Local artists and a film crew entertain tourists in Bhutan. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the global tourism industry has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo credit: Tourism Council of Bhutan (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Last August, the picturesque Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan halved accommodation fees it charges international tourists to $100 a night, recognising “the vital role of the tourism sector in creating jobs, earning foreign exchange and promoting overall economic growth”.
To raise funds to offset tourism carbon emissions, a $200 daily “sustainable development fee” was introduced in September 2022. However, tourism numbers in Bhutan did not recover as expected even after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
Bhutan’s plight is no different to most countries in the Asia-Pacific region: It is caught between overtourism, which is damaging the environment, and undertourism, which is depriving developing countries of much-needed funds to revive economies battered by COVID-19 lockdowns and natural disasters.
The global tourism industry has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with tourist numbers falling by 72% in 2020, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
Long before the pandemic hit, major tourist destinations in Asia had already begun limiting or regulating the number of tourists streaming in. In 2018, Thailand closed Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Leh, made famous by the film “The Beach,” to give the delicate marine ecosystem a chance to recover from widespread degradation and coral loss.
Similarly, the Philippines’ famous Boracay island was ordered closed for six months in 2018 to address environmental concerns. Restrictions to protect nature and local sensibilities have also been introduced in Bali, Indonesia, and the backpacker-friendly Thamel district of Kathmandu, Nepal.
But these countries, so dependent on tourism revenues, cannot afford to impose drastic restrictions and are seeking compromises. Asia’s diversity in terms of infrastructure, income and politics means that the problems posed by mass tourism and their solutions must be tailored to each country.
Richer countries like Japan and Singapore must take a different path than Indonesia and the Philippines, starting by assessing what percentage of GDP they can safely derive from tourism and what the risks are of opening up to foreign tourists, as many currently do.
Bhutan’s “high-value, low-volume” tourism model, designed to funnel revenues into sustainable development through the protection of carbon-storing forests and clean energy projects, has helped it become South Asia’s only carbon-negative country. Yet Bhutan’s population density is just 20 people per square kilometre.
By comparison, neighbouring Bangladesh has a population of 1,329 people per square kilometre. Both countries are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but in very different ways: Bhutan is concerned about shrinking glaciers, while Bangladesh is a delta whose coasts are highly vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Communities under threat
Climate change and extreme weather events threaten coastal communities across the Asia-Pacific region, often directly destroying tourism infrastructure, as shown by the 2014 Asian tsunami that devastated areas stretching from Thailand to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Beyond COVID-19, Southeast Asia has had to deal with health emergencies such as SARS and MERS that strained healthcare delivery systems and forced travel bans and border closures, resulting in business closures, job losses and economic downturns with unanticipated effects on the global tourism industry.
COVID-19 has provided the first real insight into the interconnectedness of global tourism and the need for a coordinated international response to a health crisis.
While it is not easy to quantify the number of visitors who visit or stay in a particular area, it is a common experience that rents and property prices become unaffordable for locals.
Long queues, noise pollution, damage to historical sites, desecration of religious sites, introduction of disease and agricultural pests are some of the negative effects of mass tourism. It also puts a strain on resources, affecting especially the price and availability of food.
Carbon Emissions
Tourism is responsible for around 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, including those related to accommodation, aviation and local transport. Most of these emissions come from travellers from high-income countries, and as travel increases, so does the tourism industry’s environmental footprint.
A 2019 report by the UNWTO and the International Transport Forum projected that transport-related emissions from international tourism will increase by 25% by 2030 compared to 2016, while emissions from domestic tourism will increase by 21% over the same period.
Overtourism can also have a negative impact on a destination’s reputation: few tourists like to stand in queues to visit monuments, pay high prices for hotels and homestays, or pay exorbitant amounts for food.
Mam Larsson, who uses satellite data to monitor the environmental impact of tourism, estimates that 80% of tourists are concentrated in just 10% of the world’s tourist destinations, and countries need to develop alternative destinations to spread the burden, rather than concentrating tourism in a few places.
Global tourist numbers, which peaked at 1.5 billion in 2019, could reach 1.8 billion by 2030, putting further pressure on already popular destinations, according to UNWTO projections.
One way forward would be mutual consultation between sending and receiving countries on friendly visa regimes, prevention of vandalism, ways to avoid friction between locals and visitors, and providing support in terms of funds and know-how for protecting nature and archaeological sites.
New alternative locations could be developed jointly through investment in the construction of critical infrastructure such as roads, hotels and facilities that help decongest overcrowded tourist destinations.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Different measures can be taken, taking into account the interests of all stakeholders. After all, tourism has many benefits beyond making money.
Citation: Mass Tourism Brings Dollars, But It Comes With All the Baggage (July 3, 2024) Retrieved July 3, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-mass-tourism-dollars-baggage.html
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