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Tourism in the
Mediterranean Even so, tourism also has devastating affects on the coastal environment. Water pollution, soil erosion processes, degradation of the underwater flora and fauna, and especially landscape degradation are some of the clearest signs of a tourist model based on extensive growth and in indiscriminate use of land, far above the territory's carrying capacity. This tourist model is based on concentration in both space and in time. This concentration in space is because the tourist infrastructure is sited in the coastal strip, in a thin layer that ignores the adjacent inland areas. In fact, 75% of the tourist activity in the Mediterranean is concentrated in the four countries that are members of the European Union, and only 25% is generated in the rest of the Mediterranean Basin. It is concentrated in time, because the arrival of tourists is highly seasonal, peaking in the summer period, a fact that increases the impact on the environment and weakens the economic model of Mediterranean tourism. It is clear that most of the tourist spaces in the Mediterranean seem to have entered a structural crisis. In fact, year after year, the Mediterranean Basin is losing its capacity to attract tourists; though it is still the world's main tourist destination, in the last five years it has lost more than three percent of the world tourism market. The consolidation of the new tourist areas seems to be a consequence rather than a cause of the Mediterranean's decreasing importance as a destination for the world's tourists; and it is clear that environmental degradation - impacts on a fragile and vulnerable environment - is the main factor making the tourist spaces of the Mediterranean Basin less competitive. The processes that operate in the Mediterranean as a whole are very diverse, but we could classify them into large two spatial groups: EMERGING NEW SPACES: Natural spaces and protected spaces, highly vulnerable to the pressure derived from the tourist industry in the Mediterranean Basin as a whole. Tourist nuclei with an offer integrated within the pre-existing urban layout, which do not show major alterations in their natural and cultural heritage. Tourist nuclei in a process of restructuring that offer new products integrated in the natural, social and cultural environment. TRADITIONAL SPACES: Expanding tourist nuclei, based on consuming the surrounding area, as a support for expansionist economic policies, and leading to an increasingly artificial environment. Mature tourist nuclei, with a long tradition of tourism and high levels of environmental saturation. Since the first Mediterranean Action Plan was approved in 1975, there has been an increase in the initiatives that seek to prevent the speculative growth of tourism and propose alternative formulas, to make the practise of tourism compatible with economic development and the conservation of natural and cultural resources. The most important initiatives of this type are the European Union's Environment Program V, Agenda MED 21 and the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Program (MAP-UNEP). The Second Mediterranean Action Plan (Barcelona 1995) made the following proposals for tourist development: A) To evaluate, supervise and assess tourist activities and their environmental impact, using (among other things) the appropriate and relevant indicators. B) To promote regional and international cooperation in order to encourage environmentally friendly tourism that is compatible with sustainable development. C) To monitor and protect natural, cultural and human resources, and to undertake regular assessments of the environmental impact and of the carrying capacity. D) To carry out information and awareness campaigns among the interested agents, intended, among other purposes, to increase the awareness of the tourists so that they will adopt an environment-friendly form of tourism. |
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