Major challenges

However, there are also negative consequences for biodiversity from tourism. Building tourism infrastructure like hotels, streets, facilities, and attractions needs a lot of space. Often massive interventions in the balance of nature are caused by tourism development. Ecosystems are degraded or even destroyed. Moreover, visitors can harm ecosystems, especially if their numbers are not regulated and if the visitors are not guided. If tourists leave the marked paths, sensitive habitats and species may be disturbed. Negative effects on fauna are especially severe in the breeding season. Footsteps can seriously damage the vegetation and cause erosion and degradation, especially in sensitive eco- systems like mountains, wetlands and drylands.

In addition, the tourism industry needs, among other resources, a lot of water (>> Goal 6) and energy. Resources are often wasted to a point where consumption exceeds regenerative capacities. Excessive water consumption may cause sinking ground water levels with negative effects on regional habitats as well as on agriculture.

The rising emissions from aviation make tourism one of the main contributors to climate change (>> Goal 13) which also causes biodiversity loss: ecosystems and landscapes change, sensitive and specialized plants and animals disappear, invasive species spread and often repress domestic species, natural disasters such as storms, floods or forest fires occur more frequently.

By harming nature and biodiversity, unsustainable tourism development may result in making an affected region less attractive for visitors on the long run.