The Impact of Tourism on Environment
In the last decades, Indonesia's tourism
sector has continued to expand and diversify. This can be seen from the
increasing number of tourist visits from both domestic and foreign countries.
Based on data from the Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), the number of tourist
visits to Indonesia was 7,002,944 people in 2010 and reached it’s peak in 2019 which reached 16,106,954
people (Aditiya, 2020). Although in 2020 tourist arrivals have decreased due to
the COVID-19, it can be seen that in the previous year that Indonesia has a
significant increase in tourist arrivals. The number of tourists visiting
Indonesia is due to the increasing number of tourist attractions in Indonesia.
The Ministry of Tourism has begun to focus its efforts on developing and
marketing four priority tourist destinations in Indonesia, namely Labuan Bajo
as the gateway to the Komodo Islands, Borobudur Temple in Central Java as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site which is a 9th century9th-century Buddhist heritage.
Temples, Mandalika as tourist attractions are growing in Central Lombok, and
Lake Toba in North Sumatra, which is the largest volcanic caldera lake in the
world. In addition, there are also several tourist attractions visited by
foreign tourists in the Bali area. Bali has succeeded in attracting 5 million
from a total of 14 million Indonesian tourists last year, including a large
increase in the number of tourists (Fadilah, 2020). This increasing number has
caused by nation branding and curiousity to having new experiences about other
culture and it is also having positive impacts on the economy and infrastructure
development, inspiring to make environmental protection law, and also kept
traditional culture alive.
The first causes of tourist increasing is country
branding. Globalization
has changed the flow of interactions of existing countries with the rapid
exchange of information, goods and services across borders between countries.
With this opportunity, every country competes to attract domestic and
international attention. As a result, each country is required to differentiate
from existing countries by forming its own identity, characteristics and
culture. For example, in Indonesia, which is one of the countries that formed
the nation branding campaign called “Wonderful Indonesia” which began in 2011
after Indonesia previously used a campaign entitled Visit Indonesia. The
Wonderful Indonesia campaign is delivered through various communication
media/channels, namely the use of digital media through the official Indonesia
Travel website and social media, the creation and publication of creative
videos, as well as overseas promotions. The use of digital media is carried out
through the website and social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+.
Because dailysocial said that 65% of
tourists are looking for tourism destination ideas through social media (Jakpat
Survey Report, 2019).
Marketing tourism by
taking advantage of bilateral relations is no longer attractive. Rather, it
shows the community's activities, the geographical location of culinary
products, and regional specialties, which is the right way of marketing
tourism, because people can see and enjoy it firsthand. The large increase of
tourist number every year is also caused by a curiousity to having new
experiences and witness different cultures. People want to have the chance to
learn new skills and learn more about themself. Learning about new cultures and
new people is widen the way to look at things. Some people like to explore what
the world has in store for them including people, places, and cultures.
Those causes also have several effect which is
a positive effect for the local environment in terms of culture. When travelers
choose these types of tours and activities, they support these traditions by being
kept alive and passed down from generation to generation. This interest keeps
the ancient traditions vibrant and current and it also helps to build a better
international understanding. Tourism provides funding to preserve and conserve
cultural heritage, gives back cultural pride, revitalise customs &
traditions as well as opens door for cultural sharing and learning (Smith,
2009). Most of the common positive impacts of tourism on culture include
increasing cross cultural interaction; understanding, maintaining local
culture, arts, crafts and traditions; empowering local communities; and
strengthening cultural values. During this visit a tourist has to interact with
different people, who facilitate in different means in the tourism process
(Reisinger, 1994). These facilitating people are the host community , who share
a common culture with others in the same geography or network (Aref, 2010).
Probably, culture is the most narrated word in the anthropology of tourism. It
is related to arts and artistic activities, specific way of living, and process
and development (Williams, 1983). It is something that people create and
transmit or learn and follow enthusiastically as well as express through their
smile, language, dress, conduct, belief, and postures & gestures (Longhurst
et al., 2008).
The
other effect is economic and infrastructure positive impact on a province. The
impact of tourism is measured in two stages, namely the direct and indirect
impacts on the economy. The direct impact is measured, among others, by the
level of tourism foreign exchange spending and its impact on employment.
Meanwhile, the indirect impact includes measuring the effect on provincial
income (economic growth). In 2017 itself, Bali as one of the provinces that
rely on tourists as revenue recorded the economy growth rate in 6.34%. A large
number when compared to other provinces (BPS, 2019). Tourism plays an important
role in encouraging investment in new infrastructure and competition between
local companies and companies in other tourist provinces, Tourism stimulates
other industries, either directly, indirectly or stimulating effects, Tourism
contributes to creating jobs and increasing income, Tourism can lead to
positive exploitation of the economies of scale of national companies, Tourism
is an important factor for diffusion of technical knowledge, stimulation of
research and development, and accumulation of human capital. The development of
the tourism sector can also encourage local governments to provide better
infrastructure, provision of clean water, electricity, telecommunications,
public transportation and other supporting facilities as a logical consequence
and all of which can improve the quality of life for both tourists and local
communities themselves as hosts. Based on infrastructure statistics 2019
published by BPS, Bali has 1450 hotels and 6824 inns, which makes Bali is the
province that has the most hotels and inns in Indonesia. Tourism infrastructure
development can be carried out independently or by inviting national private
parties and even foreign investors, especially for large-scale developments
such as the construction of international airports, and so on. The improvement
and development of tourism infrastructure will also be enjoyed by local
residents in carrying out their business activities, in this context the local
community will get a positive influence from tourism development in their area.
The
tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world (Alec
Hills, 2020). On a local, national, and international level, tourism is
economically and environmentally significant. Tourism has the capacity to help
build communities and instigate positive environmental change. Tourism, like
other industries, also impact on natural environment. A number of literatures
addressed negative impacts of tourism on natural environment. But, not all
tourism industries give a negative impacts on natural environment, it also
positively influence the environment surroundings. According to “Overbooked:
The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism”, it’s explained that travel
and tourism has become a behemoth; capable of doing great good and great
damage. (Becker, 2017)
Figure 1. Reefs At Risk In
Indonesia (souce: reefbase.org)
Concrete
example of the negative impact of tourism happen Nusa Peninda Island,
Indonesia. In a notice, local government said that “the boats that come in and
out really impact the coral reef causing a significant decadency of the
ecosystem”. This problem giving an addition to coral reefs at risk in
Indonesia. In order to decrease the great damage of tourism on environment,
many strategies are addressed by researchers. (Dasgupta, 2019)
The
tourism sector now become more rigorous in its efforts to monitor, report and
reduce resource consumption and emissions which is require some integrated
approach to reach environmental sustainability, also followed by strategies for
separating tourism growth from environmental degradation. Environmental
education is one of the most important preventive strategies that can be
against negative human impacts on natural conservation. (Mieczkowski 1995).
But, environmental education has to be followed by law enforcement that is
environmental protection laws. This laws must contain at least two fundamental
ideas; to control the industries and the tourist.
United
Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) encourages to implement the Global
Code of Ethics for Tourism, which is a comprehensive set of principles for
responsible tourism aiming to help maximise the sector’s benefits while
minimising its potentially negative impact on the environment. Because of
environmental protection laws that focused to control the tourist, In 2005,
Misool Eco Resort in Indonesia, along with the local people, created “No Take
Zones”, in which all tourist fishing activity are prohibited. Inside these
zones, illegal fishing activity has been reduced by 86%. The other case is
happen in 2018, Hawaii passed a bill banning sunscreen that can harm coral
reefs. The law prohibits the distribution of sunscreen that has two toxic
chemicals, which are damaging to coral life. Visitors on some of Hawaii’s
beaches range in numbers from 2–5,000 swimmers per day, contributing to the
estimated 14,000 tons of sunscreen that has been deposited in the oceans.
Figure 2. Environmental Protection
Expenditure in the European Union (EU)
The
fundamental ideas to control the tourism industries shows in the graph above.
This graph explain that European Union giving a high expenditure in
environmental protection (EP). The national expenditure has a linear growth. It
means that the tourism industries in European Union is commit to protect the
environment while running their bussiness.
In
conclusion, the significant increase of tourist arival and tourism industries
bring so many positive advantage to environment, including it support
traditional/local culture by being kept alive passed down from generation to
generation because tourist love to learn a new culture when they do travel.
Tourism industries also creating jobs and increase economic income for local
people and encourage local governments to provide better infrastructure,
provision of clean water, electricity, telecommunications, public
transportation and other supporting facilities as a logical consequence and all
of which can improve the quality of life for both tourists and local
communities themselves as hosts. Tourism also inspiring both national and
global to make a law that protect environment from potential damage caused by
tourism itself. It’s clear that tourism bring so many positive effect for local
people, government and the industries itself.
Reference
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