Environmental Effects of Tourism on Thai Coral Reefs

The tourism industry has grown exponentially over the previous twenty years, it is now a worldwide industry, both in terms of tourists and host destinations, and ‘is no longer confined to the developed countries that traditionally provided the demand for world travel’ (Page & Connell, 2006, pp.4). World leaders have long been recognising the huge economic advantages that a booming tourism industry can bring to their nations, and vast amounts of money have been invested set up the infrastructure to support such an industry. However, aside from the large economic advantages to the industry, there are inevitably negative impacts to the host nation and the world as a whole. These negative impacts usually materialise in the form of environmental or socio-cultural issues; and in many cases, these have all but been pushed aside, with economic advantages prevailing over all else. Only recently has the world started to become aware that if they do not protect their precious touristic resources; the invaluable industry will soon die out. The following essay will look in depth at the declining state of Thailand’s coral reefs in relation to its continually growing tourism industry, and discuss the reasons for this negative environmental effect. It will then go on to explore the methods of sustainable tourism employed by other nations who are suffering the same problems, and judge to what extent, and with how much success, these methods could be integrated into the Thai system.
Tourism is having a major negative environmental impact on coral reefs and the marine life that habituate around them all over the world, and Thailand is no exception. Tourism affects coral reefs in both a direct and indirect manner. The most obvious sign of coral death is when it loses all its vibrant colours and a turns a milky white colour; this is known as bleaching. There are algae that live in the coral that give it its colour, bleaching occurs when these algae either leave or die, leaving the

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