Examination of the natural impacts to the development of the tourist destination: Lanzarote

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: Merit, Bournemouth University, language: English, abstract: There are different impacts that the development of tourism has on a destination, for instance,natural or environmental, economical, political or socio-cultural. The environment is one ofthe most important issues for the development and promotion of a tourist destination, and alsothe most fragile (Franco and Garcia, 1999).Due to the huge influx of tourists known as "mass tourism", the impacts of the developmentcan be positive and negative. Positive economic impacts are the improvement of infrastructureand the attraction of more investment in the area; negative the increase of prices and ofincome inequality. Positive socio-cultural impacts enhance the increase of cultural exchangeand restoration of buildings; negative socio-cultural like immigration and assumption of thestereotypes of tourist; and finally, negative environmental impacts like noise, pollution,destruction of the natural environment, huge buildings in natural areas, overuse of water,problems with the treatment of wastes, water pollution by liquid waste, destruction ofhistorical monuments, air pollution from the use of vehicles and heating, changes in thelandscape to promote activities entertainment and sports such as golf; etc. But not only masstourism affects on the environment, alternative tourism can also make an unsustainable use ofresources (Garcia and Sancho, 1999).This essay will examine critically the natural impacts that the development of tourism hasupon the destination Lanzarote. This Spanish island is famous for its unique volcaniclandscape and its biosphere reserve. The island of Lanzarote is within the 10 most popularislands of Europe (Trivago, 2009) and personally one of my favourite travel destinations dueto family reasons. (1606 words)