The large scale impacts of Tourism include environmental, socio-cultural and economic
impacts. Impacts can be positive, as well as negative, but should never be underestimated.
The concept of sustainability is factored into these tourism impacts, when the size of the
impacts become large enough to drastically alter economic, socio-cultural and
environmental areas of a tourist destination. The importance of these impacts will be
analysed and evaluated in this essay, keeping in mind that this will be kept within the
context of sustainability. With the use of academic literature, the three impacts highlighted
will be discussed, along with the concept of sustainability, to highlight the importance of
these crucial issues to sustainable development of tourism.
The term sustainable tourism means, tourism that is developed in such a way so as to meet
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs (Lawton & Weaver, 2006, pp. 343). This is an important concept when
analysing the various impacts of tourism industries within a particular area. Keeping this in
mind, the Sustainable tourism values and principles model will be used to demonstrate
points of interest, and to analyse the various impacts in more detail.
The importance of the economic impact on a tourist destination cannot be stressed enough.
According to Gartner (1996, pp. 64), The money brought into an area through the process
of hosting tourists provides more economic return than simply the sum of the expenditures
accruing to the few businesses that come in direct contact with tourists. Almost all sectors
of an economy benefit economically from tourism. The monetary benefits that are
generated by the local economy can be used to re-invest in the tourism industry, and also
be used in sustainable development practices.
The following example is taken from an article titled, Estimating the Economic
Contribution of Visitor Spending in the Kruger National Park to the Regional Economy,
and will help to highlight the economical impacts of tourism.
Kruger National Park is located in South Africa and is known for its abundance of exotic
and rare animal species. A recent study, including a survey, into the economic contribution
of the National Park to the regional economy suggests that a total of 241,038,644 rand,
which roughly equates to 42 million Australian dollars. The results of the survey show that
visitors to the park contribute most of the revenue towards accommodation and shops.
According to a tourism audit conducted in 2002, there are a total of 2,077 people employed
