Tourist activity promises benefits to local and national economies, but can also damage the very ecosystems and cultural traditions that draw travelers in the first place. Impacts of tourism range from the conspicuous—habitat fragmentation caused by growing infrastructure development—to the less obvious, such as erosion of cultural norms and natural resources. Interdisciplinary SFS programs allow students to critically evaluate the multiple trade-offs associated with tourism and contribute to the development of ecologically sound and socially just practices.
Tourism is the nation’s third top revenue generator after hydropower and agriculture. Despite adopting a ‘high value, low impact’ tourism policy, Bhutan is seeing an increasing number of tourists. The socio-economic and ecological impacts of this growth in the tourism sector are not well understood. Students explore both the positive and negative impacts of tourism on communities and the environment, while investigating the potential of ecotourism.
Many thousands of tourists, from backpackers to luxury travelers spend their holidays in Patagonia, exploring its diverse landscapes and traversing channels and fjords. The region’s national parks, forests, and icefields are not always toured in sustainable ways. Chile is now making decisions that will affect the tourism economy for the next decade and authorities are placing visitation limits on the most charismatic places. Our program is well positioned to monitor this situation and observe how policies shift over time.
Costa Rica’s remarkable biodiversity provides a rich platform for nature-based tourism, which is one of the country’s primary economic drivers, generating 60% of the GDP. But such tourism runs the risk of over-exploiting the very natural beauty that draws tourists to Costa Rica in the first place. It can also create an economy that is overly dependent on tourism. Students consider the effects of tourism on local communities and the local culture, and the potential of regenerative tourism.
For decades, Kenya was the bullseye for eco-tourism and wildlife tourism in East Africa. Thousands of outsiders enjoyed the parks and protected areas of Kenya and pumped money into the economy. Students study the consequences of intense tourism on the landscape and evaluate how wildlife behavior is affected by human visitors. Excursions to both Kenyan and Tanzanian parks (during the semester and summer 1 programs) will allow students to make comparisons between the tourist-visitor experience and the management objectives and successes between the two countries.
We address the issue of tourism impacts through participant observation and interviews with local authorities and stakeholders, including business owners, Bocatoreños, fishers, tour operators, and visitors. Additionally, students are taken into the field to measure, analyze, and interpret how tourism impacts habitats and ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves, and forests.
Tourism is perceived as benefiting TCI and particularly South Caicos, an island of just 1,200 people. However, the growing tourism industry intensifies the demand for reef fish on restaurant menus, incentivizing fishers on South Caicos to increase their catch, which in turn impacts reef ecosystems surrounding the island.