Travelling is a beautiful thing. It helps us to learn about the world, try new experiences, taste different kinds of food. But, unfortunately, if people don’t travel sustainably tourism can have many negative effects on any given area.

Tourism has the power to uplift communities from poverty, but at the same time, it can destroy their identity. The choices of the tourists can help to preserve nature and wildlife, and on the contrary, it can put the animals into suffering and extinction.

Let’s take a closer look at the 10 main negative effects of tourism. These issues can be created by both international and local travel. And before we can learn how to travel sustainably, we need to understand what damage exactly we can cause when we go on another vacation.

Negative effects of tourism

Destruction of nature and habitat loss

Any development requires some interference with nature. Very often the infrastructure is built without any sustainable development plan or environment protection policies. Therefore development comes at the cost of nature.

New areas of land need to be cleared for new hotels and roads. Animals lose their natural habitat and have to move to a new location. Often animals get into a conflict with people when protecting their territory or looking for food. Unfortunately, most of the times animals are at loss.

Waste disposal problem is a significant contributor to the degradation of the environment. If untreated sewage water is dumped into the ocean, it negatively affects marine life. When another waste is disposed of incorrectly (for example, dumped in the forest or in the river), it may damage the area with the toxins that the waste releases over time.

Increased number of vehicles, higher levels of noise, deforestation and pollution disturb the ecological balance of the region.

Pressure on the resources of the area

This is one of the inevitable negative effects of tourism. When you stay in someplace, obviously you use local resources. You use water and electricity, you get a vehicle to move around, you eat local food and buy produce. Therefore if too many people stay in one place, over time the local resources get depleted.

The first one to disappear would be probably fresh underground water. This is already happening in many cities and regions around the world. California is famous for its droughts and people need to get used to living in conditions of water scarcity. Some people already have to limit their shower time and then reuse the water for flashing the toiler or watering the plants.

We keep forgetting about this, but tourism puts enormous stress on local land use and can lead to soil erosion. In some areas, the buildings sink in the ground under their own weight. Construction of new infrastructure (roads, airports) and buildings oftentimes destroys the soil.

These effects can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which tourism itself depends.

Loss of the cultural identity of the place and community

Very often local people start copying the lifestyles of tourists. They dress up as tourists, they talk and behave like them, which may result in the loss of native customs and traditions.

To satisfy the needs of the tourists often the locals need to change their traditional style of life. Shops are supplied with products for tourists, hotels are designed and built in a “western” style, small family restaurants become pubs because of the demand. Slowly a small sleepy town becomes a party place that never sleeps. And local people have no choice but to adapt.

Nowadays, anywhere you go you can always find McDonald’s, KFC and other famous food chains. Often this is the first choice for a tourist, as he/she doesn’t know any other places, or is simply afraid to try local food. Slowly, the local restaurants start catering more to foreign tourists, cooking the “western” meals instead of local cuisine. And the food is such an important part of any culture.

Another extremely negative effect of tourism is the growth of prostitution… Unfortunately, many tourists during their vacation want to have “fun”. Let’s keep in mind, that in many places around the world, women and girls don’t do this job voluntarily.

All these things make a once charming unique town become just another tourist hub, which all look exactly the same.

Growth of aggression and crime rates

If the travellers don’t do their “homework” before visiting a new place, it may create tensions between locals and tourists. It’s important to do some research about the norms and traditions of every new place you go to.

For example, it’s ok to wear shorts in Bali. However, if you travel to other islands in Indonesia, such attire may offend the locals. In India and Nepal, you should not shake hands or pass the money with your left hand. In some cases you may get scolded by the people, in others, you may get yourself in the jail.

Tourists quite often, out of ignorance or carelessness, fail to respect local customs and moral values. This may cause a growth of irritation in locals due to “bad” behaviour of the tourists, which disturbs the local culture and creates unrest among the people.

Some people may get tempted by the easy money from tourists and decide to enter into criminal activities. This leads to increased crime and anti-social activities, and loss of moral and religious values.

The exploitation of animals to entertain the tourists

Wherever you go for your vacation you can pretty much always see tours that offer an animal experience.

In Asia, it would be an elephant safari. If you are visiting Greece, then it’s donkey rides. And in South Africa, it’s popular to take pictures with lion cubs. And on top of that, we have circuses, oceanariums and just street vendors where animals participate in shows to entertain the tourists.

All these activities may seem like a lot of fun. Some people even think that animals actually enjoy performing or giving a ride to people. But in reality, all these animals go through a lot of suffering. Very often they are taken away from the wild at a very early age. Their owner keeps them in very poor conditions. And to train an animal to do the tricks, people use very cruel and often brutal methods. They involve beatings, scaring animals with loud noises, breaking their spirit, keeping them chained, etc.

Many people participate in such activities because they actually love animals and want to get closer to them. And they simply don’t know what happens behind the scene. So it’s important to raise awareness about these issues. If you want to have an ethical wildlife experience, check out these tips which will help you to find one.

Congested human and vehicle traffic

Have you seen the latest pictures of Venice? Those crowds of people, behind which you can’t see the beauty of the city anymore? This is one of the extreme examples of human traffic congestion.

If you are in New York, you know that it’s better to avoid Times Square as it’s packed with people and cars.

When you are in Bali it’s better to avoid going to Nusa Penida all together as it’s full of people going on a tour to the “Famous Instagramable Spots”. If you take such a tour, you will spend the whole time stuck in traffic moving from one place to another with the thousands of other tourists travelling the exact same way. And when you get to the place, you have to wait in line to get a pic in the spot you dreamt about.

Heavy traffic affects both tourists and locals. Local people can’t run their errands the way they used to. They have to adjust their schedule or even a route, to avoid the tourist crowds. And the tourists waste their time inside the car, instead of enjoying the beauty of the place.

Another negative side of heavy traffic is the air pollution caused by exhaust gases. The more cars, the worse the air quality. Same happens due to increased air traffic (read about the issues associated with air travel).

Increased prices on goods and services

We all know that tourist areas tend to be more expensive than in other places. While it’s good for the business owners, this can negatively affect the locals. During the high tourist season, the prices of essential goods rise, making them less affordable for the locals.

For example, people have to pay more to enjoy a meal in their favourite restaurant, just because it because too popular with tourists.

Often small business owners have to shut their businesses because they simply can’t afford to pay an increased rent. Same applies to young businesses that would like to open a store/cafe in a tourist area, but just can’t afford the rent. Instead, foreign investors come and purchase the land and business, leaving locals with nothing.

Or what about the crazy situation with the rental market in Spain? Accommodation owners give preference to short-term renters via Airbnb instead of long-term local renters, as they simply make more money this week. The locals either have to spend a giant portion of their salary on a small apartment, or they have to move to very remote areas where prices are lower.

Dependence on tourism

If a place is heavily dependent on tourism, it’s not a good thing. What would happen if, for some reason, tourists stop coming? Should it be an unstable political situation, terrorism, natural disaster (such as tsunami or earthquake), then there will be no more tourists and therefore no income.

This is exactly what happened to Egypt after a series of unfortunate events (revolution in 2011, a military coup in 2013 and a series of airline disasters). Egypt was always a country that attracted millions of people from around the world for its ancient monuments and rich history. However, now you can enjoy the tomb of Tutankhamun all to yourself. Hotel and restaurant owners had to reduce the prices to attract the few customers. And local artisans had to find other means of making money, as there’s no one to buy their products.

Disasters can affect separate regions as well as whole countries.

For example, Langtang Valley in Nepal used to be the 3rd biggest region for trekking after Everest and Annapurna. However, an earthquake of 2015 completely destroyed the valley, burying the whole villages under the landslides and rubble. Now the villages are being rebuilt and tourists are slowly coming back, but the numbers are still low compared to pre-disaster time.

Increased pollution (plastic, noise, light, sewage)

The more people are in one place, the more waste is accumulated. First of all, it’s plastic waste, such as water bottles, takeaway containers, different packaging, plastic bags, etc.

To accommodate an increased number of tourists many more hotels and other facilities have to be built. More lights in the buildings, more lights and LED signs on the streets, create light pollution in the area. Before it was a small village on the island, where people used to go to bed with the sunset. Now it’s a town bustling with nightlife.

Same happens with sound pollution. With the grows and development comes the noise from the people, cars, bars and night clubs. Both light and sound pollution create an adverse environment for the animals that live in that area, pushing them away from their original habitat.

We should not forget about sewage as well. The cleaning systems have to process a much bigger amount of sewage waters. An increasing number of people constantly adds pressure. And unfortunately, some places don’t have any cleaning systems in place, and the sewage waters go into the ocean untreated. Boracay in the Philippines is a great example of what can happen to a paradise when it becomes a victim of overtourism and how responsible government should fix the situation.

Destruction of historical monuments and natural landmarks

Sometimes tourists damage historical monument or natural landmarks. Some of them do it by accident. But there’s also quite a big percentage of people who do such acts of vandalism on purpose.

Leaving a signature “M+A=Love” on a stone or a statue is vandalism, as well as making a graffiti in a national park. Sticking a chewing gum to the Stonehenge stones or climbing a statue to take a selfie can create irreparable damage. Unfortunately, a large number of landmarks has been already destroyed by negligent tourists.

All the negative effects of unsustainable tourism cause irreparable damage to an area and the people.

This is why it’s so important for everyone to learn to travel responsibly and in an eco-friendly way. Every choice matters: from a hotel you choose to stay at, travel company who organises your activities, to the place you dine in and the transportation mode you chose. Sustainable travel should become our second nature. It’s not only about how we travel, but it’s also how we live back home.

We have only one planet, so let’s all be its responsible residents 🙂