Tourism is responsible for nearly one tenth of the world's carbon emissions
Air transport and an expanding demand for luxury travel mean the impact of the high-polluting industry is likely to continue growing
Tourism is destroying the planet:
Viral tourism is a great example of how Instagram has completely warped our collective sense of reality. Thanks to the rise of travel influencers, we now have too many people flocking to the same beauty spots in places such as Arizona, Iceland, Thailand and California – sometimes with disastrous and destructive
consequences.
Tourist hotspots have always been a thing – there are photos of the Victorians posing in front of the pyramids. But there’s still something profoundly sad about how specific and repetitive holiday pictures have become, with many taken in the exact same place, at the same angle and with similar filters. And if you have ever been to any of these places where nature has gone viral, you’ll notice that many visitors spend more time experiencing the place through their phones than not. What’s the point?
www.theguardian.com/…
Percent of world tourist arrivals,
2018 - Country rankings:
The average for 2018 based on 169 countries was 0.59 percent.
The negative environmental impacts of tourism are substantial. They include the depletion of local natural resources as well as pollution and waste problems. ... Tourism puts enormous stress on local land use, and can lead to soil erosion, increased pollution, natural habitat loss, and more pressure on endangered species.
How to explore the world without harming it: Guardian climate pledge 2019
Cruise ships are back.
And it’s a catastrophe for the environment
Cruise ships kill whales, leak gray water, and are largely exempt from US taxation. When they violate the law, they pay the equivalent of a parking ticket
Yellowstone had 1m visitors in July alone. That’s unsustainable for US national parks
Yellowstone had 1m visitors in July alone. That’s unsustainable for US national parks
National parks are a victim of their own success. They have too many tourists – and too little funding
www.theguardian.com/...
Tourism UK
Some lifelong residents of Edinburgh say they’ve forgotten what the original city looks like as it gets submerged in a bewildering succession of festivals ranging from the dominant and all-powerful international festival and fringe right through to the “winter festival” season, which culminates in the four-day lockdown of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.
The author and academic Simon Pia said: “The city is prostituting itself and is beginning to look like a posher version of Blackpool.” www.theguardian.com/…
Edinburgh residents have vented their anger at having to apply to a private company for access to their own homes during this year’s Hogmanay celebrations amid growing concern that the council’s hunger to attract tourism is reducing the Scottish capital to a “theme park”.
People living in some parts of the city centre will also face potential restrictions on the number of guests they can invite if they wish to have parties of their own on New Year’s Eve, when the entertainment giant Underbelly will be running an event expected to attract more than 70,000 people.www.theguardian.com/...
Venice
The city hosts up to 60,000 tourists per day (2017 estimate). Estimates of the annual number of tourists vary from 22 million to 30 million. This "overtourism" creates overcrowding and environmental problems for Venice's ecosystem. By 2017, UNESCO was considering the addition of Venice to its "In-Danger" list, which includes historical ruins in war-torn countries. To reduce the number of visitors, who are causing irreversible changes in Venice, the agency supports limiting the number of cruise ships[103][104] as well as implementing a strategy for more sustainable tourism.
en.m.wikipedia.org/...
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