are staying in a purpose-built station and can use any of the facilities at the property.

Volunteering with ecotourism in Kenya

Ecotourism in Kenya is a great opportunity to help with community development projects, such as building schools and promoting eco-friendly tourism. With Worldpackers volunteer programs, you can develop new skills while participating in  teaching programs in Nairobi .

Since Kenya is home to more than 50 national parks, you can immerse yourself in nature or wildlife while volunteering. Travelers often go to Kenya in hopes of meeting ‘The Big 5’, and this has encouraged the government to stop illegal poaching, ban single-use plastic and plastic bags , while promoting sustainable tourism.

Volunteering with ecotourism in Norway

The opportunity to volunteer with ecotourism in Norway is for nature enthusiasts. It offers the chance to work in national parks, promoting sustainable tourism and conservation efforts. Volunteer tasks may include trail maintenance, wildlife monitoring, and visitor education.

You can also experience the Fjords while helping to grow vegetables on a small farm and in a greenhouse.

Volunteering with Ecotourism in the Amazon rainforest

The traditional peoples and the Amazon rainforest are daily resisting. For years they have resisted burning and deforestation, land grabbing and lack of public policies. As a volunteer in Amazonas , you can develop new skills in a cultural space  in Presidente Figueiredo. Close to waterfalls and the people who live near the Amazon River . 

If you choose to volunteer with ecotourism options, you can have unique experiences not available anywhere else in the world - from trekking through remote jungle areas to snorkeling among coral reefs teeming with life. Such activities give visitors the opportunity to reconnect with nature while creating lasting memories in some truly spectacular locations around the globe with Worldpackers. Did you like these ideas? Subscribe to the Worldpackers Community for free and start saving your favorite volunteer positions until you are ready to get verified. 

Join the community!

Create a free Worldpackers account to discover volunteer experiences perfect for you and get access to exclusive travel discounts!

Raquel Pryzant

www.solanomundo.com.br

Travel journalist, author of the @solanomundo project and collaborator in different media such as Viajes National Geographic, Folha de S. Paulo and Qual Viagem Magazine. Read more: www.solanomundo.com.br

Be part of the Worldpackers Community

Already have an account, are you a host, leave your comment here.

Write here your questions and greetings to the author

More about this topic

Ecotourism examples around the world: the 10 best places to visit and adventure

Eco tourism destinations around the world

Overtourism: What is it? How can we avoid it?

How do Worldpackers trips work?

As a member, you can contact as many hosts and travel safely as many times as you want.

Choose your plan to travel with Worldpackers as many times as you like.

Complete your profile, watch the video lessons in the Academy, and earn certificates to stand out to hosts.

Apply to as many positions as you like, and get in contact with our verified hosts.

If a host thinks you’re a good fit for their position, they’ll pre-approve you.

Get your documents and tickets ready for your volunteer trip.

Confirm your trip to enjoy all of the safety of Worldpackers.

Have a transformative experience and make a positive impact on the world.

If anything doesn’t go as planned with a host, count on the WP Safeguard and our highly responsive support team!

After volunteering, you and your host exchange reviews.

With positive reviews, you’ll stand out to hosts and get even more benefits.

Tourism ‘intrinsically susceptible’ to climate shocks, political unrest, pandemic threat

Facebook Twitter Print Email

The President of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday highlighted the urgent need to boost sustainable and resilient tourism practices to protect the environment while continuing to benefit local economies.

Addressing a high-level meeting on tourism as part of the General Assembly’s first ever Sustainability Week , Dennis Francis said it was a vital driver of economic growth and empowerment .

In 2023, the sector contributed three per cent to the global gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to $3.3 trillion, and employed one in every ten people worldwide. For countries in special situations, like small island nations, tourism accounted for nearly 35 per cent of all export earnings and up to 80 per cent of national exports .

“Despite the spectacular benefits reaped across its vast supply chains – tourism is also intrinsically susceptible to a host of disruptive forces – such as climate change, pandemics, acts of terrorism, and domestic political instability,” Mr. Francis said.

Sustainable

He expressed concerns about the sector’s environmental and carbon footprint, saying sustainability must be paramount.

“We need a global tourism sector that is sustainable – one with deep local value chains that expand demand for locally made products and services in ways that also directly and positively benefit local communities,” he urged.

Moreover, he emphasized that the sector should also leverage digital technology to foster innovation and expand opportunities for jobs and economic growth, especially for women, youth, and indigenous and local communities.

“We also need a global tourism sector that is resilient,” said Mr. Francis, stressing the need to minimize its vulnerabilities and bolstering its ability to withstand external shocks.

This includes designing infrastructures that can withstand environmental disasters, fostering innovations that enhance economic and social resilience, and diversifying tourism activities to reduce recovery time after disruptive events.

Symbol of hope

Zurab Pololikashvili, head of the UN World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO ), also spoke at the General Assembly, noting that despite today’s pressing challenges, tourism offered a glimmer of hope.

Reflecting on the sector’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic – its most significant crisis in history – he observed that in 2023, international arrivals rebounded to almost 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels , with full recovery expected by the end of 2024.

This recovery must serve as a catalyst for bold action and transformative change, he said, emphasizing, “tourism can – and must – be a part of this plan for a better future for all.”

Sustainability Week

The high-level event on tourism followed Monday’s deliberations on debt sustainability , where speakers outlined the crippling impact of debt on developing economies, and called for urgent reform of the global financial system.

Upcoming highlights of the week include dedicated discussions on sustainable transport, infrastructure and energy.

• General Assembly
• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Winter is here! Check out the winter wonderlands at these 5 amazing winter destinations in Montana

• Travel Guide
• Sustainability

How Can Ecotourism Benefit The Environment?

Published: November 14, 2023

Modified: December 28, 2023

by Chelsey Roemer

• Plan Your Trip

Introduction

Ecotourism is a form of travel that focuses on experiencing and preserving natural environments and cultural heritage. It seeks to minimize the negative impacts of tourism while maximizing the benefits for the environment and local communities. As concerns about climate change and environmental degradation grow, ecotourism has emerged as a sustainable alternative that promotes conservation and supports local economies.

Unlike mass tourism, which often contributes to pollution, overcrowding, and destruction of natural habitats, ecotourism strives to create a harmonious balance between tourism and the natural environment. It encourages responsible travel practices and fosters a deeper connection with nature, allowing visitors to appreciate and understand the importance of protecting our planet.

In recent years, ecotourism has gained significant momentum and popularity worldwide. Travelers are seeking out destinations that offer unique and authentic experiences while contributing positively to the environment. By choosing ecotourism, individuals can make a meaningful impact on the well-being of the planet and its ecosystems.

In this article, we will explore the importance of ecotourism for the environment. We will delve into how it helps preserve natural areas, conserve wildlife, promote sustainability, support local communities, provide education and awareness, and generate profits for conservation efforts. Though ecotourism has its challenges and limitations, it offers a promising model for sustainable tourism that can make a significant difference in protecting our planet for future generations.

Definition of Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a unique form of sustainable travel that focuses on experiencing and appreciating natural environments while minimizing negative impacts on the ecosystem. It involves conscious efforts to protect and conserve fragile ecosystems, promote cultural understanding, and support local communities. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.”

Unlike traditional tourism, which often prioritizes economic gains without considering the environmental and social consequences, ecotourism seeks to strike a balance between enjoying the beauty of nature and contributing to its preservation. It emphasizes the importance of sustainability by adhering to the principles of conservation, community involvement, and education.

Ecotourism destinations are typically characterized by their pristine and untouched natural landscapes, rich biodiversity, and cultural heritage. Visitors are encouraged to appreciate and respect the environment, learning about the delicate balance of ecosystems and the efforts made to protect them. Rather than being a passive observer, ecotourists actively participate in activities such as hiking, bird-watching, wildlife spotting, or engaging with local communities.

One essential aspect of ecotourism is the inclusion of the local community in decision-making processes and the distribution of economic benefits. By involving the local population, ecotourism aims to empower communities and provide them with sustainable livelihoods. It encourages the preservation of traditional cultural practices and fosters respect for indigenous knowledge and heritage.

Furthermore, ecotourism promotes responsible travel practices, such as minimizing waste, conserving water and energy, supporting local businesses, and respecting local customs and traditions. It encourages visitors to leave a positive impact on the destination by choosing eco-friendly accommodations and transportation options, practicing sustainable tourism activities, and supporting initiatives that contribute to the well-being of the environment and local communities.

In summary, ecotourism is a conscious and sustainable travel approach that prioritizes the protection of the environment, the well-being of local communities, and the promotion of cultural understanding. It offers travelers unique experiences while fostering a deeper connection with nature and inspiring them to become ambassadors for conservation.

Importance of Ecotourism for the Environment

Ecotourism plays a vital role in the preservation and conservation of the environment. By promoting sustainable travel practices and raising awareness about the importance of protecting natural resources, ecotourism contributes to the long-term health and well-being of our planet. Here are some key reasons why ecotourism is important for the environment:

• Preservation of Natural Areas: Ecotourism encourages the preservation of natural areas by providing economic incentives for conservation. Protected areas and national parks often rely on revenue from ecotourism activities to fund conservation efforts and support ongoing protection measures. This financial support helps to maintain the ecological integrity of these areas, ensuring that future generations can continue to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of nature.
• Conservation of Wildlife: Ecotourism promotes the conservation of wildlife by creating a demand for their protection. Tourists who engage in wildlife-focused ecotourism activities, such as safari tours or whale-watching expeditions, contribute to conservation efforts through entrance fees and donations. By valuing and appreciating wildlife, ecotourists help to protect endangered species and their habitats, supporting research, anti-poaching initiatives, and habitat restoration programs.
• Promoting Sustainability: Ecotourism promotes sustainable practices by encouraging accommodations, tour operators, and travelers to adopt environmentally friendly measures. From using renewable energy sources to implementing waste reduction and recycling programs, ecotourism seeks to minimize the negative ecological impacts of tourism. By setting an example of sustainability, ecotourism serves as a catalyst for change in the broader tourism industry.
• Supporting Local Communities: Ecotourism fosters socio-economic development by engaging and supporting local communities. It provides opportunities for local residents to actively participate in tourism activities and share their cultural heritage. The revenue generated from ecotourism often directly benefits the local economy, improving infrastructure, healthcare, education, and other essential services. By empowering local communities, ecotourism helps to alleviate poverty and create sustainable livelihoods, reducing the pressure on natural resources and ecosystems.
• Education and Awareness: Ecotourism offers educational experiences that enhance visitors’ understanding of environmental issues and promote responsible behavior. Through guided tours, interpretive signage, and interactive programs, travelers gain insights into the importance of biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable living. This increased awareness leads to informed decisions and behavior changes both during and after the trip, ensuring a positive impact on the environment.

In summary, ecotourism plays a critical role in protecting and preserving the environment. By promoting sustainable practices, supporting local communities, and raising awareness about ecological issues, ecotourism allows travelers to enjoy the beauty of nature while contributing to its conservation. Embracing ecotourism can lead to a more sustainable and balanced future, where the environment and local communities thrive.

Preservation of Natural Areas

One of the significant benefits of ecotourism is its role in the preservation of natural areas. Ecotourism provides economic incentives for the conservation and protection of pristine landscapes, national parks, and other fragile ecosystems. Here’s why the preservation of natural areas is crucial:

1. Biodiversity Conservation: Natural areas are often rich in biodiversity, housing a wide variety of plant and animal species. They serve as habitats for endangered species and play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance. Ecotourism helps generate revenue that can be used for conservation efforts, such as habitat restoration, anti-poaching measures, and research on endangered species. By supporting ecotourism activities, visitors contribute directly to the preservation of these critical ecosystems.

2. Protection of Endangered Habitats: Many natural areas are under threat from deforestation, pollution, and habitat fragmentation. Ecotourism provides a means to protect and restore these habitats. The income generated from ecotourism can fund initiatives that involve reforestation, wetland preservation, and the establishment of protected areas. This protects the delicate balance of ecosystems and ensures the survival of rare and endangered species.

3. Maintenance of Ecological Integrity: Natural areas are characterized by their pristine and unspoiled environments, free from excessive human interference. Ecotourism promotes responsible and sustainable travel practices that minimize the impact on the environment. By adhering to strict guidelines and regulations, ecotourism activities ensure that the natural integrity of these areas remains preserved for future generations.

4. Economic Benefits for Conservation: The revenue generated from ecotourism contributes directly to conservation efforts. By investing in guided tours, entrance fees, and permits, visitors help fund essential conservation programs. This financial support enables park authorities and conservation organizations to implement measures such as anti-poaching patrols, habitat restoration, and wildlife research. The economic benefits of ecotourism create a cycle where the protection of natural areas becomes self-sustaining.

5. Ecological Restoration: Natural areas that have been degraded or damaged by human activities can be restored through ecotourism initiatives. Ecotourism operators often engage in habitat restoration projects, such as reforestation or the removal of invasive species. Such activities not only contribute to the preservation of natural areas but also provide educational opportunities for visitors to learn about ecological restoration techniques.

Preserving natural areas is vital not only for the well-being of ecosystems and species but also for the overall health and balance of the planet. With the support of ecotourism, these areas can thrive, providing future generations with the opportunity to experience and appreciate the wonders of nature.

Conservation of Wildlife

Ecotourism plays a significant role in the conservation of wildlife, contributing to the protection and preservation of endangered species and their habitats. Through responsible and sustainable travel practices, ecotourism fosters a deep appreciation for wildlife, raises awareness about conservation challenges, and generates financial support for necessary initiatives. Here’s why the conservation of wildlife is crucial:

1. Habitat Protection: Wildlife depends on specific habitats for their survival. Unfortunately, many habitats are under threat due to human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and urbanization. Ecotourism supports the preservation of natural habitats, including forests, wetlands, and grasslands, by creating economic incentives for their protection. Revenue generated from ecotourism activities can be directed towards habitat restoration, reforestation, and anti-poaching efforts, ensuring safe spaces for wildlife to thrive.

2. Endangered Species Recovery: Ecotourism contributes directly to the recovery and conservation of endangered species. Often, entrance fees and donations from ecotourism activities are allocated to species-specific conservation programs. This funding helps support research, monitoring, and anti-poaching efforts, all of which are crucial for the survival and recovery of endangered species. By participating in ecotourism experiences centered on observing and learning about endangered wildlife, visitors contribute to these crucial conservation efforts.

3. Sustainable Wildlife Management: Ecotourism promotes sustainable wildlife management practices that prioritize the well-being of animals and their natural habitats. It adheres to guidelines and regulations that ensure minimal disturbance to wildlife while providing educational and enriching experiences for visitors. Responsible wildlife viewing practices, such as keeping a safe distance, not disturbing natural behaviors, and not supporting activities that exploit or harm animals, are essential components of ecotourism that contribute to the conservation of wildlife.

4. Collaborative Conservation Efforts: Ecotourism fosters partnerships between local communities, wildlife conservation organizations, and tour operators. By involving local communities in decision-making processes and providing economic incentives, ecotourism helps build strong support for wildlife conservation initiatives. These collaborations often result in community-led conservation efforts, such as community-based anti-poaching patrols and habitat restoration projects, which benefit wildlife and the ecosystems they inhabit.

5. Education and Awareness: Ecotourism experiences centered on wildlife observation provide valuable educational opportunities for visitors. Tour guides and naturalists educate visitors about the importance of wildlife conservation, the threats faced by species, and the efforts being undertaken to protect them. By raising awareness and creating a personal connection with wildlife, ecotourism promotes a sense of responsibility and inspires visitors to become advocates for conservation long after their trip.

The conservation of wildlife is crucial for maintaining the planet’s biodiversity, ecological balance, and the health of ecosystems. Ecotourism serves as a powerful tool to support and promote these efforts, providing sustainable economic support and fostering a deeper appreciation for the beauty and importance of wildlife.

Promoting Sustainability

One of the key benefits of ecotourism is its focus on promoting sustainability in the travel industry. By emphasizing responsible practices and encouraging environmentally friendly choices, ecotourism strives to minimize the negative impact of tourism on the planet. Here are some ways in which ecotourism promotes sustainability:

1. Environmental Consciousness: Ecotourism encourages travelers to be mindful of their environmental impact. It promotes practices such as reducing waste, conserving water and energy, and using eco-friendly products. By raising awareness about the importance of sustainability, ecotourism inspires travelers to make conscious choices that minimize harm to the environment.

2. Conservation and Preservation: Ecotourism actively supports the conservation and preservation of natural areas and cultural heritage. It directs tourism activities towards protected areas, national parks, and other environmentally sensitive sites. By generating revenue for these locations, ecotourism contributes to their maintenance and preservation, promoting sustainable land and resource management practices.

3. Sustainable Accommodations: Ecotourism encourages the use of eco-friendly accommodations that prioritize sustainability. These accommodations may be eco-lodges, resorts, or campsites that utilize renewable energy sources, implement waste management systems, and promote local and organic food options. By supporting sustainable accommodations, ecotourism reduces the carbon footprint and environmental impact of travelers.

4. Transportation Choices: Ecotourism promotes sustainable transportation options, encouraging travelers to choose low-impact modes of transport whenever possible. This may include using public transportation, cycling, or walking instead of relying solely on private vehicles or air travel. By reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting sustainable transport initiatives, ecotourism helps mitigate the negative effects of transportation on the environment.

5. Community Engagement: Ecotourism actively involves local communities in tourism activities and decision-making processes. By supporting local businesses, employing local guides, and engaging with community-based tourism initiatives, ecotourism strengthens local economies and promotes sustainable livelihoods. This directly benefits local communities and incentivizes the preservation of their cultural heritage and traditions.

6. Cultural Preservation: In addition to environmental sustainability, ecotourism also prioritizes the preservation of local cultures and traditions. By engaging in cultural exchanges and supporting community-based tourism initiatives, ecotourism promotes respect and appreciation for diverse cultures. This helps preserve cultural identities and encourages the continuation of traditional practices, which are vital for maintaining a sustainable and vibrant cultural heritage.

In summary, ecotourism promotes sustainability by raising environmental consciousness, supporting conservation initiatives, encouraging sustainable accommodations and transportation, engaging with local communities, and preserving cultural heritage. By embracing sustainable practices and making responsible choices, ecotourism contributes to a more sustainable and balanced tourism industry that values and protects the planet.

Supporting Local Communities

One of the significant benefits of ecotourism is its positive impact on local communities. Unlike conventional tourism models that may exploit local resources and leave little economic benefit for the community, ecotourism actively involves and supports the local population. Here’s why supporting local communities is essential in ecotourism:

1. Economic Empowerment: Ecotourism provides economic opportunities for local communities, allowing them to participate directly in tourism activities and benefit economically from visitor expenditures. Local communities often offer authentic experiences, such as guided tours, cultural performances, handicrafts, and locally sourced food and beverages. By supporting these initiatives, ecotourism helps generate income that stays within the community, enhancing economic empowerment and reducing poverty.

2. Preservation of Cultural Heritage: Ecotourism places a strong emphasis on the preservation of cultural heritage and traditions. By engaging with local communities, travelers have the opportunity to learn about the unique customs, beliefs, and practices of the destination. This interaction helps preserve cultural heritage by creating awareness and appreciation for local traditions, fostering pride within the community, and encouraging the continued transmission of cultural knowledge to future generations.

3. Community Involvement: Ecotourism encourages active involvement and decision-making by local communities in tourism development. Collaborative initiatives allow communities to have a voice in matters such as infrastructure development, resource management, and conservation efforts. By involving the local community, ecotourism ensures that they are active participants in shaping their own tourism industry and that the benefits are shared equitably.

4. Socio-Cultural Understanding: Ecotourism provides opportunities for cultural exchange and mutual understanding between visitors and local communities. Travelers can gain insights into different ways of life, traditions, and perspectives, fostering respect, empathy, and cross-cultural learning. This increases cultural awareness and promotes a deeper appreciation for diversity, leading to more sustainable and responsible tourism practices.

5. Sustainable Livelihoods: Ecotourism helps create sustainable livelihoods for local communities by reducing their dependence on resource-intensive industries or unsustainable practices. By diversifying income sources and providing alternative employment opportunities, ecotourism contributes to long-term economic stability and resilience. This reduces pressure on the environment, as communities are less likely to engage in activities such as deforestation, overfishing, or destructive farming practices.

6. Capacity Development: Ecotourism often includes capacity development programs aimed at enhancing the skills and knowledge of the local community. Training in sustainable tourism practices, hospitality management, language proficiency, and environmental stewardship empowers community members to actively engage in tourism-related enterprises while maintaining a commitment to sustainability.

By supporting local communities, ecotourism fosters economic empowerment, preserves cultural heritage, encourages community involvement, promotes socio-cultural understanding, creates sustainable livelihoods, and facilitates capacity development. These benefits result in a more inclusive and equitable tourism industry that strengthens both the local community and the overall tourism experience.

Education and Awareness

Education and awareness are essential components of ecotourism, offering valuable opportunities for learning and fostering a deeper understanding of environmental and conservation issues. By providing educational experiences and promoting awareness, ecotourism plays a vital role in inspiring individuals to become environmentally responsible and proactive in advocating for sustainable practices. Here’s why education and awareness are crucial in ecotourism:

1. Understanding the Environment: Ecotourism provides a platform for visitors to learn about the natural environment firsthand. Through guided tours, interpretive signage, and educational programs, travelers gain insights into the ecological dynamics of the destination. They learn about the importance of biodiversity, the interdependence of species, and the delicate balance of ecosystems. This understanding cultivates a sense of appreciation and responsibility towards the environment.

2. Conservation Education: Ecotourism serves as a powerful tool for conservation education. By witnessing conservation efforts in action, visitors gain a deep appreciation for the challenges faced by ecosystems and wildlife. They learn about the threats of habitat loss, pollution, and climate change, as well as the strategies employed to mitigate these threats. Conservation education programs inform visitors about the importance of protecting natural resources and offer ideas for how they can contribute to conservation efforts.

3. Cultural Exchange and Sensitivity: Ecotourism encourages travelers to engage with local communities and learn about their cultural practices and traditions. This promotes cross-cultural understanding, empathy, and respect. By exploring different ways of life, visitors gain insights into the importance of cultural diversity and the role local communities play in preserving their heritage. This awareness fosters cultural sensitivity and appreciation, minimizing cultural conflicts and promoting sustainable cultural tourism.

4. Behavior Change: Through education and awareness, ecotourism aims to elicit behavior change in travelers. By highlighting the importance of responsible travel practices, such as reducing waste, conserving resources, and supporting eco-friendly initiatives, visitors are encouraged to adopt sustainable behavior both during their trip and in their daily lives. This behavior change extends beyond the trip itself, impacting individuals’ ongoing decisions and actions that contribute to the protection of the environment.

5. Empowerment and Advocacy: Education and awareness empower individuals to become environmental advocates. By providing them with knowledge and understanding, ecotourism equips travelers with the tools to make informed decisions and take action in their own communities. They become ambassadors for sustainable practices, spreading awareness and advocating for positive change in their networks and communities.

6. Research and Citizen Science: Ecotourism often provides opportunities for visitors to participate in citizen science initiatives and contribute to ongoing research projects. This involvement allows travelers to actively engage in data collection, wildlife monitoring, and ecological research. By contributing to scientific knowledge, visitors gain a deeper understanding of environmental issues and become more invested in conservation efforts.

Education and awareness are crucial aspects of ecotourism, enabling travelers to develop a deeper understanding of the environment and the need for sustainable practices. By fostering a sense of responsibility and empowering individuals to take action, ecotourism encourages a collective effort towards environmental stewardship and conservation.

Profits for Conservation

One of the distinct benefits of ecotourism is its ability to generate profits that can be directly dedicated to conservation efforts. Unlike traditional tourism models, where profits often flow out of the local community, ecotourism ensures that a significant portion of the revenue stays within the destination, supporting conservation initiatives. Here’s why the generation of profits for conservation is crucial in ecotourism:

1. Funding Conservation Programs: The revenue generated from ecotourism activities can be allocated directly to conservation programs and initiatives. These funds are used for research, monitoring, anti-poaching efforts, habitat restoration, and other essential conservation projects. The financial support provided by ecotourism helps sustain and expand these initiatives, ensuring the long-term protection of natural areas, wildlife, and ecosystems.

2. Sustainable Management of Protected Areas: Many ecotourism destinations are situated within protected areas or national parks. These areas require financial resources for effective management, including the enforcement of regulations, maintenance of infrastructure, and provision of visitor facilities. The profits generated from ecotourism can be reinvested into the sustainable management of these protected areas, ensuring their ecological integrity and enhancing the visitor experience.

3. Community-Based Conservation: Ecotourism often involves local communities in tourism activities and revenue-sharing mechanisms. A portion of the profits generated is directed towards community-based conservation initiatives, supporting projects that are designed and implemented by the local community. This ensures that local people have a stake in the conservation efforts, fostering a sense of ownership and stewardship. The profits generated from ecotourism provide the financial means for communities to engage in sustainable land management practices, protect key habitats, and participate in biodiversity conservation.

4. Continued Preservation of Endangered Species: Many endangered species are dependent on conservation efforts for their survival. Ecotourism contributes to these efforts by generating funds that contribute directly to the conservation and preservation of endangered species and their habitats. The profits generated help support captive breeding programs, anti-poaching patrols, habitat restoration initiatives, and research on species behavior, population dynamics, and ecological requirements.

5. Economic Incentives for Conservation: The profits generated from ecotourism create economic incentives for communities, governments, and landowners to engage in conservation practices. By demonstrating that conservation can be financially viable, ecotourism encourages stakeholders to prioritize sustainable land use, resource management, and responsible tourism practices. This leads to a more holistic approach to conservation, where economic benefits and environmental protection go hand in hand.

6. Long-Term Sustainability: Sustainable financing is crucial for the long-term sustainability of conservation efforts. By generating profits for conservation, ecotourism helps create a self-sustaining conservation model. The reinvestment of profits ensures ongoing funding for conservation programs, reducing dependence on external sources of funding and providing a reliable and continuous stream of financial support for conservation initiatives.

In summary, ecotourism’s ability to generate profits for conservation is critical in ensuring the preservation of natural areas, wildlife, and cultural heritage. By investing in conservation programs, supporting community-based initiatives, and providing economic incentives for sustainable practices, ecotourism helps create a sustainable future where conservation and economic development coexist in harmony.

Potential Challenges and Limitations

While ecotourism offers numerous benefits for the environment and local communities, it also faces certain challenges and limitations. It is important to acknowledge these aspects to ensure the continued success and improvement of ecotourism practices. Here are some potential challenges and limitations:

1. Balancing Conservation and Tourism: One of the primary challenges of ecotourism is striking a balance between conservation and the demands of tourism. Managing visitation levels, minimizing ecological impact, and ensuring visitor satisfaction while preserving fragile ecosystems can be difficult. Careful planning, effective regulations, and ongoing monitoring are necessary to prevent overcrowding and degradation of natural areas.

2. Lack of Regulation and Certification: In some regions, there may be a lack of standardized regulation and certification for ecotourism. This can lead to greenwashing or companies falsely claiming to be ecotourism operators without adhering to sustainable practices. The absence of clear criteria and oversight can make it challenging for travelers to identify truly responsible and authentic ecotourism experiences.

3. High Costs and Accessibility: The costs associated with implementing and maintaining sustainable infrastructure for ecotourism can be high. This includes investments in eco-friendly accommodations, eco-certifications, and training programs for staff. As a result, ecotourism experiences may be more expensive than conventional tourism options, limiting accessibility for certain travelers. Ensuring affordability and accessibility while maintaining sustainable practices is an ongoing challenge in ecotourism.

4. Seasonality and Carrying Capacity: Ecotourism destinations often have specific peak seasons, which can lead to overcrowding and increased stress on natural areas during those periods. Proper management of visitor numbers, infrastructure, and conservation measures is essential to prevent negative impacts on the environment. Determining and implementing appropriate carrying capacities for different areas is a complex task to ensure that visitor numbers are sustainable without compromising the ecological integrity of the destination.

5. Socio-Cultural Impact: The influx of tourists can have social and cultural implications for local communities. Rapid tourism growth can lead to changes in traditional lifestyles, loss of cultural authenticity, and commodification of culture. Balancing economic opportunities with the need to preserve cultural heritage and local customs requires careful management and community involvement to mitigate negative impacts on the social fabric of the community.

6. Climate Change Vulnerability: Climate change poses a threat to both natural areas and the tourism industry as a whole. Rising temperatures, sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and shifting ecosystems can impact the viability and attractiveness of ecotourism destinations. Adaptation strategies and resilience-building efforts are necessary to address the challenges posed by climate change and ensure the long-term sustainability of ecotourism.

Despite these challenges and limitations, continuous efforts, collaborations, and improvements can help overcome these obstacles. Through effective monitoring, regulation, community involvement, and ongoing education, the ecotourism industry can strive towards more sustainable practices and positive impacts on the environment and local communities.

Ecotourism serves as a powerful model for sustainable travel, offering a multitude of benefits for the environment, wildlife, local communities, and visitors alike. Through its focus on conservation, preservation, sustainability, and cultural appreciation, ecotourism has the potential to create a positive impact on our planet. By promoting responsible travel practices, generating profits for conservation, and fostering education and awareness, ecotourism plays a crucial role in protecting natural areas, conserving wildlife, supporting local communities, and promoting sustainable development.

The preservation of natural areas and their biodiversity is at the core of ecotourism. By directing tourism activities to protected areas, national parks, and other ecologically sensitive sites, ecotourism helps fund conservation efforts and contributes to the maintenance of these vital habitats. It also plays a significant role in the conservation of wildlife, supporting research, anti-poaching initiatives, and habitat restoration programs to ensure the survival of endangered species.

Ecotourism’s commitment to sustainability is evident in its promotion of eco-friendly practices, such as reducing waste, conserving resources, and supporting local and organic products. By encouraging responsible behavior and reducing the ecological footprint of travelers, ecotourism sets an example for the broader tourism industry and promotes a more sustainable future.

Furthermore, ecotourism supports local communities by providing economic opportunities, preserving cultural heritage, and engaging community members in decision-making processes. By sharing profits with the local population and embracing community-based initiatives, ecotourism fosters economic empowerment, sustainable livelihoods, and cultural preservation.

Education and awareness are fundamental components of ecotourism, as they empower individuals to make informed decisions, advocate for sustainability, and become ambassadors for conservation. Through interactive and educational experiences, ecotourism not only raises awareness about environmental issues but also instills a sense of responsibility and appreciation for the natural world.

Despite the challenges and limitations that ecotourism faces, such as balancing conservation and tourism demands or ensuring affordability and accessibility, the potential for positive change remains significant. Through continued collaboration, regulation, and improvements, the ecotourism industry can overcome these challenges and further enhance its positive impact on the environment and communities.

In conclusion, ecotourism offers a transformative way to explore the world, fostering a deeper connection with nature, promoting sustainability, supporting local communities, and creating a sense of personal responsibility for the well-being of our planet. By choosing ecotourism, individuals contribute to conservation efforts and help pave the way for a more sustainable and harmonious future for all.

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Please wait while your request is being verified...

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection

Impact of tourism development upon environmental sustainability: a suggested framework for sustainable ecotourism

Qadar bakhsh baloch.

1 Abasyn University, Peshawar, Pakistan

Syed Naseeb Shah

Nadeem iqbal.

2 Air University School of Management, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Muhammad Sheeraz

3 Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan

Muhammad Asadullah

4 IBA, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan

Sourath Mahar

5 University of Sialkot, Sialkot, Pakistan

Asia Umar Khan

6 Islamia College University Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

Associated Data

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available on request.

The empirical research investigated the relationship between tourism development and environmental suitability to propose a framework for sustainable ecotourism. The framework suggested a balance between business and environmental interests in maintaining an ecological system with the moderating help of government support and policy interventions. The study population encompasses tourism stakeholders, including tourists, representatives from local communities, members of civil administration, hoteliers, and tour operators serving the areas. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed to respondents, along with a brief description of key study variables to develop a better understanding. After verifying the instrument’s reliability and validity, data analysis was conducted via hierarchical regression. The study findings revealed that a substantial number of people perceive socio-economic benefits, including employment and business openings, infrastructure development from tourism development, and growth. However, the state of the natural and environmental capital was found to be gradually degrading. Alongside the social environment, social vulnerability is reported due to the overutilization of land, intrusion from external cultures, and pollution in air and water due to traffic congestion, accumulation of solid waste, sewage, and carbon emissions. The study suggested a model framework for the development of sustained ecotourism, including supportive government policy interventions to ensure effective conservation of environmental and natural resources without compromising the economic viability and social well-beings of the locals. Furthermore, the variables and the constructs researched can be replicated to other destinations to seek valuable inputs for sustainable destination management elsewhere.

Introduction

Tourism is a vibrant force that stimulates travel to explore nature, adventures, wonders, and societies, discover cultures, meet people, interact with values, and experience new traditions and events. Tourism development attracts tourists to a particular destination to develop and sustain a tourism industry. Moreover, environmental sustainability is the future-based conscious effort aimed at conserving socio-cultural heritage and preserving natural resources to protect environmental ecosystems through supporting people’s health and economic well-being. Environment sustainability can be reflected in clean and green natural landscaping, thriving biodiversity, virgin sea beaches, long stretches of desert steppes, socio-cultural values, and archeological heritage that epitomize tourists’ degree of motivation and willingness of the local community to welcome the visitors. In this context, tourism growth and environmental sustainability are considered interdependent constructs; therefore, the increase in tourism development and tourists’ arrivals directly affects the quality of sustained and green tourism (Azam et al. 2018 ; Hassan et al.  2020 ; Sun et al. 2021 ).

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries, contributing more than 10% to the global GDP (UNWTO 2017; Mikayilov et al. 2019 ). Twenty-five million international tourists in 1950 grew to 166 million in 1970, reaching 1.442 billion in 2018 and projected to be 1.8 billion by 2030. Mobilizing such a substantial human tourist’s mass is most likely to trickle environmental pollution along with its positive effects on employment, wealth creation, and the economy. The local pollution at tourist destinations may include air emissions, noise, solid waste, littering, sewage, oil and chemicals, architectural/visual pollution, heating, car use, and many more. In addition, an uncontrolled, overcrowded, and ill-planned tourist population has substantial adverse effects on the quality of the environment. It results in the over-consumption of natural resources, degradation of service quality, and an exponential increase in wastage and pollution. Furthermore, tourism arrivals beyond capacity bring problems rather than a blessing, such as leaving behind soil erosion, attrition of natural resources, accumulation of waste and air pollution, and endangering biodiversity, decomposition of socio-cultural habitats, and virginity of land and sea (Kostić et al. 2016 ; Shaheen et al. 2019 ; Andlib and Salcedo-Castro  2021 ).

Tourism growth and environmental pollution have been witnessed around the globe in different regions. The ASEAN countries referred to as heaven for air pollution, climate change, and global warming are experiencing economic tourism and pollution (Azam et al. 2018 ; Guzel and Okumus 2020 ). In China, more than fifty-eight major Chinese tourism destinations are inviting immediate policy measures to mitigate air pollution and improve environmental sustainability (Zhang et al. 2020 ). Similarly, Singapore, being a top-visited country, is facing negative ecological footprints and calling for a trade-off between tourism development and environmental sustainability (Khoi et al. 2021 ). The prior studies established that international tourism and the tourism-led growth surge tourists’ arrival, energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, and air pollution resultantly cause climate change (Aslan et al. 2021 ). South Asian countries, more specifically Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are on the verge of tourism growth and environmental pollution compared to other countries (Chishti et al. 2020 ; Tiwari et al. 2021 ).

Pakistan is acknowledged in the tourism world because of its magnificent mountains with the densest concentration of high peaks in the world, scenic beauty of Neelum Valley, Murree, Chitral, and swat Valleys’, Kaghan, Naran, Hunza, Gilgit Baltistan (Baloch 2007 ), sacred shrines of Sikhism, archeological sites of the Gandhara and Indus Valley civilizations such as Mohenjo-Daro, Taxila including pre-Islamic Kalasha community (Baloch and Rehman 2015 ). In addition, Pakistan’s hospitable and multicultural society offers rich traditions, customs, and festivals for the tourists to explore, commemorate, cherish, and enjoy. Pakistan’s geographical and socio-cultural environment represents its resource and an opportunity (Baloch and Rehman 2015 ); therefore, Pakistan is looking to capitalize on it as a promising source of the foreign reserve to compensate for its mounting trade deficit (Baloch et al. 2020 ).

Tourism expansion has been established as a very deleterious ecological cost vis-à-vis the socio-economic benefits it passes to the host communities (Pulido-Fernández et al. 2019 ; Simo-Kengne 2022 ). In this context, the research is motivated to investigate the relationships between Pakistan’s tourism development activities and environmental sustainability. Drawing from the arguments of Pulido-Fernández et al. ( 2019 ) and Simo-Kengne ( 2022 ), it is feared that Pakistan’s ongoing determination to tourism development is likely to cause environmental degradation in two ways. Firstly, the tourism infrastructure developmental process would consume natural resources in the form of air and water pollution, loss of nature, and biodiversity. Secondly, the proliferation of tourism-related energy-consuming activities harms the environment by adding CO 2  emissions (Andlib and Saceldo-Castro 2021 ; Chien et al. 2021a ). Therefore, to tape this tourism-rich potential without compromising the sustainability of the natural and socio-cultural environment in the area, there is a dire need to develop Pakistan’s tourism areas into environment-friendly destinations.

Against the backdrop of a widening level of trade deficit, Pakistan’s rich tourism potential is being perceived as an immediate alternative for earning revenue to compensate for the current account gap. However, the developing large-scale tourism industry is considered a threat to deforestation, and air and water pollution, endangering biodiversity trading on resilient ecological credentials. The research study attempts to find an all-inclusive and comprehensive answer to the socio-ecological environmental concerns of tourism development and growth. Therefore, the research investigates the relationship between tourism development and its environmental sustainability to suggest a model framework for the development and growth of Sustainable Ecotourism in Pakistan along with its most visited destinations.

Literature review

Tourism development and growth.

Tourism is considered a force of sound as it benefits travelers and communities in urban and suburban areas. Tourism development is the process of forming and sustaining a business for a particular or mix of segments of tourists’ as per their motivation in a particular area or at a specific destination. Primarily, tourism development refers to the all-encompassing process of planning, pursuing, and executing strategies to establish, develop, promote, and encourage tourism in a particular area or destination (Mandić et al. 2018 ; Ratnasari et al. 2020 ). A tourism destination may serve as a single motivation for a group of tourists or a mix of purposes, i.e., natural tourism, socio-cultural or religious tourism, adventure or business tourism, or a combination of two or more. Andlib and Salcedo-Castro ( 2021 ), drawing from an analysis approach, contended that tourism destinations in Pakistan offer a mix of promising and negative consequences concerning their socio-economic and environmental impressions on the host community. The promising socio-economic impacts for the local community are perceived in the form of employment and business opportunities, improved standard of living, and infrastructural development in the area. The adverse environmental outcomes include overcrowding, traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, environmental degradation, and encroachment of landscaping for the local community and the tourists. An extensive review of the literature exercise suggests the following benefits that the local community and the tourists accrue from the tour are as follows:

• Generate revenue and monetary support for people and the community through local arts and culture commercialization.
• Improve local resource infrastructure and quality of life, including employment generation and access to improved civic facilities.
• Help to create awareness and understanding of different ethnic cultures, social values, and traditions, connecting them and preserving cultures.
• Rehabilitate and conserve socio-cultural and historical heritage, including archeological and natural sites.
• Establishment of natural parks, protracted areas, and scenic beauty spots.
• Conservation of nature, biodiversity, and endangered species with control over animal poaching.
• Improved water and air quality through afforestation, littering control, land and soil conservation, and recycling of used water and waste.

Tourism and hospitality business incorporates various business activities such as travel and transportation through the air or other modes of travel, lodging, messing, restaurants, and tourism destinations (Szpilko 2017 ; Bakhriddinovna and Qizi 2020 ). A tourist’s tourism experience is aimed at leisure, experiencing adventure, learning the culture or history of a particular area or ethnic entity, traveling for business or health, education, or religious purposes. The chain of activities adds value to the Tourism experience. Every activity contributes toward economic stimulation, job creation, revenue generation, and tourism development encompassing infrastructure for all activities involved in the tourism process. Tourism growth expresses the number of arrivals and the time of their stay/trips over a period of time. Tourism growth is measured through the interplay between tourists’ arrivals, tourism receipts, and travel time duration (Song et al. 2010 ; Arifin et al. 2019 ). The following factors drive the degree and level of tourism development and growth:

• Environmental factors include scenic beauty, green spaces, snowy mountains, towering peaks, good climate and weather, the interconnectivity of destination, quality of infrastructure, etc.
• Socio-economic factors: the distinctiveness of community, uniqueness of culture and social values, hospitality and adaptability, accessibility, accommodation, facilities and amenities, cost-effectiveness, price index, and enabling business environment.
• Historical, cultural, and religious factors include historical and cultural heritage, religious sites, and cultural values and experiences.

The tourism development process and its different dynamics revolve around the nature of tourism planned for a particular destination or area, which can be specified as ecotourism, sustainable tourism, green tourism or regenerative tourism, etc. Ecotourism is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education” (Cheia, 2013 ; TIES, 2015). According to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), ecotourism involves “ Environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, to enjoy and appreciate nature (and accompanying cultural features, both past, and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact and provide for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local peoples ”. Moreover, Blangy and Wood ( 1993 ) defined it as “ responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people ” (p. 32). The concept of ecotourism is grounded upon a well-defined set of principles including “environmental conservation and education, cultural preservation and experience, and economic benefits” (Cobbinah 2015 ; De Grosbois and Fennell 2021 ).

Ecotourism minimizes tourism’s impact on the tourism resources of a specific destination, including lessening physical, social, interactive, and psychosomatic impacts. Ecotourism is also about demonstrating a positive and responsible attitude from the tourists and hosts toward protecting and preserving all components of the environmental ecosystem. Ecotourism reflects a purpose-oriented mindset, responsible for creating and delivering value for the destination with a high degree of kindliness for local environmental, political, or social issues. Ecotourism generally differs from mass tourism because of its following features (Liang et al. 2018 ; Ding and Cao 2019 ; Confente and Scarpi 2021 ):

• Conscientious behavior focuses on the low impact on the environment.
• Sensitivity and warmth for local cultures, values, and biodiversity.
• Supporting the sustenance of efforts for the conservation of local resources.
• Sharing and delivering tourism benefits to the local communities.
• Local participation as a tourism stakeholder in the decision-making process.
• Educating the tourist and locals about the sensitivity and care of the environment because tourism without proper arrangement can endanger the ecosystems and indigenous cultures and lead to significant ecological degradation.

Sustainability aims to recognize all impacts of tourism, minimize the adverse impacts, and maximize the encouraging ones. Sustainable tourism involves sustainable practices to maintain viable support for the ecology of the tourism environment in and around the destination. Sustainable tourism is natural resource-based tourism that resembles ecotourism and focuses on creating travel openings with marginal impact and encouraging learning about nature having a low impact, conservation, and valuable consideration for the local community’s well-being (Fennell 2001 & 2020 ; Butowski 2021 ). On the other hand, ecotourism inspires tourists to learn and care about the environment and effectively participate in the conservation of nature and cultural activities. Therefore, ecotourism is inclusive of sustainable tourism, whereas the focus of sustainable tourism includes the following responsibilities:

• Caring, protecting, and conserving the environment, natural capital, biodiversity, and wildlife.
• Delivering socio-economic welfare for the people living in and around tourists' destinations.
• Identifying, rehabilitating, conserving, and promoting cultural and historical heritage for visitors learning experiences.
• Bringing tourists and local groups together for shared benefits.
• Creating wide-ranging and reachable opportunities for tourists.

Environment and sustainability of ecosystem

The term “environment” is all-inclusive of all the natural, organic living, inorganic, and non-natural things. The environment also denotes the interface among all breathing species with the natural resources and other constituents of the environment. Humans’ activities are mainly responsible for environmental damage as people and nations have contemplated modifying the environment to suit their expediencies. Deforestation, overpopulation, exhaustion of natural capital, and accumulation of solid waste and sewage are the major human activities that result in polluted air and water, acid rain, amplified carbon dioxide levels, depletion of the ozone, climate change, global warming, extermination of species, etc. A clean, green, and hygienic fit environment has clean air, clean water, clean energy, and moderate temperature for the healthy living of humans, animals, and biodiversity as nature is destined for them by their creatures. Maintaining and sustaining a clean environment is indispensable for human and biodiversity existence, fostering growth and development for conducting business and creating wealth. The environment can be sustained through conservation, preservation, and appropriate management to provide clean air, water, and food safe from toxic contamination, waste, and sewage disposal, saving endangered species and land conservation.

The globalization process, known for building socio-economic partnerships across countries, is also charged with encouraging environmental degradation through the over-consumption of natural resources and energy consumption, deforestation, land erosion, and weakening (Adebayo and Kirikkaleli 2021 ; Sun et al. 2021 ). Chien et al. ( 2021b ), while studying the causality of environmental degradation in Pakistan, empirically confirmed the existence of a significant connection between CO 2  emissions and GDP growth, renewable energy, technological innovation, and globalization. However, Chien et al. ( 2021a ) suggested using solar energy as a source of economic intervention to control CO 2  emissions and improve environmental quality in China. The danger of air pollution is hard to escape as microscopic air pollutants pierce through the human respiratory and cardiovascular system, injuring the lungs, heart, and brain. Ill-planned and uncontrolled human activities negatively affect ecosystems, causing climate change, ocean acidification, melting glaciers, habitation loss, eutrophication, air pollution, contaminants, and extinction of endangered species ( Albrich et al. 2020 ) .

Humans have a more significant effect on their physical environment in numerous ways, such as pollution, contamination, overpopulation, deforestation, burning fossil fuels and driving to soil erosion, polluting air and water quality, climate change, etc. UNO Agenda for 2030 “Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) mirrors the common premise that a healthy environment and human health are interlaced as integral to the satisfaction of fundamental human rights, i.e., right to life, well-being, food, water and sanitation, quality of life and biodiversity to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (SDG3)—which includes air quality that is dependent upon terrestrial ecosystems (SDG15), oceans (SDG14), cities (SDG11), water, cleanliness, and hygiene (SDG6) (Swain 2018 ; Opoku 2019 ; Scharlemann et al. 2020 ). The UNEP stated that 58% of diarrhea cases in developing economies is due to the non-provision of clean water and inadequate sanitation facilities resulting in 3.5 million deaths globally (Desai 2016 ; Ekins and Gupta 2019 ).

Climate change overwhelmingly alters ecosystems’ ability to moderate life-threatening happenings, such as maintaining water quality, regulating water flows, unbalancing the temporal weather and maintaining glaciers, displacing or extinction biodiversity, wildfire, and drought (Zhu et al. 2019 ; Marengo et al. 2021 ). Research studies advocate that exposure to natural environments is correlated with mental health, and proximity to green space is associated with lowering stress and minimizing depression and anxiety (Noordzij et al. 2020 ; Slater et al. 2020 ; Callaghan et al. 2021 ). Furthermore, the Ecosystem is affected by pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources, climate change, invasive and displacing species, etc. Hence, providing clean air and water, hygienic places, and green spaces enriches the quality of life: condensed mortality, healthier value-added productivity, and is vital to maintaining mental health. On the other hand, climate change aggravates environment-related health hazards through adverse deviations to terrestrial ecology, oceans, biodiversity, and access to fresh and clean water.

Tourism development denotes all activities linked with creating and processing facilities providing services for the tourists on and around a destination. Infrastructure development is vital for developing a tourism destination to advance tourists’ living conditions and preserve natural and cultural heritage by constructing new tourist facilities, the destinations administrative and supporting echelons, including community living, etc. Development for tourism infrastructure and land use often burdens natural capital through over-consumption, leading to soil erosion, augmented pollution, loss of natural habitats, and endangered species. Development of tourism infrastructure and construction work has profound implications on environmental degradation, reduction in green spaces, deforestation, solid waste and sewage, overutilization of air and water, emission of CO 2 and other gases contributing to air and water pollution, climate change, loss and displacement of biodiversity, and the degradation of ecosystems. These negative consequences of tourism development result in many problems for the tourists and the indigenous people in the foreseeable future (Azam et al. 2018 ; Hoang et al. 2020 ).

A report published by UNEP titled “Infrastructure for climate action” has suggested governments introduce sustainable infrastructure as the prevailing one is responsible for causing 79% of all greenhouse gas emissions in struggling climate change, alleviation, and adaptation efforts. Sustainable infrastructure signifies that structures’ planning, construction, and functioning do not weaken the social, economic, and ecological systems (UNEP 2021 ; Krampe 2021 ). Sustainable infrastructure is the only solution that ensures societies, nature, and the environment flourish together. Therefore, Sustainable Ecotourism supports adapting pro-environment and nature-based climate change strategies that help resilient biodiversity and ecosystem to impact climate change. The proposed strategy is to focus on the conservation and restoration of ecosystems to combat climate hazards, fluctuating rainfalls, soil erosion, temperature variations, floods, and extreme wind storms (Niedziółka 2014 ; Setini 2021 )

Pakistan’s tourism infrastructure suffered a colossal amount of damage during the earthquake of October 8, 2005, which left widespread demolition and destruction to its human, economic assets, and infrastructure networks, especially in Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's tourism areas. The tourism-related infrastructure, including hotels, destination facilities of social service delivery and commerce, water channels, and communications networks, were either drained or virtually destroyed. The destruction in the aftermath of the earthquake was further added by the war against terror in tourism-hit areas, resulting in the redundancy of tourists and tourism facilities for a long time (Akbar et al. 2017 ; Zakaria and Ahmed 2019 ). The tourism revival activities during the post-earth quack, post-terrorism scenario, and COVID-19 period called for various entrepreneurial activities, including the construction of infrastructure, hotels, road networks, community living, etc. Development and reconstruction of the livelihood and hospitality infrastructure through entrepreneurship were undertaken intensively through a public-private partnership from national and international findings (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Sadiq 2021 ; Dogar et al. 2021 ).

The revival and reinvigoration of infrastructure in tourism areas were backed up by extensive deforestation, use of local green land, rebuilding of the road network, displacement of biodiversity, and overtaxing the consumption of water and other natural resources. The deforestation, extensive use of green land, and over-consumption of water and other natural resources have depleted the tourism value of the area on the one hand and degraded the environment on the other. However, it was the focused rehabilitation activities of earthquake and Pakistan’s Government’s socio-environment conservation strategy of the Billion Trees plantation program in the province, including dominating tourism areas. The afforestation and loss of green tops are being reclaimed through these efforts, and the tourism environment is soon expected to regenerate (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Rauf et al. 2019 ; Siddiqui and Siddiqui 2019 ).

Government support and policy interventions

Tourism generates wide-ranging benefits for the economy, community, and people. Tourism contributes to the economy through revenue generation and shares responsibility with the Government to alleviate poverty alleviation, create opportunities for job placements, protect environments, and conserve natural ecosystems and biodiversity. It is assumed that if the tourism industry is left to its own, it will most likely prefer its business interests over environments or biodiversity. Governments, custodians of the life and well-being of their subjects, are directly responsible for providing a clean environment, nature, and Ecosystem. Therefore, national and local governments are responsible for preparing and implementing tourism development plans and enforcing values and standards for tourism development in conformity with the prerequisites of environmental sustainability. Through institutional governance, governments help tourism development by providing financial and budgetary support, regulatory framework, land, physical resources, infrastructure, etc. Provision and facilitation for Sustainability of Ecotourism and conservation of environment and biodiversity are dependent upon Government-supported interventions as follows:

• The regulatory framework for setting up tourism-related entrepreneurship and quality standards can support ecotourism and prevent environmental degradation on any account.
• Provision of budgetary support for ecosystem conservation and regeneration of bio-diversity-related projects.
• Plan, rehabilitate if needed, promote conservation and protection of socio-cultural, historic, antique, and natural endowments in coordination with other public and private agencies, and deal with the defaulters, if any.
• Promoting and undertaking afforestation alongside land conservation and discouraging deforestation, soil erosion, accumulation of solid waste, littering, and any direct or indirect loss or threat to biodiversity.
• Setting restrictions for over-tourism beyond capacity and quality standards for transportation, restaurants, hotels, food and drinking water, etc.
• Placing enforcement mechanism necessary to ensure application of the regulatory framework and quality standards applicable along with all activities inclusive to the Ecotourism value chain.

Theoretical support and hypothesis development

According to the social disruption theory, rapidly expanding societies usually experience a period of widespread crisis and a loss of their conventional routines and attitudes. The crisis impacts people whose mental health, worldviews, behavioral patterns, and social networks may all be impacted (Çalişkan and Özer 2021 ). According to the social disruption theory, fast community change brought on by population growth will result in a variety of social issues that are signs of a generally disorganized community (Smith et al. 2001 ). Because some types of tourism communities experience rapid expansion accompanied by intensive development and rapid social change over a relatively short period of time, they seem to be great settings for studying various postulations of the social disruption theory.

Place change and social disruption theory are closely connected. According to this assumption, when a community undergoes fast expansion, it tends to experience a generalized crisis that might culminate in several social issues as changes spread throughout the community and among individuals (Rasoolimanesh et al. 2019 ). Place change can result from fundamental community restructuring due to economic development, new class divides, and migration of both long-term and temporary people (Nelson 2001 ). Social unrest, though, is not enduring. Instead, it is transitory; societies gradually adjust to these changes (Deery et al.  2012 ).

The standard of living may initially deteriorate, but due to the adaptability of people and communities, they will gradually reinvigorate and strengthen themselves accordingly. Furthermore, the social disruption proposition reinforces one of the challenges in analyzing the effects of tourism, particularly in emerging nations, since it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the effects of tourism and the overall ongoing development (Park and Stokowski 2009 ) (Fig. ​ (Fig.1 1 ).

• Tourism development and growth significantly affect natural environment resources.
• Tourism development and growth significantly affect environmental pollution.
• Tourism development and growth significantly affect the physical ecosystem of the environment.
• Tourism development and growth significantly affect the socio-cultural environment.
• Tourism development and growth significantly affect the economic environment of people and the community.
• Government policy and support significantly moderate the relationship between tourism development and growth and the environmental factors.

Conceptual framework

Methodology

The study aimed to investigate the association of tourism development and its impact on environmental factors. Therefore, a survey method was employed to collect data by including all the relevant people in the locality. The study is based on stakeholders’ opinions from Pakistan’s most visited tourist areas, including Murree, Swat, Chitral, Naran, Kaghan, Neelum Valley, Malam Jabba, Ayubia, and Nathia Gali. A total of 650 stakeholders were contacted from the above-mentioned tourist destinations through survey. The distribution of the sample is mentioned in Table ​ Table1 1 .

Sample configuration

Field survey—2021

Using quantitative techniques, hierarchical linear regression analysis was employed to investigate the possible relationships between tourism growth and various dimensions of environmental sustainability. The results below reveal that tourism development translates into environmental deterioration, and the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability is bidirectional.

Tourism growth and development were measured through a five-item scale. The environment was measured through 16 items combined scale with sub-dimensions; depletion of Natural Resources=3 items, Polluting Environment=3 items, Physical Effects on Ecosystem=4 items, Socio-Cultural Degradation=3 items, and Economic Environment=3-items. Similarly, our moderating variable, Government Interventions and Support, was measured using a 5-item scale. Table ​ Table2 2 below presents the details of the instruments.

Instrument reliability

Analysis and results

Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 26. It includes correlation, linear regression, and stepwise hierarchal regression analysis.

Table ​ Table3 3 above shows that our Tourism Growth and Development has significant and positive relationship with Polluting Environment ( r = 0.20**), Physical Effects on Ecosystem ( r = 0.19**), Depletion of Natural Resource ( r = 0.24**), Socio-Cultural Degradation ( r = 0.18**). However, Tourism Growth and Development has positive relationship with Economic Environment ( r = 0.29**) and Government Interventions and Support ( r = 0.13**).

Correlation matrix

* p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01

Results of linear regression analysis at Table ​ Table4 4 above depict that tourism growth and development predicts 4.1% variance in Depletion of Natural Resources ( β = 0.20, p <0.01), 3.9% variance in pollution ( β = 0.19, p <0.01), 6% variance in Physical Effects on Ecosystem ( β = 0.24, p <0.01), 3.6% variance in Socio-Cultural Degradation ( β = 0.18, p <0.01), and 8.8% variance in Economic Environment ( β = 0.29, p <0.01).

Regression analysis for H1–H5

** p  < 0.01

The study analyzes the applied two-step hierarchal regression. In the first step, Tourism Growth and Government Interventions were treated as independent variables, and their significant impact was measured. In the second step, the interaction term Tourism and Growth× Government Interventions was added, and its impact was measured. The results suggest that Government Interventions and Support moderate the relationship between Tourism Growth and the Environmental variables (Table ​ (Table5 5 ).

Moderation analysis

* p  < 0.05;** p  < 0.01

The study has reported unique findings regarding tourism and its environmental impacts. We found that tourism growth and development generate economic activity on the one hand. However, it has specific adverse environmental and socio-cultural outcomes on the other hand as well. Our study revealed that tourism growth and development predict a 4.1% variance in Depletion of Natural Resources ( β = 0.202*, p <0.01). This suggests that due to the expansion of tourism in the country, natural resources are continuously depleted to meet the needs of tourists. Studies also supported our findings and suggested that revival and reinvigoration of infrastructure in tourism areas were backed up by extensive deforestation, use of local green land, rebuilding of the road network, displacement of biodiversity, and overtaxing the consumption of water and other natural resources (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Sadiq 2021 ; Dogar et al. 2021 ). The prior studies are consistent with our hypothesis that “tourism development and growth significantly affect natural environment resources.”

We further found that tourism growth and development predict a 3.9% variance in pollution ( β = 0.198*, p <0.01), suggesting that tourism expansion may pollute the natural environment. Furthermore, recent national statistics depict that major human activities at local tourism destinations such as Kalam, Sawat, Muree, and Northern Areas have accumulated solid waste and sewage, resulting in polluted air and water. Further, research also suggests that the overflow of tourists to tourist destinations may adversely affect the environment due to human activities (Noordzij et al. 2020 ; Slater et al. 2020 ; Andlib and Salcedo-Castro  2021 ; Callaghan et al. 2021 ). Thus, it is safe to argue that the growth of tourism has a particularly detrimental effect on the environment. These findings also support our hypothesis, “Tourism development and growth significantly contribute to environmental pollution.”

The results reported that tourism growth and development predict a 6% variance in Physical Effects on the Ecosystem ( β = 0.245*, p <0.01). Studies have reported that deforestation and alteration in species’ natural environment for tourism facilities construction may adversely affect environmental health (Kuvan, 2010 ; Azam et al. 2018 ; Hoang et al. 2020 ; Andlib and Salcedo-Castro  2021 ). During post-terrorism and post-Covid-19 times in Pakistan, millions of local tourists moved to popular tourist destinations that required new infrastructure to accommodate these tourists. Consequently, colossal deforestation and other detrimental human activities have negatively affected ecosystem. These findings also support our hypothesis that tourism development and growth significantly affect the physical ecosystem of the environment.

The study reported a total of 3.6% variance in socio-cultural degradation ( β = 0.189*, p <0.01) due to tourism growth and development. These findings suggest that tourism’s growth and development may lead the inhabitants to imitate the foreign tourists regarding their living standards, which may endanger their traditional culture. Thus, our hypothesis that “tourism development and growth significantly affect the socio-cultural environment” is confirmed.

Further, it was found that tourism growth and development predict an 8.8% variance in the economic environment ( β = 0.297*, p <0.01). It is established from the literature that tourism growth and development generate economic activity in the country. Development projects such as the construction of infrastructure, hotels, and road networks generate economic activity to facilitate international and indigenous tourists, positively affecting the community’s living standard (Baloch et al. 2020 ). Thus, our hypothesis, “tourism development and growth significantly affect economic environment of people and community,” is confirmed.

Due to tourism growth and development, our study reported a 1.8% variance in Government Support and Interventions ( β = .133*, p <0.01). However, more recently, the Government of Pakistan has devised specific interventions that may help curb the adverse impacts of detrimental environmental factors. For example, developmental schemes such as the Billion Trees Plantation drive and Road-Infrastructure Network Development under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative may prove moderators to curb the negative impacts of tourism growth on the environment (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Rauf et al. 2019 ; Siddiqui and Siddiqui 2019 ). Therefore, the hypothesis, Government policy and support, significantly moderates the relationship between tourism development and growth with the environment is confirmed based on these findings.

Suggested model for ecotourism framework

Through its detailed review of existing literature, prevailing tourism policies, and empirical inputs from the stakeholders’ perspectives, the study has identified a wide range of obstacles limiting the development and growth of ecotourism in Pakistan. The study suggests National Tourism Management authorities carefully invest in ecotourism destination’s planning and development in coordination with the environment development agency. The suggested model for ecotourism framework is initially meant for the tourism destinations specifically designated for ecotourism. However, selected points can also be extended to the quality management parameters set for the National Parks, Conservation and Protracted Areas, Museums, National or International event sites, etc. The national tourism authorities are to lay particular emphasis in their forthcoming National Tourism Policy on the development and promotion of Sustainable Ecotourism having, with focus on the following key areas:

• Identify and classify four to five ecotourism destinations, including ecotourism-centered activities of value chains for priority development, which are administratively possible within budgetary constraints. However, the development plan shall consider the integral benefits of other developmental schemes such as the Billion Trees Plantation drive, Road-Infrastructure Network Development under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative, International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) programs in the area.
• While staying within the alignment of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) calling for ‘environmental sustainability’ and the development vision of each designated destination, the Tourists Management System shall take into cognizance of issues like managing capacity of the place, quality parameters for the conservation of the environment, and allowable activities thereof.
• Identify degenerated destinations of religious, socio-cultural, or historical significance for their rehabilitation under the Regenerated tourism program.
• i. To deflect the tourist pressure upon these destinations, the potential tourists from nearby cities and metropolitan areas be provided with nearby alternative destinations for leisure tourism as stay-tourism sites.
• ii. To prevent the environment from air pollution, the traffic load on the destination be curtailed through an effective traffic management strategy, provision of off-destination parking for combustion engine vehicles, and encouraging electric driven or hybrid vehicles for nearby parking.
• iii. Provision of clean drinking water through public infiltration plants, public toilets, solid waste carriers, and recycling of sewage and used water is recommended in the most visited areas of the destination.
• iv. Signposting at appropriate places, giving social messages encouraging to maintain cleanliness, avoid littering, ensure nature conservation, and humility toward biodiversity.
• Develop all-inclusive, comprehensive execution plans to expedite the investments for the sustainable ecotourism, encouraging public–private cooperation, community involvement, and infrastructure mapping guaranteeing environmental conservation and safeguards.
• Develop and place on the ground an all-inclusive program of capacity building for sustainable ecotourism, regenerative and green tourism services.
• Develop and launch Pakistan tourism profile and Sustaining Ecotourism obligatory framework “to promote tourism on the one hand and nurture conscious ecological behavior among the potential tourists of the area”.
• In order to fetch local ownership for the ecotourism center developments, all efforts shall be made to share the socio-economic benefits integral to the development scheme with the local population for community development.
• As part of the destination management planning, identify complementary value chains and livelihood activities that could be developed as part of the overall ecotourism destination package.
• i. Setting new quality standards facilitating the promotion of ecotourism and environmental sustainability through acts of various bodies operating in the Ecotourism value chain, such as:
• Revision of Private hotels Management Act (1976) and Tourists Operators Act (1976) alongside introduction and promulgation of a new “Tourism Destination Management Act” incorporating new quality standards as of today.
• Promulgating laws to make all new construction/development projects responsible from any agency in the area, incorporating quality standards needed for environmental sustainability, and promoting ecotourism.
• Set measures for the preservation of the local biodiversity and preservation of endangered species, including seeking support from internationally active environment conservation agencies, declaring local hunting illegal, introducing licensing programs for hunting of certain selected animals/ birds on the payment of a handsome amount to be used for the welfare of the local community.
• Create awareness programs against deforestation, land conservation, and biodiversity, and maintain cleanliness, inculcating a culture of respecting and enjoying nature instead of spoiling it.

Conclusion, implications, and limitations of the study

The study premise was based on the contention that sustenance of ecotourism focuses on the economic viability of the business interests alongside the conservation and preservation of natural ecosystems, including ethical fairness to the socio-cultural environment of the host community. Ecotourism is a phenomenon that contributes to environmental sustainability through well-planned and careful destination management capable of balancing conflicting interests of business growth and environmental sustainability. Tourism-environment paradox suggests that the sustainability and survival of both are dependent upon the flourishing mode of each other. Quality of environment and sustainability of bio-ecosystem stimulates tourists’ arrivals and over-tourism beyond capacity with irresponsible behavior from tourists negatively influencing the environment and harming the ecosystem of nature. Ecotourism is not inevitably sustainable unless it is economically sustainable and environmentally maintainable besides being socio-culturally acceptable. Socio-culturally intolerable ecotourism means the activity which does not benefit locals and their socio-cultural values. Hence, the study concludes that ecotourism has to positively interplay between economy, environment, and culture without compromising one over others. The pursuit of sustainable ecotourism is not an end in meeting the little comforts of the business interests but rather a means to end the sustainability issues created due to ill-conceived tourism development and unmanageable growth.

Practical implications

Drawing from the findings and conclusions of the research, the study extends the following practical implications for effectively managing the process of tourism development and environmental sustainability in line with the dictates of the philosophy behind ecotourism:

• Paradoxically tourism necessitates ecological capitals as primary ingredients for the creation of tourism experiences on the one hand. However, it is also contingent upon the conservation and preservation of ecological integrity on the other. The study suggests that unbalancing this “resource paradox” results in the harshness and tenacity of adversarial climate change, natural calamities, environmental pollution, and endangered biodiversity.
• The research findings and the suggested framework for ecotourism imply that sustainable ecotourism principles-based planning is mandatory for destination management to assure effective trade-off between the business interests’ sustainability of the environmental ecosystem.
• Tourism development and growth shall be steered through ecotourism principles as its sustainable model offers enduring social, environmental and economic, ecological integrity, and social and cultural benefits for the local community. Therefore, ecotourism is a recipe for preventing environmental degradation and guarantees sustainability of ecosystems nature and its biodiversity. Hence, ecotourism shall stand central priority focus for strategic management to nurture quality experiences from sustainable tourism.
• To revive back the sustainability of the environment, in the areas where over-tourism has degraded the environment, schemes for regenerated tourism shall be immediately launched to mitigate the negative footprints on the sustainability of destinations, including reinforcing protracted conservation sites, biodiversity, and recouping endangered species, afforestation drives, recycling of water and solid waste, refurnishing of landscaping, preservation, and rehabilitation of cultural heritage and refurbishing of depleted infrastructure accordingly. Furthermore, to regenerate and sustain the tourism infrastructure of the destinations experiencing over-tourism, capacity building measures like capacity, recycling of water and solid waste, preventive measures to control air and water pollution, traffic control management, and spread of entertainment facilities shall be the focus of the regeneration plans.
• The study implies that government authorities and policymakers have a special role in placing their moderating intervention in terms of policy guidelines, regulatory framework, and budgetary support, provision of inter-organizational synergy in planning and implementation of ecotourism strategies, protection of environmental resource base and conservation of natural and biological ecosystem, sustenance of socio-cultural value of local community over and above their economic and social well-being/quality life for the long run.
• The study also implies that public and private policymakers lay down threshold criteria for responsible travel and tourism standards for destination management and its related supply chain. The laid criterion would facilitate management in nurturing “responsible behavior” to plan, protect, conserve, preserve, and sustain natural and cultural resources and responsible socio-economic development without compromising the sustainability of the environment and long-term well-being of the hoist community. The deep-seated adherence to social responsibility protocols by the tourism supply chain network can significantly increase the capacity of tourism destinations and improve the conscious awareness of green consumers along the tourism supply chain. Furthermore, the consciously responsible behavior among stakeholders and legislatures can strike a needed balance between the business interests and environments in favor of sustainability of socio-cultural, economic, and natural capital.
• The study elucidates that responsible behavior necessitates purpose-built eco-friendly infrastructure and policy parameters to support the sustainability of environments across destinations. The strategic planning aligned with the sustainability-focused objectives dictates the need for artistic, innovative, and talented people and quality intuitions in harnessing quality tourism services and responsible tourism behavior. Furthermore, the study encourages community involvement in the developmental process, enactment of structural policies, preservation of socio-cultural heritage, and conservation of natural biodiversity as it would foster emotional bondage between the people of the host community and the tourism undertakings. Therefore, community and value chain managers shall collaborate to maximize the perceived benefits of responsible tourism while developing cultural exchanges and planning opportunities for leisure and tourism.
• Regulatory measures help offset negative impacts; for instance, controls on the number of tourist activities and movement of visitors within protected areas can limit impacts on the ecosystem and help maintain the integrity and vitality of the site. Limits should be established after an in-depth analysis of the maximum sustainable visitor capacity. Furthermore, the variables and the constructs researched can be replicated to other destinations to seek valuable inputs for sustainable destination management elsewhere.

Study limitation

Besides the functional, practical applications, the study has some limitations. Besides having integral disadvantages of cross-sectional research, the respondents selected for the study were visitors on peak days with the highest tourist arrivals, thereby having experiences of a higher degree of environmental pollution and natural disorder. Furthermore, the research is limited to stakeholders’ perspectives instead of any scientifically generated data or mathematical or econometric model.

Author contribution

QBB: conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft. SNS: data curation and supervision. NI: visualization, editing, proofreading. MS: review and editing. MA: review and editing. SM: editing, data curation. AUK: review and editing.

Data availability

Declarations.

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. We also declare that we do not have human participants, data, or tissue.

We do not have any person’s data in any form.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Qadar Bakhsh Baloch, Email: moc.liamg@bqhcolabrd .

Syed Naseeb Shah, Email: moc.liamtoh@hahs_beesan .

Nadeem Iqbal, Email: moc.oohay@1labqimeedanrd .

Muhammad Sheeraz, Email: [email protected] .

Muhammad Asadullah, Email: moc.liamg@apmdasa .

Sourath Mahar, Email: moc.oohay@mhtaros .

Asia Umar Khan, Email: kp.ude.pci@ramu-aisa .

• Abir T, Khan MYH (2022) Importance of ICT advancement and culture of adaptation in the tourism and hospitality industry for developing countries. In: ICT as innovator between tourism and culture. IGI Global, pp 30–41
• Adebayo TS, Kirikkaleli D. Impact of renewable energy consumption, globalization, and technological innovation on environmental degradation in Japan: application of wavelet tools. Environ Dev Sustain. 2021; 23 (11):16057–16082. doi: 10.1007/s10668-021-01322-2. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Akbar J, Tanveer S, Khan MN, Naeem A. Role of facilities available and un-available in attracting of tourist in Swat Valley Pakistan. J Landsc Ecol. 2017; 10 (1):5–19. doi: 10.1515/jlecol-2017-0006. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Albrich K, Rammer W, Seidl R. Climate change causes critical transitions and irreversible alterations of mountain forests. Glob Change Biol. 2020; 26 (7):4013–4027. doi: 10.1111/gcb.15118. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Andlib Z, Salcedo-Castro J. The impacts of tourism and governance on CO2 emissions in selected south Asian countries. ETIKONOMI. 2021; 20 (2):385–396. doi: 10.15408/etk.v20i2.17449. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Arifin M, Ibrahim A, Nur M. Integration of supply chain management and tourism: an empirical study from the hotel industry of Indonesia. Manage Sci Lett. 2019; 9 (2):261–270. doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2018.11.013. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Aslam AM. Intertemporal relationship between tourism demand and environmental quality in Sri Lanka. Test Eng Manage. 2020; 82 (January-February):17841–17856. [ Google Scholar ]
• Aslan A, Altinoz B, Özsolak B. The nexus between economic growth, tourism development, energy consumption, and CO 2 emissions in Mediterranean countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2021; 28 (3):3243–3252. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-10667-6. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Azam M, Alam MM, Hafeez MH. Effect of tourism on environmental pollution: further evidence from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. J Clean Prod. 2018; 190 :330–338. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.168. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bakhriddinovna AN, Qizi KDR (2020) Tourism logistics: relationship between tourism and logistics. Academy 7(58):22–23
• Baloch QB. Managing tourism in Pakistan: a case study of Chitral valley. J Manag Sci. 2007; 2 (2):169–190. [ Google Scholar ]
• Baloch QB, Rehman A. Regional integration of Pakistan tourism: exploring prospects. Abasyn Univ J Soc Sci. 2015; 8 (2):405–415. [ Google Scholar ]
• Baloch QB, Irshad M, Qamar FM, Naseebullahshah S (2020) Development of tourism’s sector in the face of scarce economy. The Discourse 6(1):75–96
• Blangy S, Wood ME (1993) Developing and implementing ecotourism guidelines for wildlands and neighboring communities. Ecotourism Society, pp 32–54
• Boers B, Cottrell S. Sustainable tourism infrastructure planning: a GIS-supported approach. Tour Geogr. 2007; 9 (1):1–21. doi: 10.1080/14616680601092824. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bramwell B, Lane B. Sustainable tourism: contributing to the debates. J Sustain Tour. 1999; 7 (1):1–5. doi: 10.1080/09669589908667323. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Briassoulis H, Van Der Straaten J (eds) (2013) Tourism and the environment: regional, economic, cultural and policy issues, vol 6. Springer Science & Business Media
• Butowski L. Sustainable tourism: a human-centered approach. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (4):1835. doi: 10.3390/su13041835. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Callaghan A, McCombe G, Harrold A, McMeel C, Mills G, Moore-Cherry N, Cullen W. The impact of green spaces on mental health in urban settings: a scoping review. J Ment Health. 2021; 30 (2):179–193. doi: 10.1080/09638237.2020.1755027. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Çalişkan U, Özer Ö. Relationship between local residents’ perceptions of tourism and support attitudes in post-communist countries: case of Turkestan (Kazakhstan) Tour Plan Dev. 2021; 18 (5):573–593. doi: 10.1080/21568316.2020.1837228. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cheia G. Ecotourism: Definition and concepts. Revista De Turism-Studii Si Cercetari in Turism. 2013; 15 :56–60. [ Google Scholar ]
• Chien F, Ajaz T, Andlib Z, Chau KY, Ahmad P, Sharif A. The role of technology innovation, renewable energy and globalization in reducing environmental degradation in Pakistan: a step towards sustainable environment. Renew Energy. 2021; 177 :308–317. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.05.101. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chien F, Sadiq M, Nawaz MA, Hussain MS, Tran TD, Le Thanh T. A step toward reducing air pollution in top Asian economies: the role of green energy, eco-innovation, and environmental taxes. J Environ Manag. 2021; 297 :113420. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113420. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chingarande A, Saayman A. Critical success factors for tourism-led growth. Int J Tour Res. 2018; 20 (6):800–818. doi: 10.1002/jtr.2233. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chishti MZ, Ullah S, Ozturk I, Usman A (2020) Examining the asymmetric effects of globalization and tourism on pollution emissions in South Asia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(22):27721–27737 [ PubMed ]
• Cobbinah PB. Contextualizing the meaning of ecotourism. Tour Manag Perspect. 2015; 16 :179–189. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2015.07.015. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Confente I, Scarpi D. Achieving environmentally responsible behavior for tourists and residents: a norm activation theory perspective. J Travel Res. 2021; 60 (6):1196–1212. doi: 10.1177/0047287520938875. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• de Grosbois D, Fennell DA. Sustainability and ecotourism principles adoption by leading ecolodges: learning from best practices. Tour Recreat Res. 2021 doi: 10.1080/02508281.2021.1875170. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Deery M, Jago L, Fredline L. Rethinking social impacts of tourism research: a new research agenda. Tour Manag. 2012; 33 (1):64–73. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2011.01.026. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dogar AA, Shah I, Elahi N. Sports tourism in post conflict peace building: evidence from Swat, Pakistan. J Contemp Issues Bus Government. 2021; 27 (1):480–489. [ Google Scholar ]
• Desai BH. 14. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Yearbook Int Environ Law. 2016; 27 :481–488. doi: 10.1093/yiel/yvx069. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ding ZF, Cao B. Exploring the factors in visitors’ behavioral intentions–mediation effects on perceived environmental involvement and ecotourism support. Appl Ecol Environ Res. 2019; 17 (1):1083–1092. doi: 10.15666/aeer/1701_10831092. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ekins P, Gupta J. Perspective: a healthy planet for healthy people. Global Sustainability. 2019; 2 (e20):1–9. doi: 10.1017/sus.2019.17. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fennell DA. A content analysis of ecotourism definitions. Curr Issue Tour. 2001; 4 (5):403–421. doi: 10.1080/13683500108667896. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fennell DA (2020) Ecotourism. Routledge
• Guzel AE, Okumus İ. Revisiting the pollution haven hypothesis in ASEAN-5 countries: new insights from panel data analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2020; 27 (15):18157–18167. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-08317-y. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hassan A, Kennell J, Chaperon S. Rhetoric and reality in Bangladesh: elite stakeholder perceptions of the implementation of tourism policy. Tour Recreat Res. 2020; 45 (3):307–322. [ Google Scholar ]
• Harris R, Williams P, Griffin T (2012) Sustainable tourism. Routledge, Oxford
• Hill J, Gough G (2009) Can the conservation attitudes and behavioural intentions of tourists to tropical forest be improved through biodiversity interpretation? A case study from Australia. Principles and practice, ecotourism and environmental sustainability, pp 175–196
• Hoang TTH, Van Rompaey A, Meyfroidt P, Govers G, Vu KC, Nguyen AT et al (2020) Impact of tourism development on the local livelihoods and land cover change in the northern Vietnamese highlands. Environ Dev Sustain 22(2):1371–1395
• Holden A (2008) Tourism and the environment, 2nd edn. Routledge, New York
• Khoi NH, Le NH, Ngoc BH (2021) The effect of tourism development on the ecological footprint in Singapore: evidence from asymmetric ARDL method. Curr Issue Tour 25(15):2500–2517
• Kostić M, Milićević S, Nedeljković I. Research of tourists’ perception of the relationship between tourism and environment. Becтник aпк Cтaвpoпoлья 2016; S4 :32–35. [ Google Scholar ]
• Krampe F (2021) Ownership and inequalities: exploring UNEP’s environmental cooperation for Peacebuilding program. Sustain Sci 16(4):1159–1172
• Kuvan Y. Mass tourism development and deforestation in Turkey. Anatolia. 2010; 21 (1):155–168. doi: 10.1080/13032917.2010.9687096. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Liang Y, Wang L, Zhu Y. Using environmental sensitivity for discussing the correlation between ecotourism cognition and environmental attitude. Ekoloji. 2018; 27 (106):1653–1659. [ Google Scholar ]
• Mandić A, Mrnjavac Ž, Kordić L. Tourism infrastructure, recreational facilities and tourism development. Tour Hosp Manag. 2018; 24 (1):41–62. doi: 10.20867/thm.24.1.12. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Marengo JA, Cunha AP, Cuartas LA, Deusdará Leal KR, Broedel E, Seluchi ME, Bender F (2021) Extreme drought in the Brazilian Pantanal in 2019–2020: characterization, causes, and impacts. Frontiers in Water 3:639204
• Mikayilov JI, Mukhtarov S, Mammadov J, Azizov M. Re-evaluating the environmental impacts of tourism: does EKC exist? Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2019; 26 (19):19389–19402. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-05269-w. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nelson CA. The development and neural bases of face recognition. Infant and Child Development: An International Journal of Research and Practice. 2001; 10 (1–2):3–18. doi: 10.1002/icd.239. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Niedziółka I. Sustainable tourism development. Reg Form Dev Stud. 2014; 8 (3):157–166. [ Google Scholar ]
• Noordzij JM, Beenackers MA, Groeniger JO, Van Lenthe FJ. Effect of changes in green spaces on mental health in older adults: a fixed effects analysis. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020; 74 (1):48–56. doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-212704. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Park M, Stokowski PA. Social disruption theory and crime in rural communities: comparisons across three levels of tourism growth. Tour Manag. 2009; 30 (6):905–915. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2008.11.015. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Opoku A. Biodiversity and the built environment: implications for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Resour Conserv Recycl. 2019; 141 :1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.10.011. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pforr C (2001) Concepts of sustainable development, sustainable tourism, and ecotourism: definitions, principles, and linkages. Scand J Hosp Tour 1(1):68–71
• Pulido-Fernández JI, Cárdenas-García PJ, Espinosa-Pulido JA. Does environmental sustainability contribute to tourism growth? An analysis at the country level. J Clean Prod. 2019; 213 :309–319. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.151. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Qamar F, Baloch QB (2017) Reviving tourism through entrepreneurial capabilities in swat, Dir & Chitral Triangle in post operation environment. Journal of Managerial Sciences 11(2):209–228
• Rasoolimanesh SM, Md Noor S, Schuberth F, Jaafar M. Investigating the effects of tourist engagement on satisfaction and loyalty. Serv Ind J. 2019; 39 (7–8):559–574. doi: 10.1080/02642069.2019.1570152. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ratnasari SL, Susanti EN, Ismanto W, Tanjung R, Darma DC, Sutjahjo G. An experience of tourism development: how is the strategy? J Environ Manag Tour. 2020; 11 (7):1877–1886. doi: 10.14505//jemt.v11.7(47).26. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rauf T, Khan N, Shah SJ, Zada M, Malik SY, Yukun C, Sadique A. Poverty and prosperity: impact on livelihood assets of billion trees afforestation program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. Forests. 2019; 10 (10):916. doi: 10.3390/f10100916. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Raza SA, Jawaid ST. Terrorism and tourism: a conjunction and ramification in Pakistan. Econ Model. 2013; 33 :65–70. doi: 10.1016/j.econmod.2013.03.008. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sadiq N (2021) COVID-19, adaptive capacity and tourism governance: the case of Pakistan's tourism industry. In: Pandemics and travel. Emerald Publishing Limited, pp 49–66
• Scharlemann JP, Brock RC, Balfour N, Brown C, Burgess ND, Guth MK, Kapos V (2020) Towards understanding interactions between sustainable development goals: the role of environment–human linkages. Sustain Sci 15(6):1573–1584
• Setini M, Wardana I, Sukaatmadja I, Ekawati N, Yasa N, Astawa I. Policy models for improving ecotourism performance to build quality tourism experience and sustainable tourism. Manage Sci Lett. 2021; 11 (2):595–608. [ Google Scholar ]
• Shaheen K, Zaman K, Batool R, Khurshid MA, Aamir A, Shoukry AM, Gani S. Dynamic linkages between tourism, energy, environment, and economic growth: evidence from top 10 tourism-induced countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2019; 26 (30):31273–31283. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-06252-1. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Siddiqui F, Siddiqui DA. Causality between tourism and foreign direct investment: an empirical evidence from Pakistan. Asian J Econ Mod. 2019; 7 (1):27–44. doi: 10.18488/journal.8.2019.71.27.44. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Simo-Kengne BD. Tourism growth and environmental sustainability: trade-off or convergence? Environ Dev Sustain. 2022; 24 (6):8115–8144. doi: 10.1007/s10668-021-01775-5. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Slater SJ, Christiana RW, Gustat AJ (2020) Recommendations for keeping parks and green space accessible for mental and physical health during COVID-19 and other pandemics. Prev Chronic Dis 17:200204. 10.5888/pcd17.200204 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Smith MD, Krannich RS, Hunter LM. Growth, decline, stability, and disruption: a longitudinal analysis of social well-being in four western rural communities. Rural Sociol. 2001; 66 (3):425–450. doi: 10.1111/j.1549-0831.2001.tb00075.x. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Song H, Li G, Witt SF, Fei B. Tourism demand modelling and forecasting: how should demand be measured? Tour Econ. 2010; 16 (1):63–81. doi: 10.5367/000000010790872213. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Stefănica M, Butnaru GI. Research on tourists’ perception of the relationship between tourism and environment. Procedia Econ Finance. 2015; 20 :595–600. doi: 10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00113-6. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sun Y, Yesilada F, Andlib Z, Ajaz T. The role of eco-innovation and globalization towards carbon neutrality in the USA. J Environ Manag. 2021; 299 :113568. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113568. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sunchindah A (2015) Transboundary haze pollution problem in Southeast Asia: reframing ASEAN’s response working papers DP-2015-82, economic research institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
• Swain RB. Handbook of sustainability science and research. Cham: Springer; 2018. A critical analysis of the sustainable development goals; pp. 341–355. [ Google Scholar ]
• Szpilko D. Tourism supply chain—overview of selected literature. Procedia Eng. 2017; 182 :687–693. doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.03.180. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tiwari AK, Nasreen S, Iqbal Z. Nexus between tourism and environmental pollution in South Asia: a comparative analysis using time-varying and non-parametric techniques. Curr Issue Tour. 2021; 24 (21):2996–3020. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2020.1862070. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• UNEP (2021) New report reveals how infrastructure defines our climate. October, 12
• Zakaria M, Jun W, Ahmed H. Effect of terrorism on economic growth in Pakistan: an empirical analysis. Econ Res-Ekonomska Istraživanja. 2019; 32 (1):1794–1812. doi: 10.1080/1331677X.2019.1638290. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zakaria M, Jun W, Ahmed H. Effect of terrorism on economic growth in Pakistan: an empirical analysis. Economic Research-Ekonomska istraživanja. 2019; 32 (1):1794–1812. doi: 10.1080/1331677X.2019.1638290. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhang L, Gao J. Exploring the effects of international tourism on China’s economic growth, energy consumption and environmental pollution: evidence from a regional panel analysis. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2016; 53 :225–234. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.040. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhang N, Ren R, Zhang Q, Zhang T. Air pollution and tourism development: an interplay. Ann Tour Res. 2020; 85 :103032. doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2020.103032. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhu L, Ives AR, Zhang C, Guo Y, Radeloff VC. Climate change causes functionally colder winters for snow cover-dependent organisms. Nat Clim Chang. 2019; 9 (11):886–893. doi: 10.1038/s41558-019-0588-4. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Positive and Negative Social-Cultural, Economic and Environmental Impacts of Tourism on Residents

• Conference paper
• First Online: 17 November 2020
• Cite this conference paper

• Fernanda A. Ferreira   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1335-7821 7 ,
• Conceição Castro   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1550-5867 8 &
• Ana Sofia Gomes 9  

Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 208))

Included in the following conference series:

• International Conference on Tourism, Technology and Systems

1820 Accesses

4 Citations

Tourism is a socio-cultural phenomenon that has intensified with technological development and with the advancement of communication and transport systems. However, the increase in the number of people moving around the world does not necessarily represent success or tourist access, but it can mostly serve more immediate marketing interests.

Since tourism is considered a phenomenon, the sociological interest to study it arises. Tourist practice is an educational process, a learning process, which is established through the relationship between visitors and residents and their cultural backgrounds. Several authors dedicate their studies to this field, and several are also those who try to understand the relations between tourists and the residents in the host region. The purpose of this work is to review the scientific literature that is focused on the sociology of tourism as a subject to study the economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism on societies and residents and how residents perceived the benefits and costs of tourism developments in the local community. Review of literature suggests that interactions between visitors and the host community can lead to short and long term positive and negative social-cultural, economic and environmental impacts on destinations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Moesch, M.M.: Para além das disciplinas: o desafio do próximo século. In: Gastal, S., Beni, M., Castrogiovanni, C. (Orgs.) Turismo: investigação e crítica, pp. 25–44. Contexto, São Paulo (2002)

Google Scholar  

Garau-Vadell, J., Gutierrez-Taño, D., Diaz-Armas, R.: Economic crisis and residents’ perception of the impacts of tourism in mass tourism destinations. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 7 , 68–75 (2018)

Hateftabar, F., Chapuis, J.: How resident perception of economic crisis influences their perception of tourism. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 43 , 157–168 (2020)

Article   Google Scholar  

Pham, K., Andereck, K., Vogt, C.: Local residents’ perceptions about tourism development. Travel Tour. Res. Assoc. Adv. Tour. Res. Glob. 74 , 1–16 (2019)

Scalabrini, E.C.B., Remoaldo, P.C., Lourenço, J.M.: Imagem Turística sob o Ponto de Vista dos Residentes: O Caso de Joinville-SC, Brasil. Revista Rosa dos Ventos Turismo e Hospitalidade 10 (2), 301–312 (2018)

Almeida García, F., Balbuena Vázquez, A., Cortés Macías, R.: Resident’s attitudes towards the impacts of tourism. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 13 , 33–40 (2015)

Cohen, E.: The sociology of tourism: approaches, issues, and findings. Ann. Rev. Sociol. 10 (1), 373–392 (1984)

Dall’ Agnol, S.: Impactos do turismo x comunidade local. Comunicação apresentada no VII Seminário de pesquisa em Turismo do Mercosul, Universidade Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil (2012). https://www.ucs.br/ucs/eventos/seminarios_semintur/semin_tur_7/arquivos/02/06_Dall_Agnol.pdf

Marujo, N.: A sociologia do turismo na educação superior em Portugal. Turismo e Sociedade, Curitiba 6 (3), 490–507 (2013)

Aires, J., Pequeno, E., Fortes, L.: A relação entre turistas estrangeiros e residentes: O caso de Ponta Negra – Natal/R.N. 2. Revista Hospitalidade 7 (2), 38–51 (2010)

Cardona, J.: Tipos de turismo e as atitudes dos residentes: o caso de Ibiza. Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa em Turismo 8 (1), 3 (2014)

Cohen, S., Cohen, E.: New directions in the sociology of tourism. Curr. Issues Tour. 22 (2), 153–172 (2019)

World Tourism Organization: Global Code of Ethics For Tourism (1999). http://ethics.unwto.org/en/content/global-code-ethics-tourism . Accessed 02 May 2020

Sharma, R.: Sociology of tourism: shifting paradigm form Nostalgia to happiness. J. Tour. Hosp. Educ. 10 , 90–107 (2020)

Baker, D., Taylor, M., Jiang, L.: Local residents’ attitudes toward the impacts of tourism development in the Caribbean Nation of St. Kitts & Nevis. J. Tour. Stud. Res. Tour. 28 , 1–11 (2019)

Gursoy, D., Jurowski, C., Uysal, M.: Resident attitudes: a structural modelling approach. Ann. Tour. Res. 29 (1), 79–105 (2002)

Zacarias, D.A.: Turismo em áreas balneares: Uma análise da interação entre residentes e visitantes na Praia do Tofo, Moçambique. Revista de Gestão Costeira Integrada 15 (2), 179–191 (2015)

Kreag, G.: The Impacts of Tourism. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis (2001)

del Río-Vázquez, M.S., Rodríguez-Rad, C., Revilla-Camacho, M.: Relevance of social, economic, and environmental impacts on residents’ satisfaction with the public administration of tourism. Sustainability 11 , 6380 (2019)

Barretto, M.: O imprescindível aporte das ciências sociais para o planejamento e a compreensão do turismo. Horizontes Antropológicos 9 (20), 15–29 (2003)

Isik, C., Dogru, T., Turk, E.: A nexus of linear and non-linear relationships between tourism demand, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth: theory and evidence. Int. J. Tour. Res. 20 (1), 38–49 (2018)

Piuchan, M., Chan, C., Kaale, J.: Economic and socio-cultural impacts of Mainland Chinese tourists on Hong Kong residents. Kasetsart J. Soc. Sci. 39 , 9–14 (2018)

Arain, H., Han, L., Sharif, A., Meo, M.: Investigating the effect of inbound tourism on FDI: the importance of quantile estimations. Tour. Econ. 26 (4), 682–703 (2020)

Kim, K., Uysal, M., Sirgy, M.: How does tourism in a community impact the quality of life of community residents? Tour. Manag. 36 , 527–540 (2013)

Samimi, A., Sadeghi, S., Sadeghi, S.: The relationship between foreign direct investment and tourism development: evidence from developing countries. Inst. Econ. 5 (2), 59–68 (2013)

Ouyang, Z., Gursoy, D., Sharma, B.: Role of trust, emotions and event attachment on residents’ attitudes toward tourism. Tour. Manag. 63 , 426–438 (2017)

Milheiro, E.: Perceções dos residentes de Portalegre face ao Turismo. Tour. Hosp. Int. J. 9 (1), 127–143 (2017)

MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

Akis, S., Peristianis, N., Warner, J.: Residents’ attitudes to tourism development: the case of Cyprus. Tour. Manag. 17 (7), 481–494 (1996)

Pizam, A.: Tourism’s impacts: the social costs to the destination community as perceived by its residents. J. Travel Res. 16 (4), 8–12 (1978)

Hall, C.: Crisis events in tourism: subjects of crisis in tourism. Curr. Issues Tour. 13 (5), 401–417 (2010)

Haralambopoulos, N., Pizam, A.: Perceived impacts of tourism: the case of Samos. Ann. Tour. Res. 2383 , 503–526 (1996)

Jovicic, D.: Socio-cultural impacts of contemporary tourism. Coll. Antropol. 35 (2), 599–605 (2011)

Belew, Y.: Socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Ethiopia. J. Exclus. Manag. Sci. 6 (8), 1–10 (2017)

Alipour, H., Olya, H.G., Forouzan, I.: Environmental impacts of mass religious tourism: from residents’ perspectives. Tour. Anal. 22 (2), 167–183 (2017)

Mohammed, A.K.: An assessment of tourism’s environmental impact on the Lake Boomtwe Basin. Int. J. Hosp. Tour. Adm. 19 (3), 259–288 (2017)

Wu, Y.Y., Wang, H.L., Ho, Y.F.: Urban ecotourism: defining and assessing dimensions using fuzzy number construction. Tour. Manag. 31 (6), 739–743 (2010)

Kuščer, K., Mihalič, T.: Residents’ attitudes towards overtourism from the perspective of tourism impacts and cooperation-the case of Ljubljana. Sustainability 11 (6), 1823 (2019)

Leslie, D.: Responsible Tourism: Concepts, Theory and Practice. CAB, Wallingford (2012)

Book   Google Scholar  

Barros, V.: Turismo sustentável: uma aplicação ao caso madeirense. Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais 22 , 91–102 (2009)

Romagosa, F., Milego, R., Fons, J., Schröder, C., Giulietti, S., Stanik, R.: Report for feasibility for regular assessment of environmental impacts and sustainable tourism in Europe. European Topic Centres (ETC ACIA) (2014)

Download references

Acknowledgments

Fernanda A. Ferreira acknowledges the financial support by Portuguese national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UIDB/04752/2020.

Conceição Castro acknowledges the financial support by Portuguese national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UIDB/05422/2020.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Polytechnic Institute of Porto, School of Hospitality and Tourism, Applied Management Research Unit (UNIAG), Rua D. Sancho I, 981, 4480-876, Vila do Conde, Portugal

Fernanda A. Ferreira

CEOS.PP, ISCAP, Polytechnic of Porto, CEPESE, Porto Accounting and Business, Rua Jaime Lopes Amorim, 4465-004, S. Mamede de Infesta, Portugal

Conceição Castro

Polytechnic Institute of Porto, School of Hospitality and Tourism, Rua D. Sancho I, 981, 4480-876, Vila do Conde, Portugal

Ana Sofia Gomes

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernanda A. Ferreira .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Institute of Accounting and Administration of Porto (ISCAP), Polytechnic Institute of Porto, São Mamede de Infesta, Portugal

João Vidal de Carvalho

ISEG, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Álvaro Rocha

School of Hospitality and Tourism, Polytechnic of Porto, Vila do Conde, Portugal

Pedro Liberato

Universidad EIA, Envigado, Colombia

Alejandro Peña

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Cite this paper.

Ferreira, F.A., Castro, C., Gomes, A.S. (2021). Positive and Negative Social-Cultural, Economic and Environmental Impacts of Tourism on Residents. In: de Carvalho, J.V., Rocha, Á., Liberato, P., Peña, A. (eds) Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems. ICOTTS 2020. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 208. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4256-9_26

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4256-9_26

Published : 17 November 2020

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Print ISBN : 978-981-33-4255-2

Online ISBN : 978-981-33-4256-9

eBook Packages : Intelligent Technologies and Robotics Intelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)

Share this paper

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research