Rajeev K. Manocha
rajeev@indiaah.in

Take Care Traveldons
It sounds good when they say tourism is the largest and fastest-growing economic sector in the world. It also sounds very good that tourism and related economic activities generate 11% of Global Domestic Product, employ 200 million people and transport nearly 700 million international travellers per year. These figures are expected to double by the end of this decade, surprisingly in some of the world’s lesser developed countries.
But every development brings some responsibilities with it and I sadly have to say as a part of this big stream that we are not fulfilling them. We are continuously ignoring some daunting facts that are very simple to understand. All of us are very pleased to see the great influxes of tourists but forget that such influxes have a huge impact on the places with small area. In fact, that is a natural constraint with most of the tourist spots. They add to the pollution, waste and water needs of that area putting local infrastructure under great pressure. For example, 85% of the 1.8 million people who visit Australia's Great Barrier Reef are concentrated in two small areas, Cairns and the Whitsunday Islands, which together have a human population of just 130,000 or so.
In many areas, massive new tourist developments have taken place including airports, marinas, resorts and golf courses. A large area of many hilly and coastal destinations have turned into hotels and the places of recreational activities. Overdevelopment for tourism presents the same problems as other kind of rapid developments do. But the main sufferer in regard to the tourism is Mother Nature who is losing her beauty in a perilously fast manner. If her mountains have given way to the upcoming resorts then her enamouring forests and seagrass meadows are being removed to create open beaches. Tourist developments such as piers and other structures have been built directly on top of coral reefs. Do these mindboggling facts not sadden you?
We saw a huge gathering of travel industry people last month in Berlin. They shared so many views, amidst lengthy talks, to enhance business or expand tourism, but how many of them touched at this sad scenario. Did you?