Climate Change

Climate change poses a major threat to almost all forms of human activity on earth, including tourism. As Holden (2016: 227) argues: Of all the challenges facing tourism’s relationship with nature, it is not an exaggeration to state that climate change represents the greatest. Holden gives as his rationale for this statement that it is the stability and predictability of climate that is vital for the environments and ecosystems that are required for the continuation of current types of tourism, whether these are the traditional form of mass tourism, in terms of ‘sun, sea and sand’ holidays, or a niche activity which involves visiting a tropical rain forest with rare flora and fauna as the main attraction. Climate change also presents opportunities for tourism. If areas currently experiencing cool winters and mild summers get warmer, then new types of tourism may be possible including beach-based holidays where at present these are of little importance. Climate change is likely to lead to modifications in the weather at different times of the year so ‘seasonality’ which is currently a very important dimension to many forms of tourism will be affected, probably to the extent that seasons when there is high tourism activity will get longer in some parts of the world. Although tourism is likely to be significantly affected by climate change, it has also contributed to climate change through for example the burning of fossil fuels in transport for tourism as well through the use of power in hotel accommodation.

The Socio cultural Impacts of Tourism

When discussing the socio-cultural impacts of tourism there is a need to first understand the terms society and culture. The concept of society is studied, in particular, within the subject of sociology. Sociology is largely concerned with the study of society and focuses on people in groups and the interaction of those in groups, their attitudes and their behaviour. Culture is a similar concept to society and is about how people interact as observed through social interaction, social relations and material artefacts. According to Burns and Holden (1995), when discussing culture within the context of tourism, they indicate that it consists of behavioural patterns, knowledge and values which have been acquired and transmitted through generations. Burns and Holden (1995:113) provide more detail when they indicate that “culture .... includes knowledge, belief, art, moral law, custom and any other capabilities and habits of people as members of society’”

Geographical Resources for Tourism

Chapters 1 and 2 made brief reference to a number of potential geographical resources for tourism. Some of these resources are located within the physical environment, such as landscapes, and include coastal area, moorlands and mountains. Others are part of the human environment, including towns and cities and historic monuments – in summary this is usually known as the built environment. These physical resources and human resources are not necessarily located separately but are often found together. For example, a coastal tourism destination has a physical environment which may be made up of a beach, a shoreline, the sea and it could be backed by cliffs. This will be coupled with a human environment of, for example, hotels, restaurants and bars and possibly, a harbour or marina. This chapter considers the physical and human resources for tourism.

Tourism Destinations and Destination Images

The previous three chapters have discussed respectively, reasons behind tourists’ motivation to travel, and the nature of resources that tourists will make use of, when they are involved in tourism. However, the discussion so far has not focused on precisely where tourists will travel to, why they have selected particular locations and/or activities, when they do this and the possible effects of this activity. This chapter considers to where tourists travel, and why they travel to these places. In this way it links the earlier chapters’ concerns with motivations and resources.

Tourism Motivation

Tourists are motivated to be involved in tourism for a variety of reasons. An obvious motivation is to have an enjoyable experience, but there are many different ways to achieve this. Some people will be happy to lay in the sun on a beach and do very little, however, others may want to be very active and spend time climbing a mountain. Getting away from the ‘normal’ environment of home or work, in other words, following the dictum, ‘a change is as good as a rest’ can be another reason for being involved in tourism. In reality, it is often a combination of factors that leads people to travel, although some of these may be more important than others. In the first part of this chapter, tourism motivation is discussed; the second section is concerned with how motivation can be converted into demand.

Environmental Impacts of Tourism

The environment is made up of both natural and human features. Human settlements set in the countryside may contain a large number of attractions for tourists. Often the natural environment is referred to as the physical environment. The natural or physical environment includes the landscape, particular features such as rivers, rock outcrops, beaches and also plants and animals (or flora and fauna), many of which are tourist attractions and have been discussed in Chapter 3. This chapter is concerned with the impact of tourism on the environment.

Crises and Disasters

As indicated at the beginning of this section, some factors are likely to contribute to the continued growth of tourism, whilst others will potentially lead to a halt in growth, or even a downturn in tourism numbers. Crises and disasters are very likely to have an immediate effect on tourist numbers, will almost certainly lead to a change in image of a tourism destination and may even significantly affect tourism, in the longer term, leading to major changes in specific locations, larger regions or even at the global level.

An Introduction to Tourism Impacts

Tourism, as a significant form of human activity, can have major effects on people and places, and these effects are commonly referred to as tourism impacts. Tourism always takes place in a context, which we usually refer to, in a broad sense, as the environment. This environmental context is made up of both human and natural features. The human environment comprises economic, social and cultural factors and processes. The natural environment is a combination of inorganic components such as rocks and water, and inorganic processes such as the erosion of rocks, and with organic elements, which comprise plants and animals and organic processes such as those within an ecosystem.

Protected Areas

There are a significant number of protected areas in the world today, but their creation has occurred only relatively recently. The designation of protected areas can be linked back to the Romantic Movement in England and continental Europe (Mason, 2016). A related movement in the USA also contributed significantly to the establishment of pro- tected areas there. As indicated in Chapter 3, until the latter part of the 18th century, large areas of the natural landscape were not looked upon as having much potential for human use. So mountain regions, such as the Alps, were viewed as a barrier to communication and transport, and similarly uplands and mountain areas in the UK were viewed as offering little scope for economic use, except possibly sheep farming. This chapter indicates that the first protected areas were established in the USA, provides a case study of the very first national park, Yellowstone Park, and discusses the issues that can arise when the designation as a park acts as form of marketing and leads to increasing numbers of visitors with the related impacts. The chapter also discusses changing concepts of the term ‘wilderness’, the implications of this and provides a case study of the largest and most remote wilderness on earth, Antarctica.

The Future of Tourism

For the past 50 years or so, tourism as a socio-economic phenomenon has been steadily growing, despite what can be seen today as temporary blips in which growth has slowed or numbers have actually fallen for a short period. Some of these factors leading to a decline or a slowing in growth have been as a result of natural causes and others have occurred following human induced changes. Looking to the future, there are a number of factors that can assist in the further growth and development of tourism and yet other factors that can restrict development and even turn growth into decline. This chapter considers future developments in tourism.