The impact of adventure tourism

Destinations: Nepal 

One of the largest industries for tourism is in Nepal. Nepal is full of natural beauties, with diverse cultures and history. Nepal as a country has lots if Himalaya mountains and is the home of the world's highest mountain, Mt Everest. Tourism has impacted Nepal is a number of different ways, for both the positive and negative. 

Tourists visit Nepal for the treks, mountain climbing, and just to learn about the culture. Nepal is a very peaceful and relaxing place to enjoy a holiday. Nepal earn foreign currency from having tourists and revenue that can be used for the countries development. Tourism in Nepal can provide lots of employment and business opportunities for the locals to earn more money, such as tour guide jobs etc. All the tourist industries such as hotels and restaraunts are likely to benefit from tourism. Allowing tourism in the country lets the travellers to interact and learn about new cultures and share languages and traditions with the local people. Tourism can help Nepal be recognised more and bring in more tourism and money into the country, the more people that come in and share their positive experience, the more they are likely to post about it on social media and share with family and friends. 

Tourism can have some negative impacts on the country of Nepal. Having more people spend money in the country can make the price of food and services inflate, making it more expensive for the locals that do not earn as much money as people travelling from Europe for example. Deforestation from tourism has occurred in Nepal due to more and more activities and adventures being built, to meet the tourism demand, potentially ruining some of the natural beauty. The more tourists that visit, the more crowding there is along with the locals in the country which can lead to frustration from the local people, especially if their country is not respected by everyone that visits. This can also increase the traffic on the roads and over populate certain areas. Tourism can cause environmental damage such as erosion, increased pollution and the loss of natural habitats. 

(Tourism in Nepal and its advantages and disadvantages - Anjana, 2019).

Environmental: 

The majority of the environmental issues found, have been linked to adventure tourism due to them being activity- specific. It has been found that hiking, which is a common tourism activity, causes trampling. Trampling can cause lots of issues like loss of vegetation, biodiversity and the disruption of wildlife. Scuba diving has proven to have caused lots of environmental issues like the destruction of the reef systems in oceans. Mountaineering and trekking, especially in Nepal, has shown that a large amount of waste has been dumped in these environments that are already fragile. These people also use up limited resources such as wood for fires and heat for tourists, causing more forest destruction (Giddy, 2016). However a lot of tourism operators have started to create environmentally friendly tourism packages, with a focus on more renewable energy. Companies have also started to train the locals in sustainability of the natural environment, combatting water shortages and educate tourists to not litter (Behrens, 2018). 

socio- cultural: 

Employment is a positive socio- cultural impact of adventure tourism as most countries employ locals to help run tourism operations, hotels, transport sector and as tour guides. This helps to improve the quality of living for the locals with more money to the locals. Infrastructure built for tourist attractions can benefit communities as it can provide them with more facilities they might not have had before like airports, and leisure centres, to improve their day to day life and make things easier. Tourism can help give more knowledge to the host country, if tourists visit a developing country, they can provide them with more opportunities by showing them a different way of life. The developing countries can benefit from this. Negatives can involve disrespecting other cultures and religions. Communities being exposed to tourists that share different cultures can cause disrespect, especially with things like drug use, drinking, crime and just general things that might disrespect someone's way of life. Cultural appropriation can occur from tourism as products such as cultural clothing or jewellery etc can be sold in tourist shops, which makes them lose their real value and meaning to the culture that it originated from, and just being used to make money from. Examples of this could be rituals and dances being performed for money, and not for it's actual spiritual or cultural meaning (IvyPanda, 2019). 

Economic: 

Adventure tourism can help with local economy in communities, as it helps to create more jobs and more services for adventure tourism, and more industries being created for tourism trends. Adventure tourism markets create more entrepreneurship in local communities who create more attractions and come up with new ideas to help their communities to make money.   "sparking economic growth across multiple industries in destinations where it is given strategic focus." (Joyce, 2018). A negative of adventure tourism on the economy is that it is usually seasonal of when people tend to travel, depending on the destinations, hot countries are usually visited in the summer and colder countries in the winter. This would mean that the local people might not get work all year round and would rely on that period of time to make money. Trends can also impact this as often adventure tourism activities are a trend of what is popular at the time, so the communities would have to keep up with these trends to be able to keep making money and attracting tourists. 

Political: 

Politics can have an impact on adventure tourism as places like America, Trump made it very difficult for people to get a visa for the country, which would have impacted the number of people wanting to visit. This can also be the case for places like India, which is one of the most visited countries in the world. Because India and Pakistan have history of not getting on as countries, is is very difficult for someone from Pakistan to get a visa to travel to India because of this history from politics. Qatar has also been hit by political decisions, when the UAE and other countries put a ban on it, this affected Qatar hugely as most visitors came from neighbouring states (Times, 2018). 

Machu Picchu, Peru: 

Machu Picchu is claimed to be the 'Lost City of the Incas'. Tourism in Peru has increased hugely due to globalisation, having a huge impact on the development of the country and its community. 

Economic impact- 

Through the tourism to Machu Picchu, there has been a rise in employment and business opportunities. Over 1.2 million jobs have been created directly and indirectly which accounts for one out of 12 jobs in Peru. The Government generates significant revenue through tourism, this involves accommodation, local restaraunts, airport transport, entrance fees etc. The Inca trail generates three million dollars every year and the entrance tickets cost around 20 dollars that could generate around 2 million dollars for the country. The country's economy will also be boosted through the foreign exchange, where tourists spend money on goods and services. Because tourism has boosted Peru's economy and therefore benefits the Government, it has pressured them more to maintain infrastructures and make the country more sustainable by having better water and sewage systems, better roads, electricity, more telephone and public transport, which results in better standards of living for all. 

However, through the increase in adventure tourism activities, it has resulted in an increase in demands for basic goods, causing a spike in the prices. Development in tourism and rise in real estate demand can drastically increase the cost of housing and land. Making it harder for the locals to afford to live in their own country. Tourism increases jobs and employment, however some of the jobs might be seasonal or temporary based on the time of year or the current adventure tourism trends. Because these jobs might be temporary, the positions would be filled by people that lack qualifications or skill in the role. 

Socio- cultural impacts: 

Adventure tourism to Machu Picchu offers cultural exchanges of tourists from different backgrounds and beliefs and the local community, this in turn is likely to create respect and peace for each other in the long run. The residents of Peru can lean new languages and skills from tourists to help boost their communication skills. The tourism in Machu Picchu encourages the locals to take care of their environment and protect the nature. 

(The Impacts of Tourism on Machu Picchu (Doc), 2021).  

Facilities and infrastructure are supported by tourism as the Government acknowledges that if it is not kept up with and sustained, then it will attract less tourists and not bring them in as much money. 

However, adventure tourism could attract people to Machu Picchu that do not respect the communities culture and lifestyles. It can lead to a loss of local traditions and values through copying the visitors behaviour, or through cultural appropriation. It could also lead to an increase in crime in the area and crowding and congestion on the roads due to more transport and travel occurring. 

Environmental impacts- 

The tour guides and Government will make more effort to respect the environment and encourage others to do the same as they would need to make sure that the history remains in place, to continue to attract more tourism and bring in money to the country. 

Although, Around 2,000 people visit the Machu Picchu each day, with visitors growing by 6 percent each year, the site is slowly eroding over time due to the amount of tourists walking on the trail. "The number of people hiking along the Inca Trail rose from 6,000 in 1984 to 82,000 in 2000. The trail is being eroded and tea bags and water bottles litter the route, where campsites are scarce." Increased tourists, means an increase in travel, meaning more cars that produce harmful carbon emissions into the environment. (Machu Picchu | Tourism | Impact, 2021). 

Political impacts- 

The Government could do a lot more to preserve the history of Machu Picchu, by spending money on other parts of Peru to attract tourism elsewhere. Peru has many beautiful parts with lots of history and culture, but with the focus being on Machu Picchu, it creates over- tourism in that one area that will not be sustainable for the future. (Machu Picchu is struggling under the weight of legend, 2021). 

The Great Wall of China: 

Socio- Cultural impacts- 

The positives of adventure tourism on the great wall of china is that more and more tourists are attracted each year, generating more money for the Government and the economy. It brings people from all over the world together as it is one of the world's natural heritages that is on most people's bucket list. This means that people will be able to communicate with each other and learn about each other's culture, bringing more peace and pride within communities. It has also brought in more employment in the local area, providing tour guides etc. 

The negatives are that tourists have been disrespectful to the Chinese culture by breaking parts of the brick out of the wall, to keep as a souvenir. This causes a clash with the tourists and the local communities that want their history to be respected, and goes against the local values and culture.

Economic impacts- 

The Great Wall of China has created employment within its local community and has created more opportunities for small businesses to be started, which is especially important for rural communities. More money is brought in to the Government and economy from travel, hospitality, accommodation, entrance fees, etc. 

The Government has to keep up with infrastructure like roads, hotels, visitors centres etc which will come out of tax revenues from people that might only have temporary jobs created from tourism that are not paid well. Tourism in the area will also have pushed up prices of local properties and the costs of the services and goods, meaning the locals have to spend more money on basic items. 

Environmental- 

The more people that travel to China, the more pollution contributing to global warming and damages to their local environments and habitats. Hotels and buildings have been built to accommodate to the tourists, which has meant that trees and vegetations have been cut away to make place for these attractions. 

Almost 1/3 of the Great Wall has disappeared through the pressure of the millions of tourists each year, causing destruction of the wall. This has meant that more awareness has been brought to raise funds to preserve the heritage of the wall and also in the surroundings of the wall, including wildlife and habitats. 

Political impacts- 

 To prevent further destruction of the heritage of the wall, the Chinese Government has decided to enact laws to protect the Great Wall, also by raising funds to protect, restore and maintain it. These measures are to make it safer for all adventure tourists as well and protecting the culture. 

(Impact of tourism - Impacts of Tourism, 2021).