Author: Franjo Katalinić, Ekonomsko-birotehnička škola, Slavonski Brod
Tourism can be defined as a travel for pleasure. It was present in the human history as far back as ancient Greece.
Tourism had been a commodity for the rich, but today, it is accessible to anyone. This blessing brought some problems, however. One such problem is the destruction of the environment. From transportation to the hotel industry, everything leaves a scar on nature. By-products such as carbon dioxide or sewage deal a great damage to the biodiversity. This sometimes goes to the extremes, such as in the case of Tecopa pupfish. Due to high concentration of tourists, hotels started draining California’s hot springs eventually leading to the endemic fish’s demise. Though long gone, it can still serve as valuable warning. Biodiversity is not the only thing affected. Local communities have been known to be priced out of their homes. The high prices make it impossible for people to support themselves and their family. They are forced to move to more affordable places. This destroys the cultural history of the location, the very same thing that led tourists there. In Hawaii, for example, many native people cannot afford homes. This is somewhat of a paradox as the culture is one of the things being promoted in the first place. People have been becoming more aware of these facts. This led to the creation of a new tourist branch: the sustainable tourism. People have started to embrace everything the location has to offer without damaging the nature. This caused an overwhelming increase in both productivity and the overall beauty. One such example is the Mediterranean Sea where restrictive measures made both the sea and the coast a more desirable location. This led to an increase in profit. Needless to say, positive results like this contribute greatly to the use of sustainable tourism today and I hope more governments adopt these kind of measures. My opinion is that sustainable tourism brings a great lot of advantages and should be a common practice, not a novelty.
