Green Economy in a Blue World-Full Report

in a Blue World

Tourism, a source for economy and employment

United States

Canada

Japan

Russia

South Korea

Mexico

Taiwan

China

Philippines

Honduras

United Kingdom

Cuba

Vietnam

Malaysia

Costa Rica

Dominican Republic

Bangladesh

The Nederlands France Germany

Poland

Cambodia

Czech Republic

Nepal

Colombia

Thailand

Ukraine

Myanmar

Hungary

Portugal

Pakistan

Venezuela

Turkey

Peru

India

Australia

Spain

Greece

Austria

Iran

Syria

Morocco

Indonesia

Algeria

Sri Lanka

Saudi Arabia

Egypt

Chile

Nigeria

Argentina

Ethiopia

Brazil

Kenya

Ghana

Uganda

Travel and tourism total contribution to GDP Million US dollars

Tanzania

16 000 400 5 000 Employees in the tourism sector Thousands

1 000 to 2 000 1 000 to 2 000 2 000 to 10 000

10 000 to 20 000 20 000 to 100 000 More than100 000

Mozambique

Madagascar

South Africa

Source: WTO and WTTC, online databases accessed on May 2012

2 Challenges and opportunities Marine and Coastal Tourism has many important linkages to the Green Economy in a Blue World. Coastal tourism development can lead to urban sprawl, urbanization, destruction and fragmentation of habitats, the production of waste, water pollution as well as the loss of social and cultural identity and values. Many of these existing challenges will be exacerbated by climate change-induced environmental changes including, coastal inundation and erosion, biodiversity- and ecosystem loss (coral reefs and mangroves), altered wildlife productivity and distribution (sport fish, bird migrations), and changes in the availability and quality of fresh water resources. Notably, tourism is itself a major contributor to emissions of greenhouse gases and thus climate change (see below). Land conversion Tourism development leads to the conversion of land for construction, and many coastal destinations have become heavily urbanized. For example, out of 8 000 kilometres of Italian coastline, 43 per cent is completely urbanized, 28 per cent is partly urbanized and only 29 per cent of coastline could be considered ‘pristine’ (UNEP, 2009a). Because of the desire to locate as close to the sea as possible,much coastal tourism infrastructure has resulted in the destruction of coastal wetlands, dune complexes and 2.1 Current impacts of tourism

spaces for amenity migration and tourism development. With the exception of some port and industrial areas, tourism-related pressures in coastal regions now dominate over other sectors, to the point that, in some cases, tourism can be considered unsustainable (UNEP, 2009a). In order to minimize tourism-induced problems and secure both the sustainability of the tourism industry and coastal resources used by other sectors, increased attention must be given to proper planning and the better integration of tourism in coastal development. Negative impacts and conflicts are due mainly to ignorance of coastal environments and inadequateplanningandeconomic overreliance on a single sector, tourism. tourism development, information must be made available to decision makers on the possible short and long-term pressures of tourism on environmental and social systems, and practical, context-appropriate tools provided with which to respond to these pressures, including growth management, activity restrictions, zoning, use rationing, economic incentives, regulation and planning and policy evaluation (Hall, 2008). Sustainable tourism development and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) are seen as two parallel, complementary and strongly interlinked processes. A variety of tools offered by ICZM allow for a more sustainable development of tourism that in turn makes the ICZM process more effective (UNEP, 2009a). In planning more sustainable

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