The Impact of Wilderness Tourism: IELTS Reading Passage
A
The market for tourism in remote areas is booming as never before. Countries all across the world are actively promoting their ‘wilderness’ regions mountains, Arctic lands, deserts, small islands and wetlands tourists. The attraction of these areas is obvious: by definition, wilderness tourism requires little or no initial investment. But that does not mean that there is no cost. As the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development recognizes these regions are fragile (i.e. highly vulnerable to abnormal pressures) not just in terms of their ecology, but also in terms of the culture of their inhabitants. The three most significant types of fragile environment in these respects, and also interms of the proportion of the Earth’s surface they cover, are deserts, mountains and Arctic areas. An important characteristic is their marked seasonality, with harsh conditions prevailing for many months each year. Consequently, most human activities, including tourism, are limited to quite clearly defined parts of the year.
Tourists are drawn to these regions by their natural landscape beauty and the unique cultures of their indigenous people. And poor governments in these isolated areas have welcomed the new breed of ‘adventure tourist’, grateful for the hard currency they bring. For several years now, tourism has been the prime source of foreign exchange in Nepal and Bhutan. Tourism is also a key element inthe economies of Arctic zones such as Lapland and Alaska and in desert areas such as Ayers Rock in Australia and Arizona’s Monument Valley. such as to high-spending.
B
Once a location is established as a main tourist destination, the effects on the local community are profound. When hill-farmers, for example, can make more money in a few weeks working as porters for foreign trekkers than they can in a year working in their fields, it is not surprising that many of them give up their farm-work, which is thus left to other members of the family. In some hill-regions,this has led to a serious decline in farm output and a change in the local diet, because there is insufficient labour to maintain terraces and irrigation systems and tend to crops. The result has been that many people in these regions have turned to outside supplies of rice and other foods. In Arctic and desert societies, year-round survival has traditionally depended on hunting animals and fish and collecting fruit over a relatively short season. However, as some inhabitants become Involved in tourism, they no longer havetime to collect wild food; this has led to increasing dependence on bought food and stores. Tourism is not always the culprit behind such changes. All kinds of wage labour, or government handouts, tend to undermine traditional survival systems. Whatever the cause, the dilemma is always the same: what happens if these new, external sources of income dry up?
The physical impact of visitors is another serious problem associated with the growth in acdventure tourism. Much attention has focused on erosion along major trails, but perhaps more important are the deforestation and impacts on water supplies arising from the need to provide tourists with cooked food and hot showers. In both mountains and deserts, slow-growing trees are often the main sources of fuel and water supplies may be limited or vulnerable to degradation through heavy use.
Paragraph-C
In recent years, there have been countless stories concerning the issues facing the tourism industry. However, it need not be an issue. The costs to these delicate ecosystems and their local cultures can be kept to a minimum, even if tourism invariably has an impact on the area where it occurs. As demonstrated by the Sherpas of Nepal's Khumbu Valley and in certain Alpine settlements, it can even serve as a means of reviving indigenous cultures. Additionally, an increasing number of adventure tourism businesses are making an effort to guarantee that their operations have a long-term positive impact on the environment and local community. Communities in the Swiss Alps have determined that better integrating tourism with the local economy is essential to their future.
The growing number of second-home developments in the Swiss Pays d'Enhautresuited has raised local concerns about the restrictions placed on their expansion. Additionally, there has been a resurgence of community cheese manufacturing in the region, giving the residents a steady source of income independent of tourists. Outside businesses have taken advantage of many Arctic tourist sites, hiring temporary workers and sending the majority of their earnings back to their home base. However, some Arctic towns are already running their own tour companies, guaranteeing that the profits stay in the area. For example, a local company in Alaska employs locals and operates an air tour from Anchorage to Kotzebue, where visitors may enjoy Arctic cuisine, take a walk on the tundra, and see local musicians and dancers.
Native people in the desert regions of the American Southwest have followed similar strategies, encouraging tourists to visit their pueblos and reservations to purchase high-quality handicrafts and artwork. The Acoma and San Ildefonso pueblos have established highly profitable pottery businesses, while the Navajo and Hopi groups have been similarly successful with jewellery. Too many people living in fragile environments have lost control over their economies, their culture and their environment when tourism has penetrated their homelands. Merely restricting tourism cannot be the solution to the imbalance, because people’s desire to see new places will not just disappear. Instead, communities in fragile environments must achieve greater control over tourism ventures in their regions, in order to balance their needs and aspirations with the demands of tourism. A growing number of communities are demonstrating that, with firm communal decision-making, this is possible. The critical question now is whether this can become the norm, rather than the exception.
For an additional source of strategies to improve and support your desired score, see: Strategies to Obtain High Scores on the IELTS Reading Test.
