Environment Analysis

1. Environment Analysis Physical Environment By: Joshua Hewett & Amy Ha

2. Physical Environment Defined • Important tourism resource. • External, tangible surroundings in which an organism exists and which can influence its behaviour and development. • Includes landforms, soil types • and climate. • The Physical Environment is constantly changing.

3. Negative Impacts on Physical Environment • Environmental Damage - Plants and shrubs have been removed from rainforests to make room for walking trails. • Pollution – Air and Noise Pollution - Water Pollution - Waste Dumping • Tourist Activities – Boat, diving, driving, walking, skiing

4. Positive Impacts on Physical Environment • Development of Tourist Attractions –Conservation, restoration and Protection of Natural and Historical Buildings. • Can lead to enhancement of natural resources. • Stimulates improvements to the quality of the built environment available to residents

5. Sustainability Emissions and climate change • Motor vehicles emit greenhouse gases -Greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide and vehicles also emit nitrous oxide and methane which contribute to climate change. • Cars contributed to 43 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2002 which amounts to 8% of total natural emissions. • Car hire companies can help reduce emissions by beginning to phase out their current fleets with hybrid type cars that run on bio ethanol or a combined electrical and petrol engine, some example of cars with a hybrid models are the Ford Focus and Volvo S40.

6. Continue… • Tour operators need to begin to implement a plan to replace older high carbon emission coaches with new low carbon emission or green coaches. • Air travel is one of the fastest growing causes of global warming and tour operators can reduce the impact on the physical environment by going as green as possible and limiting domestic flights on their tours and replacing the flights with train travel and low carbon emission or green coach travel.

7. Weather Bushfires • One of the focuses on Tourism at the moment. • Victoria Bushfires: - 78 towns were impacted by the fire and 100 tourism businesses have suffered direct fire damage. - Most Tourism experience aren’t affected by the bushfires but many tourist may not travel to this destination.

8. Continue… Floods • Impact in Tourism businesses in Queensland - March is the traditional start for spike, café and holiday accommodation. - Due to floods it causes a big disadvantage for the locals as well as tourist. Such as: - Water Contamination - Farmers – loss of cattle & crops - Fishing industry – lack of equipment.

9. Eco tourism • Eco tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry and every year grows about 10 – 15% worldwide. • Eco tourism can be defined as “the practise of low impact, educational, ecologically and cultural sensitive travel that benefits local communities and host countries”. • Many eco tourism projects are not meeting the standards, even when guidelines are being adhered to some of the local communities are facing negative impacts. • Some local communities are unable to meet the infrastructure demands and there may be a lack of inadequate sanitation facilities in places such as East African parks and results in the disposal of campsite sewage in rivers which contaminates the wildlife, livestock and people who collect their drinking water from the rivers.

10. Continue.. • Apart from degradation of the environment for tourist infrastructure, population pressures from eco tourism also leaves behind pollution and garbage that is associated with western lifestyles. • Activities associated with eco tourism are itself an environmental impact as the disturb fauna and flora and even harmless sounding activities like nature hikes can be ecologically destructive. • In Nepal eco tourism has worn down marked trails and created alternate routes contributing to plant damage, soil impaction and erosion. • At sites where eco tourism involves wildlife animals can be scared away disrupting their feeding and nesting sites, in Kenya wildlife observers have disrupted cheetahs driving them off their reserves increasing the risks of inbreeding and endangering the species further.

11. Continue… • To improve the sustainability of eco tourism there is a need for regulation and accreditation, because of poorly implemented regulation some underwater hotels, helicopter tours and wildlife parks are categorised as eco tourism and are ecologically destructive. • With a global accreditation standard differentiating operators based on their environmental commitment level. • An international regulatory board would need to set up so compliant operators would be legally required to stop associating themselves with the eco tourism brand. • The levels of accreditation should be based on the operators’ management plan, small group interaction, educational value, benefit to the local community and staff training. Eco tourist would be able to know that a genuine eco tourism experience can be expected from a operator with a high rating.

12. Global Warming Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the earths near surface air and the oceans since the mid twentieth century and its projection has continued. A report conducted by British university has said that a changing climate may have serious effects on countries that are tourism dependent. Problems that are linked to the rising temperatures include shorter sky seasons. Less snow fall and an increase in avalanches at sky resorts and a larger number of days of unbearable heat at popular holiday spots in the Mediterranean and these places will no longer be tourist destinations. Another report has found that shorter ski seasons are likely to affect the tourism industry in the Alps and in Scotland while traditional holiday destinations such as Greece, Turkey and South Eastern Spain could face extreme heat that could keep tourist away, tax water supplies and an increase in disease. In addition to drought and changing temperature disrupting wildlife related tourism in east and South Africa and drive animals out of protected areas, while less rainfall and higher temperature could damage the fragile ecosystems of Brazil’s rainforests.

13. Continue… In the USA the coasts of Delaware, Maryland and Florida will be vulnerable to erosion as the sea levels rise in temperature could cause the oceans to rise as much as four inches in a decade. Such a shift in the tourism industry will mean a shift in resources, northern countries will have to shift more resources to their tourism industry’s from other industries to cater for the tourism boom, while on the other hand Mediterranean countries will have to shift resources from their declining tourism trade to more profitable industries.

14. ReferenceList http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_tourism www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/science/scicontinuum/sciglossarylz.htm http://www.eturbonews.com/784/bushfires-not-affecting-tourism-victoria http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/qld-floods-hit-businesses-fishers http://www.tourismexcellence.com.au/module7/index.php http://www.climateark.com/articles/1999/wlfwlf44 http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/GVGPublicUI/StaticContent/emissions.aspx

15. The End! =D