The Impact of Tourism on Environment

 

The Impact of Tourism on Environment

In the last decades, Indonesia's tourism sector has continued to expand and diversify. This can be seen from the increasing number of tourist visits from both domestic and foreign countries. Based on data from the Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), the number of tourist visits to Indonesia was 7,002,944 people in 2010 and reached it’s peak in 2019 which reached 16,106,954 people (Aditiya, 2020). Although in 2020 tourist arrivals have decreased due to the COVID-19, it can be seen that in the previous year that Indonesia has a significant increase in tourist arrivals. The number of tourists visiting Indonesia is due to the increasing number of tourist attractions in Indonesia. The Ministry of Tourism has begun to focus its efforts on developing and marketing four priority tourist destinations in Indonesia, namely Labuan Bajo as the gateway to the Komodo Islands, Borobudur Temple in Central Java as a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is a 9th century9th-century Buddhist heritage. Temples, Mandalika as tourist attractions are growing in Central Lombok, and Lake Toba in North Sumatra, which is the largest volcanic caldera lake in the world. In addition, there are also several tourist attractions visited by foreign tourists in the Bali area. Bali has succeeded in attracting 5 million from a total of 14 million Indonesian tourists last year, including a large increase in the number of tourists (Fadilah, 2020). This increasing number has caused by nation branding and curiousity to having new experiences about other culture and it is also having positive impacts on the economy and infrastructure development, inspiring to make environmental protection law, and also kept traditional culture alive.

The first causes of tourist increasing is country branding. Globalization has changed the flow of interactions of existing countries with the rapid exchange of information, goods and services across borders between countries. With this opportunity, every country competes to attract domestic and international attention. As a result, each country is required to differentiate from existing countries by forming its own identity, characteristics and culture. For example, in Indonesia, which is one of the countries that formed the nation branding campaign called “Wonderful Indonesia” which began in 2011 after Indonesia previously used a campaign entitled Visit Indonesia. The Wonderful Indonesia campaign is delivered through various communication media/channels, namely the use of digital media through the official Indonesia Travel website and social media, the creation and publication of creative videos, as well as overseas promotions. The use of digital media is carried out through the website and social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+. Because dailysocial said that 65% of tourists are looking for tourism destination ideas through social media (Jakpat Survey Report, 2019).

Marketing tourism by taking advantage of bilateral relations is no longer attractive. Rather, it shows the community's activities, the geographical location of culinary products, and regional specialties, which is the right way of marketing tourism, because people can see and enjoy it firsthand. The large increase of tourist number every year is also caused by a curiousity to having new experiences and witness different cultures. People want to have the chance to learn new skills and learn more about themself. Learning about new cultures and new people is widen the way to look at things. Some people like to explore what the world has in store for them including people, places, and cultures.

Those causes also have several effect which is a positive effect for the local environment in terms of culture. When travelers choose these types of tours and activities, they support these traditions by being kept alive and passed down from generation to generation. This interest keeps the ancient traditions vibrant and current and it also helps to build a better international understanding. Tourism provides funding to preserve and conserve cultural heritage, gives back cultural pride, revitalise customs & traditions as well as opens door for cultural sharing and learning (Smith, 2009). Most of the common positive impacts of tourism on culture include increasing cross cultural interaction; understanding, maintaining local culture, arts, crafts and traditions; empowering local communities; and strengthening cultural values. During this visit a tourist has to interact with different people, who facilitate in different means in the tourism process (Reisinger, 1994). These facilitating people are the host community , who share a common culture with others in the same geography or network (Aref, 2010). Probably, culture is the most narrated word in the anthropology of tourism. It is related to arts and artistic activities, specific way of living, and process and development (Williams, 1983). It is something that people create and transmit or learn and follow enthusiastically as well as express through their smile, language, dress, conduct, belief, and postures & gestures (Longhurst et al., 2008).

The other effect is economic and infrastructure positive impact on a province. The impact of tourism is measured in two stages, namely the direct and indirect impacts on the economy. The direct impact is measured, among others, by the level of tourism foreign exchange spending and its impact on employment. Meanwhile, the indirect impact includes measuring the effect on provincial income (economic growth). In 2017 itself, Bali as one of the provinces that rely on tourists as revenue recorded the economy growth rate in 6.34%. A large number when compared to other provinces (BPS, 2019). Tourism plays an important role in encouraging investment in new infrastructure and competition between local companies and companies in other tourist provinces, Tourism stimulates other industries, either directly, indirectly or stimulating effects, Tourism contributes to creating jobs and increasing income, Tourism can lead to positive exploitation of the economies of scale of national companies, Tourism is an important factor for diffusion of technical knowledge, stimulation of research and development, and accumulation of human capital. The development of the tourism sector can also encourage local governments to provide better infrastructure, provision of clean water, electricity, telecommunications, public transportation and other supporting facilities as a logical consequence and all of which can improve the quality of life for both tourists and local communities themselves as hosts. Based on infrastructure statistics 2019 published by BPS, Bali has 1450 hotels and 6824 inns, which makes Bali is the province that has the most hotels and inns in Indonesia. Tourism infrastructure development can be carried out independently or by inviting national private parties and even foreign investors, especially for large-scale developments such as the construction of international airports, and so on. The improvement and development of tourism infrastructure will also be enjoyed by local residents in carrying out their business activities, in this context the local community will get a positive influence from tourism development in their area.

The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world (Alec Hills, 2020). On a local, national, and international level, tourism is economically and environmentally significant. Tourism has the capacity to help build communities and instigate positive environmental change. Tourism, like other industries, also impact on natural environment. A number of literatures addressed negative impacts of tourism on natural environment. But, not all tourism industries give a negative impacts on natural environment, it also positively influence the environment surroundings. According to “Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism”, it’s explained that travel and tourism has become a behemoth; capable of doing great good and great damage. (Becker, 2017)

Figure 1. Reefs At Risk In Indonesia (souce: reefbase.org)

Concrete example of the negative impact of tourism happen Nusa Peninda Island, Indonesia. In a notice, local government said that “the boats that come in and out really impact the coral reef causing a significant decadency of the ecosystem”. This problem giving an addition to coral reefs at risk in Indonesia. In order to decrease the great damage of tourism on environment, many strategies are addressed by researchers. (Dasgupta, 2019)

The tourism sector now become more rigorous in its efforts to monitor, report and reduce resource consumption and emissions which is require some integrated approach to reach environmental sustainability, also followed by strategies for separating tourism growth from environmental degradation. Environmental education is one of the most important preventive strategies that can be against negative human impacts on natural conservation. (Mieczkowski 1995). But, environmental education has to be followed by law enforcement that is environmental protection laws. This laws must contain at least two fundamental ideas; to control the industries and the tourist.

United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) encourages to implement the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, which is a comprehensive set of principles for responsible tourism aiming to help maximise the sector’s benefits while minimising its potentially negative impact on the environment. Because of environmental protection laws that focused to control the tourist, In 2005, Misool Eco Resort in Indonesia, along with the local people, created “No Take Zones”, in which all tourist fishing activity are prohibited. Inside these zones, illegal fishing activity has been reduced by 86%. The other case is happen in 2018, Hawaii passed a bill banning sunscreen that can harm coral reefs. The law prohibits the distribution of sunscreen that has two toxic chemicals, which are damaging to coral life. Visitors on some of Hawaii’s beaches range in numbers from 2–5,000 swimmers per day, contributing to the estimated 14,000 tons of sunscreen that has been deposited in the oceans.

Figure 2. Environmental Protection Expenditure in the European Union (EU)

The fundamental ideas to control the tourism industries shows in the graph above. This graph explain that European Union giving a high expenditure in environmental protection (EP). The national expenditure has a linear growth. It means that the tourism industries in European Union is commit to protect the environment while running their bussiness.

In conclusion, the significant increase of tourist arival and tourism industries bring so many positive advantage to environment, including it support traditional/local culture by being kept alive passed down from generation to generation because tourist love to learn a new culture when they do travel. Tourism industries also creating jobs and increase economic income for local people and encourage local governments to provide better infrastructure, provision of clean water, electricity, telecommunications, public transportation and other supporting facilities as a logical consequence and all of which can improve the quality of life for both tourists and local communities themselves as hosts. Tourism also inspiring both national and global to make a law that protect environment from potential damage caused by tourism itself. It’s clear that tourism bring so many positive effect for local people, government and the industries itself.

 

Reference :

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·       Aref, F. Gill, S. and Farshid, A. (2010). Tourism Development in Local Communities: As a Community Development Approach, Journal of American Science, 6(2), 155 – 161.

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·       Fadilah, M. R. 2020. Menyelamatkan ekonomi bangsa dengan industri pariwisata.

<https://theconversation.com/menyelamatkan-ekonomi-bangsa-dengan-industri-pariwisata-130217>

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