An approach to assessing the Environmental impacts of Coastal

tourism

An approach to assessing the

Environmental impacts of Coastal
tourism
Abstract

Introduction
Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the world economy and has significant
environmental, cultural, economic and social effects. Coastal tourism is a part of Tourism that acts as
a major tool for the development of economy. Coastal tourism has many positive impacts. But the
negative impacts should also be taken into consideration for maintaining the environments stability. If
not planned properly, it can have ill effects on the pristine environments and biodiversity, and can
result in the misuse of sensitive coastal ecosystems that include natural resources such as freshwater,
mangroves, coral reefs, sand beaches, estuaries, coastal fresh water lakes and marine life. At a number
of sites, tourism development has resulted in serious degradation of coastal resources and
displacement of local communities and coral reefs have been damaged.

Need for the study

The coastal tourism which is growing at a fast rate has led to the social, cultural, physical and
environmental changes. Measuring environmental impacts is important because peoples support for
tourism development depends upon their attitudes towards environmental changes. The need for
addressing environmental concerns in tourism development planning is also important because

the human livelihoods are affected due to certain actions of tourism. In most of the studies on
the environmental impacts of tourism, the focus appeared to be primarily on such factors like
the resiliency of the ecosystem, the intensity of site development and use, and the
commitment and involvement of local stakeholders. Most of the people residing near the
coastal regions are fishermen. The introduction of coastal tourism to an area leads to the
resettlement of the fishermen communities for the tourism developments. The major
environmental/socio-cultural impacts noted in the table are pollution of air. water, noise,
dumping of garbage, destruction of sand dunes, increasing crime, increased alcoholism,
prostitution, over-crowding, loss of open space, unwanted-life style changes, practice of
nudity and drugs and corrosion of local cultural values.
The exclusion of local fishermen and their families from the beaches and their traditional
occupations not only leads to economic but also social conflicts (inter-use conflicts).
Communal tensions already exist and hostility would increase if families were displaced and
cut off from their traditional occupations. Situations like these also lead to resentment and
even hostility toward tourists.
Considering the present state of the Kerala coast, it is obvious that many of the attractive
areas of the coast are thickly populated and the town/cities continue to dump sewage and
other effluents directly into coastal waters. Beaches and backwaters are contaminated by
urban sludges and sewage. In addition to these, the industrial effluents, which include toxic

and dangerous chemicals, are also thrown into the coastal waters. Motor boats and ships leave
oil and petroleum effluents into the coastal waters.