dossier sur le tourisme et le développement durable

Tourism and the Environment
Without being over-enthusiastic or categorically condemning it, no doubt this development in the
Mediterranean needs to be reconsidered. It is obvious that the vulnerability of the Mediterranean
eco-systems especially in the arid areas makes golf courses seem uncalled for, yet their
consumption of water has to be compared to that of other types of development such as irrigated
agriculture: a golf course of one hectare does not consume more water or additives than one
hectare of corn, but yields better returns. Other opportunities for tourism development such as the
enhancement of heritage and culture would seem to be more adapted to the Mediterranean region.
There are also solutions to limit the impact of golf courses such as re-using of waste water for
watering purposes as in Paltja d’Aro in Catalonia, Spain, for instance and rustic golf courses need
less maintenance. Golf course projects should be avoided in areas where the water supply is low
such as in Libya.
Source: TEC, 2002
Finally, tourism is characterised by a vast number of indirect and induced repercussions that
have to be assessed. The dispersion of tourism consumption in the various sectors of the
economy has sometimes prevented the measuring of its contribution to many environmental
problems such as that to greenhouse effect gases or water consumption: tourists consume
water in their hotels and they also affect the production of agriculture whose water consumption
is more difficult to assess.
1.2. The seasonal nature of tourism and artificialisation
Most of the repercussions on the environment are multiplied by the seasonal nature of tourism:
more accommodation has to be constructed than if the presence of tourists were spread over
the year; facilities, transport networks, water supply and waste services have to be over-sized.
In France, the hotels and tourist residences are only used for 30 weeks per year, rural selfcatering
accommodation and furnished accommodation for about 15 weeks, campsites and
holiday homes for about 7 weeks. In the very theoretical hypothesis that accommodation were
used 365 days per year, only 2 million tourist beds would be needed for the overnight stays in
France. In 1999, however, more than 20 million were counted.
The ecosystems consequently encounter a seasonal stress. There is serious pressure on water
resources in the Mediterranean as the peak tourist seasons coincide with the dry season. The
seasonal aspect of tourism also has social impact on employment and on the disturbance of
daily life. At the same time, however, in many tourist destinations the existence of a low or
middle season is a “breathing” time for the local society and the ecosystem.
Domestic tourism generates specific types of repercussions increased by seasonal aspect as it
is strongly linked to school holiday periods. Also, “first time tourists” generally prefer seaside
holidays under frugal and saving money way of life, that can lead to the proliferation of more or
less illegal constructions with hygiene problems as in the case of camping on unauthorised
sites, to exposure to natural and health risks by bathing in polluted water for example, or to the
degradation of the landscape by gnawing at it.
The artificialisation of the holiday spots is an immediate consequence of tourism. Welcoming a
vast number of tourists in a short space of time means reproducing all the logistics necessary
for the stay: accommodation, facilities, shops, transport services, and so on. It involves many
parameters such as the use of land by a tourist bed estimated at 30 m² for a hotel and at 100 m²
for a holiday home by the Plan Bleu, the type of construction (collective or individual, re-using of
existing constructions or new constructions, reversibility of the installations), the situation
(natural site or in town) or the landscaping (using of local materials, exotic plant species). The
decorative vegetation of the Côte d’Azur, for example is a tropical one, with the introduction of
species such as palm trees from the Canary Isles, bougainvillea, agaves, mimosa and
eucalyptus.
The spreading of urban tourism also aggravates the situation with created resorts on virgin
territory or the extension of town-planning around existing towns or resorts in parcels of land
that use a lot of space.
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