Lesson 3: The Impacts of Tourism

A. Fable: The Crow and The Pitcher

In a spell of dry weather, when the Birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty Crow
found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no
matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he must die of
thirst.
Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the
pitcher one by one. With each pebble, the water rose a little higher until at last, it was near
enough so he could drink.
B. Socio-Economic Impact of Tourism
The economic effects of tourism include improved tax revenue and personal income,
increased standards of living, and more employment opportunities. Sociocultural impacts are
associated with interactions between people with different cultural backgrounds, attitudes,
behaviors, and relationships to material goods.
Increases in educational attainment and income or decrease in hunger and the incidence
of disease are examples of “impact.” Socio-economic “impact” can be positive or negative,
intended or unintended, temporary or sustainable over time.
C. Environmental Impact of Tourism
DEPLETION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Tourism development can put pressure on natural resources when it increases
consumption in areas where resources are already scarce.
1. Water Resources
2. Local Resources
3. Land Degradation
POLLUTION
Tourism can cause the same forms of pollution as any other industry: air emissions,
noise, solid waste and littering, releases of sewage, oil, and chemicals, and even
architectural/visual pollution.
1. Air Pollution and Noise
2. Solid Waste and Littering
3. Sewage
4. Aesthetic Pollution

PHYSICAL IMPACTS
Attractive landscape sites, such as sandy beaches, lakes, riversides, and mountain tops and
slopes, are often transitional zones, characterized by species-rich ecosystems. Typical physical
impacts include the degradation of such ecosystems.
"Physical impacts of tourism development"
1. Construction activities and infrastructure development
2. Deforestation and intensified or unsustainable use of land
3. Marina development

D. The Goose that laid the Golden Egg

There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can
imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden
egg.
The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long
before he grew impatient with the Goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day.
He was not getting rich fast enough.
Then one day, after he had finished counting his money, the idea came to him that he
could get all the golden eggs at once by killing the Goose and cutting it open. But when the deed
was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious Goose was dead.