TRAVEL

Many people love to travel nowadays. Travelling has become easier due to advancements in
technology and transportation. Earlier people used to transit by road or sea and it took quite a long
time, however, now this has changed and people can get to far off places within hours thanks to
highways and airplanes. Travelling has become more accessible to people before travelling by
airplanes was almost exclusively for the rich and the elite, but lately, there has been a surge of
budget-friendly airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair. The surge of airplane travel negatively impacts
our environment but is a lot faster than other forms of travel which is why people still prefer this
mode of travel.

Travel has many benefits. People could say

that travel helps you gain new experiences. It
helps you understand different cultures and
experience new cuisine or new hobbies. When
we travel we could also say we get in a lot of
exercises by walking around our destinations
and trying things such as swimming,
whitewater rafting and such. Nowadays, many
people like travelling as they want to explore
the world and watch everything they have
read about. Travelling enables us to build friendships and connections with people from various
places across the world. While travelling impacts travellers or tourists in quite a positive way, it can
impact the lives of locals, and the environment ( diverse nature with its animals) in a very negative
way. In cities that get a lot of tourists, restaurants, shops, housing, and some utilities are usually
more expensive.
The economy of many travel destinations relies heavily on tourists. Certain cities have had a lot of
problems during covid because their main source of income was halted following travel bans. Over
the years as the number of travellers grew there have been a lot of headlines, concerning
overtourism crises, battles between locals and tourists. Mass tourism can be negative in several

ways.
Thousands of tourists have rushed to climb the rock before the activity is banned
Quite a few governments have decided to limit the number of tourists in places where nature is
compromised or a culturally significant tourist attraction is at a threat of being ruined.
Many people believe tourists should be banned from culturally significant locations, such as sacred
buildings, mountains, and burial sites.
One of such bans is that of mountain Uluru or Ayers Rock in Australia. Many believe it should be an
example to other different cultures and governments.
Tourists overproduce trash in locations that are not equipped to deal with it since the trash
companies are only used to taking care of rubbish from the residents, but during the tourist season,
the population on these small islands can grow by a lot.
a lot of islands are at a threat of being ruined by tourism. Their very geographical nature makes
islands particularly prone to overcrowding, there is not enough room for endless streams of tourists.
Some governments decided to close destinations for a few months during the summer to give the
natural flora a chance to recover. Tourists have a lot of negative impacts on the nature of these
islands, especially the surrounding coral reefs.
Workers remove litter from a popular beach in Bali CREDIT: AFP/SONNY TUMBELAKA

Local tourist sites are not equipped to handle the amount of water consumption as is needed during
the travel season.
Workers in the travel industry can face unemployment more than any other workers since the tourist
season usually does not last all year round and most are employed as seasonal workers.
Unemployment in the travel industry has been an exceptionally big problem during the pandemic
since a lot of restaurants and hotels had to close, many flights and excursions were canceled and
travel agents can not offer as many destinations to people as they could prepandemic.
The Oxford Dictionary has named ‘overtourism’ as one of its 2018 Words of the Year. Oxford’s Word
of the Year selection includes words or expressions that have “attracted a great deal of interest over
the last 12 months”. The term is used to describe the negative effects of tourism, typically associated
with overcrowding, physical and cultural degradation, environmental damage, and the diminishing
quality of life for residents.
sources:
● https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/19/the-guardian-view-of-over-to
urism-an-unhealthy-appetite-for-travel​
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtourism​
● https://ecobnb.com/blog/2019/07/pacific-islands-overtourism/​
● https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50151344​