Tourism, Globalization, and... the environment?

In a world where people are increasingly connected and global tourism is no longer reserved for a stratified section of the world's wealthiest inhabitants, more and more people are embarking on vacations to countries across the globe. Aided by the birth of social media and the rising prevalence of travel photography, some countries––such as Thailand, Iceland, and New Zealand––have unintentionally become magnetic poles that attract millions of tourists every year. According to the New Zealand tourist bureau, 3.8 million people visited the country in 2018, up 1.2 million from five years earlier. Thus, the transitory tourist population is more 75% of the 4.79 million local population. This unprecedented rise of tourism has flooded these countries with a deluge of cash––and the trash that tourists leave behind.

There is a delicate balance between the necessity of tourism for these countries' economies and the horrendous environmental effects these tourists inflict. In an effort to get the perfect photo with pristine mountains, sweepingly untouched forests, or pure lakes, tourists destroy the very things they have come to document. The average American produces almost 4.3 pounds of trash per day, and while not all tourists in Iceland, Thailand, and New Zealand are American, they provide an appalling gauge for the sheer volume of trash produced by tourists. Even if the average tourist produces half of the amount of trash of an American, if 3.8 million tourists produce 2 pounds of trash per day in New Zealand, the environmental effects would––and will––be devastating. The environmental detriments to these countries is mitigated in the eyes of financially-driven governments, however; international tourists brought 10.5 billion dollars into New Zealand in 2017, which accounted for over 10% of New Zealand's GDP. 

The advent of ecotourism, which focuses on "tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments," is intended to benefit and preserve the environments people visit. The millions of people who travel to so-called destination countries will continue to bring in cash that enables the development and growth of otherwise-small countries such as New Zealand, Iceland, and Thailand. The continuous growth in tourism will also place an increasingly untenable strain on the environment, however. It is imperative that we find a balance between the demands of the economy and the environment in the future; if we don't, the destinations that people flock to in droves will no longer exist.



SOURCES:

http://www.ecoclean.in/whatistheaveragewastegeneratedbyahumanbe

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/world/asia/new-zealand-british-tourists.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=sectionfront

https://zerowasteeurope.eu/2017/03/more-tourists-equals-more-waste/

https://www.tourismnewzealand.com/news/international-visitors-contribute-more-than-105-billion-in-2017/