Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the Aruba. It is an increasingly important source of income, employment and wealth. Tourism now accounts for a larger share of foreign exchange receipts and export earnings than any other industry in the world. But, while tourism provides considerable economic benefits, its rapid expansion has also had detrimental environmental and socio-cultural impacts. Natural resource depletion and environmental degradation associated with tourism, for example, are often serious problems in tourism-rich regions.
While tourism provides considerable economic benefits for Aruba, its rapid expansion can also be responsible for adverse environmental (and sociocultural) impacts. Natural resource depletion and environmental degradation associated with tourism activities are sometimes serious problems in tourism-rich regions. The management of natural resources to reverse this trend is thus one of the most difficult challenges for governments at different levels. The fact that most tourists chose to maintain their relatively high patterns of consumption (and waste generation) when they reach their destinations can be a particularly serious problem for developing countries and regions without the appropriate means for protecting their natural resources and local ecosystems from the pressures of mass tourism.
The main environmental impacts of tourism are
- Pressure on natural resources,
- Pollution and waste generation and
- Damage to ecosystems
Furthermore, it is now widely recognized that not only uncontrolled tourism expansion is likely to lead to environmental degradation, but also that environmental degradation, in turn, poses a serious threat to tourism.
In addition to pressure on the availability and prices of resources consumed by local residents – such as energy, food and basic raw materials – the main natural resources at risk from tourism development are land, freshwater and marine resources. Without careful land use planning, for instance, rapid tourism development can intensify competition for land resources with other uses and lead to rising land prices and increased pressure to build on agricultural land................
