Environment and tourism

Abstract

and Canada come to Costa Rica to study ecotourism development. The Costa Rican tourism industry is fully aware that this is an area where they have an advantage as a result of their international reputation for prudent, environmentally-sensitive development. The tone of the CANATUR congress fitted with this in that it gave space to the concept of sustainable tourism development and participants concentrated their efforts on regional plans to develop tourism without damaging the environment. Three, the congress finished with a public forum in which many local people got up to voice their opinions. The overall thrust of these opinions was that the private tourism sector needed to be better united and have a stronger, more direct effect on public policy. It was generally felt, for example, that leaving the marketing of the country in the hands of the government in the past had not been good business. CANATUR itself needed to take on the responsibility of aggressively marketing the businesses it represented. This attitude derives from a justifiable fear that the tourism boom will not last and that people are opening up new hotels and new travel agencies at such a rate that there will soon not be enough tourists to go around. This congress illustrated some of the tensions existing in the Costa Rican tourism industry. Rapid growth and optimism are counterbalanced by a fear of oversaturation. Concern about the environmental impact of tourism and the legislative regulations needed to limit environmental damage come at a time when more large hotels are opening up than ever before, weekly charter flights from Germany have just begun and the traditional agricultural export market is faltering. Compared to many Chambers of Tourism across the world, CANATUR is truly enlightened in its understanding of the need for sustainable tourism development (the relevant terminology was much in use at the congress). However, it is difficult to translate this into concrete action in a country that lives a fine line between myth and reality. Costa Rica is a leader in environmental action in that 12 % of the country is National Parks and private nature reserves and the people thrive on the international recognition they receive for their conservation efforts. However, this small country has also been deforested faster and more extensively than any other Latin American country and the logging continues apace. Laws exist to control and limit beach developments, but such developments continue to be built. In the same way, the 1992 CANATUR congress championed noble causes and concerns in the name of smallscale sustainable tourism development and then, in the final ceremony, awarded prizes to the four largest, most resort-like hotels in the country. 0 0