Tourism is the world's largest industry. The number of tourists went from 25 million in 1950 up to 702 million in 2000. The tourism growth rate is 4% a year, and could reach 1 billion in 2010 and 1.6 billion in 2020 according to the World Tourism Organisation.
However, northern countries are the ones that mainly benefit from this major growth: between 55 and 80% of the enormous tourism industry income goes back to them.
Moreover, there are many harmful effects of mass tourism in most of the tourist sites: the socio-cultural and environmental impacts it brings along may challenge the very resources it relies on… |
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The impact of tourism on the environment |
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Excessive exploitation of natural resources |
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Multiple contaminations |
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Physical impacts: destruction, urbanization |
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The socio-cultural impact of tourism |
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Cultural erosion : commodification (reconstructed ethnicity) and standardization |
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Culture clashes : meeting between remote socio-cultural backgrounds, deep misunderstandings, intolerance |
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Physical influences causing social stress |
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Deterioration of the social situation
: criminality, prostitution |
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