Corso di geografia turistica

Unit F1

p.245

• The Amazon is a land of records: the longest river on the planet traverses it, with the largest river basin. One third of tropical forests and one-fifth of all living species are to be found here.
• Over the last twenty years, however, a fifth of its forests have been destroyed: bulldozers and fires have turned millions of trees into a huge cloud of carbon dioxide. The United Nations has long been engaged in raising awareness of the importance of preserving this green lung and in protecting the rights of the peoples of the Amazon.
• The Brazilian government has taken steps in this direction: it has halved the deforestation rate, closed illegal businesses and achieved a tenfold increase in the area dedicated to the sustainable management of forests. In 1999, the Mamirauá reserve was created, the largest protected rainforest in the world, to which other protected areas were added; today there are twelve of them throughout Brazil. In these areas, agriculture, fishing, forest management and commerce are all practiced according to the principles of equity and sustainability.
• Responsible tourism projects have been launched providing, amongst other things, initiatives to raise awareness of food products from the Amazon region and ensuring an income for the local river communities.
• However, prospects of huge profits derived from the cultivation of soya beans, timber and farming have encouraged large multinational food companies to increase production, and this means deforestation. The pressures are therefore serious, but there are also signs of hope that also come from tourism: travelling for discovery, in a way that is both responsible and sustainable, has encouraged a series of conservation policies and helps to stop the ecological disaster.

Unit F2

p.251

• Around 500,000 foreigners visited Nepal in 2010 as tourists or as climbers. Within the confines of this tiny state, eight of the highest peaks of the Himalaya Range can be found, which attract mountaineers from around the world.
• Tourism is the main contributor to GNP for Nepal, although it has suffered a shockwave due to the holiday industry. An entire district of the capital, Kathmandu, is a form of tourist ghetto: hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, souvenir shops and especially agencies that offer all kinds of tourist activities (from trekking to rafting, from excursions on the backs of elephants to stays in monasteries), that provide competitively priced air tickets and visas for entry into China, and organise itineraries on the Himalayan peaks.
• But this easy accessibility has caused serious damage to the environment. Deforestation, soil erosion, pollution, the production of non-disposable waste, together with economic and social imbalances caused by the abrupt alteration of traditional models for local communities, have all forced the government to adopt measures to make tourism’s impact more sustainable. For example, some remote valleys have limited access to 1,000 tourists a year, requesting an entrance charge and obliging them to take any litter away with them.
• There is a different approach to tourism in Bhutan, which uses a fixed quota system in which tourists must necessarily pass through the Tourism Council of Bhutan and spend a substantial sum for each day spent in the country. The imperative is safeguarding the territory and its traditional culture. Here television only arrived in 1989 and the Internet ten years later; men and women must wear the traditional costume and cannot smoke anywhere.

Unit F3

p.257

• Patagonia, the southernmost region of Argentina, is still an idealised destination where, in a landscape and climate that are often extreme, the opposing needs collide of those who live in this land (and thus want to preserve it at it is) and those who would rather get rich from it by taking advantage of its remoteness and its low population.
• In 2010, Argentina’s parliament approved a law to protect some environments, such as the Perito Moreno, Upsala and Onelli glaciers. It mapped them and created a national registry to facilitate their protection. However, the governors of the five provinces into which Patagonia is divided are opposed to it, because these measures would block exploitation of the land, damaging their economic benefit.
• A scarcity of inhabitants makes Patagonia an ideal terrain for the ambitions of large multinationals, which want to exploit the region for mining, agricultural, for the breeding of livestock and tourism. The nature and the land are at the centre of a dispute between opposing interests.
• There are unique observation points here for sea lions, elephant seals, penguins, whales, and killer whales. Excursions in the Valdés Peninsula, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, are bound by strict rules of non-interference with the rhythms of life of the animals. But the crowds of tourists inevitably cause problems for the colonies of birds and mammals. The town of El Chalten, which is the starting point for trekking and mountaineering to the tops of the Andes, located in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, is still excluded from the itineraries of mass tourism. The collection and separation of waste is practiced and it is prohibited to feed animals. But a project to building a megahotel, to accommodate organised groups, hangs over its head… The Puna plateau, perennially struck by icy winds in winter, is a paradise for vicuñas and guanacos, but its quarries of lithium, the strategic metal for computer and cell phone batteries, are tempting to foreign companies that are already operating there. Residents are fighting for their land and tourism can help in this fight, but with what risks to the survival of these ancient cultures?

Unit F4

p.263

• Vietnam, born through the reunification of the two states of North and South, is a young country, where political stability and lack of labour unrest have encouraged large foreign companies to relocate parts of their facilities.
• Economic growth and openness to the market make this socialist republic an emerging country in terms of financial globalisation. In the cities, consumerism has led to a massive increase in private transport: the streets are clogged with vehicles with serious traffic problems and pollution. Tourists who do not pay attention to quality and sustainability are attracted by prices that are still low.
• The rapid economic development, however, has generated serious social imbalances among the different population groups, between residents of cities and those of the countryside and mountains, undermining the traditional agricultural economy.
• Traditional tourism destinations, already appreciated by Europeans since the early twentieth century, have undergone radical transformations to satisfy current demand. For example, the mountain town of Sapa has been invaded by multi-storey buildings, which have altered its appearance. Many travel agencies offer trekking routes and rural stays with farming families, but these simply offer hospitality without involving the visitor in their ways of life. On the contrary, in the town of Hoi An the architectural style of the houses has been preserved, however they have been almost entirely transformed into shops and restaurants, while the population has moved elsewhere.
• This is a tourism that is still far removed from the canons of sustainability and responsibility: Halong Bay, a World Heritage site, is visited every year by 2 and a half million tourists, aboard precarious boats that discharge litter directly into the sea. The Degar community, which survives only in the northern mountains, brings together different ethnic groups engaged in agriculture. Some tour operators include a visit to these out-of-the-way communities in their itineraries.

Unit F5

p.269

• Canada is a green land by law: state law requires that all development activity must comply with the principles of environmental sustainability and all decision making processes are guided by maximum transparency criteria.
• Canadian provinces are at the forefront of implementing a policy of green tourism. In Quebec one can visit the big cities, but one can also admire a country dotted with small villages, cultivated fields and vineyards, whilst the Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea have open uncontaminated areas with superb scenery and great biodiversity.
• At the mouth of the fjord close to the town of Tadoussac, in the deep waters of the Saguenay-St Lawrence Marine Park, the play of currents and the abundance of krill creates a favourable environment for cetaceans and marine mammals. Thousands of tourists come to admire them or to participate as volunteers in observation and study trips.
• In Canada, industry, maritime traffic and making the most of natural resources cohabit alongside the need for the protection of environmental heritage. The respectful use of the waters of the St. Lawrence River as a transportation route traditionally binds all operators and every tourism development project to make provision for the use of non-polluting means of transport: for example, on board a train one can practice the activity of nature observation whilst travelling through the region of Charlevoix.
• In the virgin territory north of the 60° parallel, sustainable development programs focus on environmental protection, on environmentally friendly exploitation of natural resources and on the protection of native populations. Sustainable tourism can play an important role because it can achieve all these goals by offering eco-friendly holidays and contact with local culture.

Unit F6

p.275

• A love for wild and uninhabited areas and a passion for nature and animals are the main motivations of those who tackle a long journey, an unliveable climate and uncomfortable accommodation, to visit Antarctica.
• Until a few decades ago this inhospitable area was simply a place for study: scientific research has proven that the entire biosphere owes the preservation of its equilibrium to the existence of the two polar ice caps and scientists have stayed for long periods in the observation and experimental stations.
• Today, tourism is the prime economic resource of Antarctica. Each year, between December and February, airplanes, cruise ships and icebreakers drop off almost 50,000 tourists who are prepared to face adverse conditions in a spirit of adventure to observe the animals that live in this region at close range.
• This is the realm of nature and all visitors must obey certain rules for the safeguard of protected areas and to respect scientific research: one cannot use means of transport which may disturb the fauna, nor trample plants, mosses and lichens, nor touch the animals, feed them or bother them, and one cannot use weapons or explosives, nor pursue any noisy activities activities, nor use fires in the open; it is also forbidden to pick up souvenirs of any kind or draw on rocks or buildings. Every effort must be made to keep Antarctica pristine and pure, and preserve its fauna.
• This is home to 8 species of penguins and 43 species of birds; seals, sea lions and elephant seals are some of the easily observable pinnipeds. The ecosystem is fragile and global pollution has caused a rise in temperature that is constantly reducing the polar ice.
• And how can the value of tourism be assessed? It is clear that the arrival of thousands of people every year entails a real environmental footprint even if all the rules are complied with. But it is also true that tourism can push institutions to support environmental protection policies and the sustainable development of the territory.

Unit F7

p.281

• The temperature on Earth has increased by nearly 1°C in the twentieth century and it is estimated that by 2100 it could rise by up to almost 6°C. The glaciers are melting, increasing the intensity of extreme phenomena such as hurricanes and floods, which also occur in areas that were once exempt. Many scientists paint a dramatic future, which is not too far away.
• These changes will surely have an impact on tourism. Snow-free winters, summers that are overly hot or too short, violent weather phenomena, and changes in flora and fauna will all change holiday geography.
• The irregularity of the approach of the seasons, temperature changes well beyond the usual average, and violent and unpredictable rainfall will all eventually move the interests of tourists from one destination to another to avoid climatic conditions that are unfavourable to a trip.
• Certainly, climatic changes have occurred at other times, but never with the current speed of change. Today the risk of tropical cyclones is not time limited (i.e. limited to a certain time of year), nor in space (tornadoes have even been spotted in Norway and Sweden). This makes entire tourist areas less attractive. For example, the hurricane season in the Caribbean runs from late June to November, but in 2005 it lasted until January. The following year, there were very few hurricanes in the area, but they did however occur in Brazil. These oscillations have serious effects on tourism. Among the consequences of El Niño, a phenomenon caused by periodic Pacific Ocean warming, there has been coral bleaching in the Maldives, which resulted in many tourists staying away in 1998.