The Impact of Tourism on the Marine Environment

The first text to take a truly inter-disciplinary approach to critically examining the impacts of tourism on marine environments and coastal regions, focusing on the negative environmental impacts but also looking at the social and economic context of marine tourism and coastal zone management. The book sets tourism against the background of the crisis facing our oceans due to climate change and the effects of global warming. Tourism adds another layer of challenges for our marine environment, and its rapid growth globally means that these challenges have grown dramatically in recent years. We have seen a number of trends in the relationship between tourism and our oceans which pose a threat to the future of the marine environment and coastal communities. The Impact of Tourism on the Marine Environment looks at these trends in detail and tackles issues such as: • A critical evaluation of the cruise sector in terms of its impacts on the marine environment and the coastal destinations visited by cruise ships. • Marine wildlife watching and whether it is the enemy of conservation or its ally • The overall impact of tourism on waste, litter and plastics in the oceans. • The two-way relationship between climate change and global warming and marine environments and coastal tourist destinations • The effects of leisure activities such as diving and sea angling on the marine environment including coral reefs • The consumption of marine resources to meet tourist demand for seafood and souvenirs that deplete ocean resources • Natural and man-made disasters which have their origins in the oceans but have an impact on coastal tourist destinations • The challenges involved in the planning and management of tourism in marine environments and the impacts of the construction of new resorts and tourism infrastructure. • The debate over whether there is a need for regulation to control the impacts of tourism on our oceans or whether industry self-regulation is the best approach to take The book includes nearly forty mini-case studies from around the world which illustrate issues raised in the text. There are also two important ‘opinion pieces’ from Professor Harold Goodwin and Professor Michael Hall. A must-have text for students, researchers and practitioners looking at issues of sustainable tourism, tourism planning, environmental management, geography, marine conservation and corporate social responsibility. Part of the Responsible Tourism Series edited by Harold Goodwin, Director of Responsible Tourism, Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University and John Swarbrooke, Associate Dean-International, Plymouth Global, Plymouth University, UK Professor John Swarbrooke is Associate Dean - International, at the University of Plymouth, UK.