Traveling is one of the favorite activities of people around the world especially the millennials, but sometimes it can have a harmful effect on the environment.
Tourism may positively impact one’s country or city in terms of economic advantages, employment opportunities, foreign exchange earnings, and growth in the service sector. However, it may also put pressure on the environment, especially when there’s a huge number of visitors in regions where the resources are already inadequate.
In fact, unrestrained traditional tourism has possible threats to a lot of natural resources from across the globe. It can lead to a lot of major problems that could totally harm the environment, such as natural habitat loss, increased pollution, soil erosion, and more. It will never be a great idea to exceed limits when it comes to tourism, particularly if the natural resources are at stake.
Early this year, Thailand government closed down Koh Khai Nok, Koh Khai Nui and Koh Khai Naiin- three popular islands in the coast of Phuket because of the negative impact of tourists in the Islands. This decision was weeks after Koh Tachai, one of Thailand’s National Park has been closed because of coral bleaching and damages to the marine ecosystem.
Watcharin Na Thalang, regional chief of Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said that coral bleaching occurs naturally (also caused by climate change) and also from human activity.
“This includes the increasing number of tourists, boats that anchor on the corals, people walking on corals while playing in the water, feeding marine animals and catching them to take photos of with them,” Watcharin explained.
It is not just the ocean and the island that tourism is slowly killing. It has tons of negative effect to the environment.