A Taiwanese Island Boosts Tourist Capacity – Sustainably

[Above, Turtle Island in profile. Photo: Roi Ariel]

For 20 years, ecotourists have been eager to tour a biodiverse volcanic island off the coast of Taiwan. But what happens when both locals and tourists complain about the stringent conservation limits on visitation set by government and academics? Monique Chen explains how stakeholders have harmonized ecological carrying capacity and local economics.

Taiwan’s Turtle Island, an active volcano known for its turtle-like shape, claims a rare lily, an endangered flying fox, a dazzling coral reef, a thriving ecosystem, and a “Milk Sea.” Its proximity to Taipei makes it a tourism magnet – and a management challenge.

The island lies 10 km east off of Taiwan’s Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area (NEYC), named as one of the Top 100 Sustainable Destinations from 2016 to 2020. Known as Guishan Island in Mandarin, it has a surface of area of 2.85 km² and a high point of 398 meters above sea level with an unused military outpost on top of the hill. The island’s location off the northeast coast puts its ferries within an hour’s drive of Taipei, and then a mere 20-minute boat ride to the island.

Dated back to the Qing Dynasty (around the 18^th century), Turtle Island had a population of 700 villagers at its peak. The whole village was relocated to the main island in 1977 because of the limited health, educational, and transportation resources. After the relocation, the island became a military base from 1977 to 2000. All the land was expropriated by the military.

The accessibility restrictions and the influence of the warm, plankton-bearing Kuroshio Current (pdf) has resulted in a surprisingly well-conserved area of rich natural and geological resources, home to many fish and coral reef species and a critical area for Taiwan’s offshore fishery. Over 50 hot spring vents lie in the sea floor near the “turtle head,” where a unique species of crab lives. There are around 16 species of cetaceans in the area according to studies. A diversity of more than 400 species of plants and 120 species of butterflies, snakes, birds are found in the island, as are two native Taiwan species, the endangered Formosan flying fox and the Formosan lily, as well as a native Chinese fan palm habitat.

Volcanic Turtle ( Guishan) Island – 17 minute video.

Limiting Carrying Capacity

Because of its amazing natural and marine resources, the government reopened Turtle Island for ecotourism in 2000 in response to demand from the tourism industry. To protect island ecology, capacity control was set at 250 persons per day, almost all brought in by ferry. Also, to ensure low impact on the environment, the supporting policy “Regulations for Guishan (Turtle) Island Ecological Tours” (Chinese only) was put into effect. The regulations prohibit fishing, hunting, feeding wild animals, taking any natural resources from the island, and importing animals and plants to the island.

In the first two years, the capacity limit caused some management problems. NEYC, a part of Tourism Bureau Taiwan, was struggling with pressures from local stakeholders, especially private accommodation businesses and ferry companies. Over 10,000 tourists applied to visit Turtle Island every day, but the low draw rate raised issues and complaints from both tourists and local businessmen on the main island.

Increasing Carrying Capacity

NEYC adopted a strategy of slowly increasing tourist capacity while keeping the ecosystem intact. The daily visitor capacity limit was gradually raised from 250 to 350 (2002), then 400 (2005), 500 (2007), 700 (2010), 1000 (2014), and 1800 (2015 to the present).

An endangered Formosa flying fox. Of the bat’s three Taiwanese habitats, Forest Bureau research shows that only the group in Turtle Island has grown steadily since 2010, suggesting that NEYC’s tourist carrying capacity plan has not harmed the ecosystem. Photo: Yang Yueh-Tzu

How did they do it?

It is easy for a DMO to declare it would like to set eco-social carrying capacity according to academic research, but when the DMO actually begins to implement it, stakeholder voices and facility capacity must be taken into account. There are always academic professors who strongly embrace ecological conservation without tourist access and who may not agree with rising visitation. Other professors will take stakeholder opinions and the environmental situation into account. The NEYC staff told me that there was no conflict in their discussion with professors.

In order to help the local economy by replacing the declining fishing industry with a growing tourism industry while still protecting marine resources, NEYC went on to hold meetings with local stakeholders at intervals on how to increase carrying capacity and improve the facilities so as to achieve a sustainable “ecological economy.” Following these discussions, including professors from marine, biological, and recreational departments, NYEC arrived at a plan that balanced the environmental research baseline with local economics. Considering that only a part of island (the tail part, around a tenth of its surface) was open to the public, the dock, hiking trails, and service facilities (toilets) could be improved and maintained.

Rebuilt stairways can handle increased foot traffic to the peak. Photo: Roi Ariel

The tourist-accessible area is around 19,835 square meters and the capacity baseline was originally set at 132 square meters per person in 2000. Visitation sessions were set at 150 people a session before 2010, then 250 people a session in 2010, under the operating procedure controlled by an NEYC guard team. Now tourists are usually split into four 90 to 120 minute sessions per day, with a limit of 450 visitors at the same time during March to November. (The island is closed during monsoon season from December to February.) Wednesdays are reserved for academic organizations only, up to 500 visitors, split into different sessions.

From the sign atop Turtle Island. Photo: Roi Ariel

Coastal guards monitor when tourists get on board and leave the island. Now, there are 13 recreational ferries with a capacity of 85-94 visitors, among which four ferries are owned by the former Turtle Island residents and the rest run by other locals in NEYC area. Most of the tour packages combine dolphin watching and hiking on the island, so some ferries can go dolphin watching first and take turns to get on the island.

The Formosa Lily restoration project allows tourists to see a beautiful springtime white landscape near the tourism center. Photo: Yang Yueh-Tzu

Each group of visitors landed on the island has 90 to 100 minutes to tour along the trail system, guided by licensed guides. After a stop at the tourism center, tourists visit the temple and old primary school buildings, walk around the lake to explore biodiversity, and visit the military tunnel and abandoned fort where they can watch the sea.

According to the report, there are always requests for more facilities and carrying capacity. For example, overnight stay service and submarine tours were suggested. Because NEYC’s main target is to conserve the natural landscape and environment, development with big construction didn’t fit in their plan.

Control of Dolphin Watching

The dolphin/whale watching activity around Turtle Island began even before Turtle Island opened for tourists in 1997. As one observer has noted, “in 20 years, Taiwanese people changed to conserve the cetaceans instead of eating them.”

However, there were no regulations and no consideration of carrying capacity for tourists participating in a dolphin and whale watching package. Given that all ferries have must acquire a license from Yilan county to run a recreational business, the stakeholders decided to limit the number of licenses in the area to 13, tied to a code of conduct. That put an automatic limit on cetacean watching around the island.

Sightseeing ferry at the edge of the Milk Sea. Photo: Monique Chen

The negative impact from dolphin watching activities brought together academics aligned with NGOs, the Fishery Agency, Council of Agriculture from the Taiwan central government to set up a voluntary certification system, “Whale Watching Mark,” in 2003. Among the 13 ferries, only 5 were certified. Due to the complicated documentation process required for certification, and given that green tourism was not mainstream enough in Taiwan, the Whale Watching Mark hasn’t received good responses from ferry companies until now. NEYC has also started to cooperate with Taiwan’s national Ocean Affairs Council in monitoring dolphin research in the area. Since 2017, researchers have used GPS to track the sight-seeing ferries as an indicator of dolphin movements.

As a DMO, the NEYC has tried to find friendly strategies to get more ferry owners to understand that chasing dolphins may harm the environment. By regulation, tour guides working for ferries and on Turtle Island must be licensed by NEYC twice a year. Through annual tour guide training, the ferry owners have gained more knowledge about protecting the marine dolphins. According to one captain, one protocol among ferries now is to take turns for 10 minutes for tourists to observe nearby dolphin families when more than one ferry approaches them.

COVID-19 and Beyond

During the Covid-19 pandemic, domestic tourism in Taiwan has soared as Taiwanese were not able to travel overseas. Some popular Taiwanese destinations encountered unprecedented negative impacts of overtourism for the first time. Even though tourist arrivals reached full capacity during weekdays, Turtle Island remained under control because of its carrying capacity system.

One challenge NEYC faces now is the “Milk Sea” close to the island, where “God has spilt the milk” as described by promotional agents. The Milk Sea refers to seawater with milky cream color caused by undersea hot springs. The tourism industry has touted this new sightseeing spot as a novelty, and tourists are flooding in. More and more yachts, stand-up paddleboards, and kayaks have come to this area, causing safety problems and conflicts with the ferry boats.

The Milk Sea from atop Turtle Island. Photo: Yang Yueh-Tzu

Fortunately, from 2016, NEYC has been implementing the GSTC Destination Criteria and participating in the Green Destinations Program has helped NEYC gain confidence and not only assess what they have done so far but also act on guidelines for achieving a more “sustainable-ecological economy” tourism pattern. Now some voices among original residents express hope that Turtle Island can be designated a cultural landscape heritage site and the history of their traditions and culture preserved.

Whatever changes to the Island may be, they will be based on official adherence to sustainability criteria. “‘Ecological Island’ is the main management strategy of Turtle Island, and the priority is to keep the eco-landscape and lower the construction impact in Turtle Island,” says Chia Feng Lin, Coordinator of NEYC.

Following the criteria, NEYC keeps on communicating sustainability principles and marine conservation to business owners, tour guides, and ferry owners, along with continued academic monitoring of Turtle Island’s ecological indicators .

To summarize, from the view point of sustainability, stakeholders’ voices and social conditions should be taken into consideration as well as academic research. Although the carrying capacity program may not be 100% perfect from scientists and researchers’ environmental protection perspective, NEYC has found a transforming strategy to meet the needs of the tourists, local ferry owners, and environmental conservation needs.

Hopefully, this example can inspire other destinations to find their own balance strategies.

Appendix

Monique Chen has supplied these additional links (some in Chinese only):

Study on recreational carrying capacity in turtle island (2004; Chinese) –
Tour information for Turtle Island (English) – https://www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw/FileAtt.ashx?lang=1&id=1181
Wild Animal Conservation Act in Taiwan from 2000 – https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=M0120001
Visiting application web page of Turtle Island (Chinese only) – https://events.necoast-nsa.gov.tw/coast/
Whale Watching Mark Taiwan – https://www.eastcoast-nsa.gov.tw/en/travel/whale-watching
Blue Whale Ferry with Whale Watching Mark on website – https://www.h558882.tw/

Two Billion Footprints: Good News Or Not?

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Jonathan Tourtellot

[Above—A two-hour wait: Tourists queue in drizzle for the cable car up Mt. Huangshan, China, a World Heritage site. Annual visitation c.4 million. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot]

Celebrated on Sept. 27, World Tourism Day is an observance championed by the U.N. World Tourism Organization and intended to point out the value of tourism. Initiated 35 years ago, much of the impetus for World Tourism Day sprang from the desire to convince governments and industry that tourism was bigger and more important than they realized. This is understandable, because tourism is bigger and more important than almost anyone realizes. When tourism works well, it’s fun and beneficial. It boosts the economy, helps preserve cultural and natural sites, and educates the public. When it doesn’t…well, that’s the dark cloud inside the silver lining.

This year’s theme was “One billion tourists—one billion opportunities!” Nice and upbeat, but it smacks of the more-is-better boosterism led for years by an officialdom that calls for ever-increasing numbers of arrivals.

This attitude is naïvely out of date. Better to think more realistically of “One billion tourists—two billion footprints.” Tourism, counted among the very largest industries on Earth, is changing the face of the planet and posing challenges with its relentless growth.

Of all the famous malaprops attributed to the late, beloved Yogi Berra, none rings truer in the tourist world than: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

Over the past half century, international travel has increased almost 20-fold in terms of arrivals. Domestic tourism worldwide has kept pace, at four or five times the volume. Growth continues unabated, but the places all these people visit are still the same size. Resorts and vacation homes gobble up coastlines. You can see the press of numbers most clearly in the world’s great cultural sites, from Venice to Angkor to Chichén Itzá.

Early this year, I was privileged to visit Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier, famed for steadily calving into an Andean lake. It’s in Los Glaciares National Park, a World Heritage site. It lies far, far south in Patagonia, down toward the end of the inhabited world, 1700 miles (2700 km) south of Buenos Aires. In short, not a place you’re likely to visit on the way to some other region. Yet annual visitation ranks in the hundreds of thousands, with over 600,000 people moving through the airport at the booming gateway town of El Calafate.

If we now see that much tourist traffic about as far as you can get from the human population’s center of gravity, it’s no wonder more accessible, better-known destinations are drowning in it. Florence, for example, must cope with 16 million tourists a year, many of them day-trippers who clog the streets while contributing little to the quality of the city.

World Tourism Day should now carry an additional mission. Not just: “It’s big! It’s great!” But also: “We will learn how to manage it better!” We need deeper, more meaningful and memorable travel experiences and fewer busloads armed with selfie sticks.

Another one of Yogi’s sayings was “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That impossible ambiguity fits tourism leaders who maintain: Quantity, quality, can’t we have both?

In most cases—no, you can’t.

New Tsunami Hits Phuket: Mass Tourism

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Arild Molstad

[Crowds seeking nightlife in Phuket. Photo: Terrazzo]

Recently waiting in Phuket airport for my delayed Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, I found myself surrounded by Russian travelers queuing up for nonstop flights to Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, and a few other cities whose names were only vaguely familiar to me.

Facing congestion in Phuket, whether at the airport, on the roads or on beaches has long been a familiar phenomenon. What is different is that the congestion is mostly caused by the onslaught of mass tourism from Russia and China.

Due to the recent ruble nosedive, it is now the big Chinese tour groups that are changing – rapidly and probably forever—what was once a quaint beach escape destination. Despite Phuket’s growing commercialization, Fortune magazine in 2005 still called it one of the five most attractive places in the world to retire.

A local hotelier I spoke to reported a significant change. Once his hotel (whose identity he wanted to keep to himself) use to be monopolized by sun-hungry Scandinavians. Now, he said, they occupy a mere 10% of his room capacity. Signs everywhere from the airport to roadside cafes appear in Russian, Chinese, and English.

No wonder. Hoteliers all over Southeast Asia are gearing up to cope with the massive influx, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The figures tell the story: Today an estimated 50% of Chinese citizens hold passports. In a few years China will boast more dollar millionaires than in the US. It is their accumulated spending power that no doubt helps putting China in top position in terms of outbound tourism spending, with expenditures reaching US$ 165 billion in 2014—an increase of 28% from the preceding year

In 2013 Phuket received 8 million visitors. In an effort to meet the increased demand, Phuket International Airport has been spending close to 6 billion baht to accommodate an expected 12.5 million passengers annually, of which the great majority will be foreigners. Soon a majority of these will be carrying a Chinese passport, up from a mere 20,000 Chinese arrivals in 2007! The Chinese presence is felt not only in southern Thailand, but all over southeast Asia: In 2014 the China National Tourism Administration recorded more than 107 million trips abroad, up 10.5% from the year before.

According to Thom Henley, an American travel writer and Phuket resident, tourist crowds bring the ratio between foreigners and locals in high season well above ten to one. The environment takes a beating. “I only rarely go for a swim in the ocean,” he says, “it’s just too polluted, and poses a public health threat, unless you stick to the Northern part of the island, or all the way down at the Southern end, where the strong currents wash effluents and debris away from the beaches.” Which perhaps explained the somewhat pallid skin color of the Russians waiting in line for their return flights; they seemed to have spent more time in Phuket’s numerous bars and massage parlors than in the surf.

What was once a densely forested island with lush hillsides facing wide stretches of beach now boasts 1,100 resorts with 24/7 traffic jams. Writer Tony Parsons (his recent 2012 novel: Catching the Sun) recommends North Phuket’s two national parks—Sirinath and Khao Phra Thaeo—as escapes for travelers trying to capture at least some of Phuket’s old magic, a safe distance away from the hordes in Karon and Patong. Here, he writes, “the beaches still have their steep natural slope so that giant turtles can crawl ashore and lay their eggs.”

Five years ago the government tried to launch a “green tourism” campaign, hiring police and soldiers to enforce a clean-up of polluted areas. At the same time, however, they allowed the construction of a monstrosity called Fantasea, a shabby reproduction of a Thai-style temple, where tourists flock to be photographed on the back of gaudily dressed live elephants, Las Vegas-style.

It is not an enviable fate to be “loved to death” by two populous nations whose citizens only recently can afford foreign travel, and who are not known for their environmental sensitivities. But Thailand’s record in the stewardship of its own nature capital is not to be applauded, as the ecosystems of countless island has paid a high price in the chase for short-term foreign currency.

D-Day Tourism in Normandy: It Works

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Tamara Olton

[German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer. Photos by Tamara Olton.]

This year marked the 70th anniversary of the D-Day events in Normandy, France. By the end of 2014 an estimated five million people will have descended on the area’s beaches, monuments, and memorial sites spread across over seventy-five miles of the Atlantic coast. While tourism in Normandy is certainly not new, the skyrocketing number of tourists is. Estimates for this year include an additional million visitors above the average to this relatively small area; approximately two hundred thousand visitors arrived during the official D-Day ceremonies of June 5, 6, and 7 alone. Roughly 3.5 million people live in Normandy, meaning this year’s tourists outnumber residents by one and a half million. This is quite a ratio in an area that has no large towns and whose population lives in quiet rural villages and farm lands.

There have been many locations world wide in which tourism has re-shaped the cultural and geographic landscape for the worse. This has been especially true in relatively small areas that do not have the capacity to support quickly growing numbers of tourists.

Would this be true in Normandy, as well? I traveled to Normandy in September of 2014 to learn more about this beautiful region and experience the historical events. I also wondered how increased tourism affects Normandy. Do the swelling numbers of visitors have a negative effect on the very monuments they have come to see, and are tourists respectful of these monuments?

And perhaps, most importantly, how do locals cope with the influx of visitors, especially during this momentous year? How is a balance struck between preserving the lands and monuments and allowing locals to live life as they see fit?

Many of the answers were surprising.

World War II tourism—are visitors respectful of the history?

One might assume that in historically significant locations visitors would know to behave themselves. Recent history has proven, however, this is not always the case. In 2013, a 15-year tourist scratched his name into a 3,500 year old temple in Luxor, Egypt; the same year, a father-son duo scratched their names into the Colosseum. Monuments around the world are defaced by tourists hoping to immortalize their visits with their names or initials. Would Normandy be the same?

In fact, manicured gardens and beach grass–surrounded monuments seem to be well cared for and remarkably lacking in graffiti or other defacement. Of the many locations and memorials I toured, none gave any impression that anything but reverence was expressed by those in passing. This is, a local explained, because the people that visit here are “easy going. Because the people come not to go on holiday—just to get a good hotel and swimming pool and drink a lot. They are here for [D-Day] beaches, historical tourism. They have a different attitude.”

A guide’s point of view

Alain, a stoic man, voice accented with British pronunciation and French joie de vivre, lives half of the year in his hometown two hours south of Normandy and comes here to work the other half during tourist season. When asked why he makes such a journey and lives half his life away from his friends and family of his hometown, he tells us how important it is to keep the memories of Normandy alive. One way to do this is to lead educational tours, such as the one we take that day. Alain takes us from location to location for ten hours, never losing energy, spilling out historical stories and facts as though he had a never-ending supply.

Alain, giving context before guiding us to Pointe du Hoc.

Alain often calls the soldiers “boys”, emphasizing that many of them were just that. Many lied about their ages to enlist; this is true on both sides. “Some of the German soldiers were just 15, 16 years old,” he tells us. “Just like the Americans.”

I ask him if the tourists he leads each day are respectful of what they see. The answer is a definitive yes. I ask him how the locals feel about so many people coming to visit this area.

“Many here live on tourism,” he tells me. “Not just those working as guides or those tending the monuments. Many live on farms that supply food to tourists as well.” Alain reiterates that he has heard no complaints from locals about the millions who tour these narrow streets and quiet villages each year. While more and more tourists come each year, he tells me, the numbers are still bearable.

When asked if he sees any negatives to tourism within the region, Alain says, emphatically, no. “We are here. We are here to honor the veterans. It is a way to make money, of course, but it’s a way to keep the memory of the boys alive. Not to be forgotten. We must never forget this.”

Bayeux: Simply a stopping point on the way to the beaches?

While many small towns and villages dot the Normandy landscape, the most popular for tourists visiting D-Day beaches and museums is Bayeux. A town with a two thousand year history, it is most famous for the imposing Cathedral of Notre-Dame rising high above the town’s buildings, and the Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot long embroidery which details in pictures William the Conqueror’s 1066 conquest of England. Approximately a million people visit the tapestry each year; this is, however, barely a fraction of tourists within Bayeux. The majority are here for what lies north.

Myriam, the owner of La Gitane bar in old Bayeux, pours me a traditional French drink of beer with Picon, an orange-flavored liqueur. I ask how she and other locals in Bayeux feel about tourists coming not to enjoy the town itself, but to use it as a stepping point for World War II history. Does it bother them that tourists often do not see the historical and beautiful town as being independently worthy of a visit?

She shrugs, as if the question were irrelevant. Tourism gives many people their jobs, she explains; tourism in some way touches almost all industries of the area. “How can you complain about people giving us business? You cannot do business and complain at the same time.”

Does she find the tourists to be respectful? “There are no problems with tourists in Normandy because they want to be here, for personal and historical reasons. The war isn’t something ‘fun’, but the people have a good time.”

Myriam at work.

Myriam pauses to speak happily to a French group that enters the bar. Around us are other Americans, as well as several other nationalities. People from all over the world visit here.

“In other areas of France it might be different,” she continues, “but people in Bayeux come for a purpose, not just vacation.” They are here to sight-see, she explains, but a different kind of sight-seeing.

Myriam refers to the flags of several nations that fly alongside the French flags throughout the region. She smiles.

“There is a special link between us now, because of the landing.”

British and American flags fly next to French flags all around the town of Bayeux.

Balancing history with everyday life

Locals live on with their lives much as the soldiers who fought here would want them to.

In a field stretched out behind the Lounges-sur-Mer gun battery, a farmer quietly plows his fields, steering his tractor expertly around camouflaged ammunition storage bunkers left behind.

Rows of colorful sailboats line Omaha Beach. This area was a private seaside resort before the war; it was rebuilt as one afterward, as well.

Sailboats on Omaha Beach.

Harness racing on Utah Beach has become popular. As the tide recedes, stretching back towards England, a distinctive “clip clop” of racing hooves echoes across the beaches.

Harness racing on Omaha Beach.

The concept of these beaches and historical landmarks as being a collective “commons” going beyond ownership and control of only the French is pervasive. The people here are keenly aware that while the land is technically theirs, the decisions and changes made here affect others spread across the globe. When the French government considered building a wind farm a few miles off the coast—away from the beaches but still able to be seen from the shore—not only did the French protest, but Americans, British, and other nations joined together to protect the visual integrity of the area. As quoted from The Independent, “These beaches are not just French beaches. They are also British beaches and American beaches and Canadian beaches…. They are a place of great, symbolic importance. We in France have a duty to be aware of that.”

People have moved on to reclaim this land, paying their respects while still believing that the living have just as much a right to it as the dead. A balance has been struck as those honoring the history that occurred here simultaneously live out their everyday lives. While parts of these beaches will be immortalized—paused as if time stopped that day in June seventy years ago—most of the area has been rebuilt. New houses line the yellow sandy beaches; restaurants and hotels dot the landscape. Even the preserved areas look different now; in 1944, the Germans stripped the land of all trees and vegetation, even flattening tall sand dunes and hills, needing full visibility to the sea. Nature has since reshaped the landscape more to her liking, recreating dunes and sandy hills, growing beach grasses and trees. It is hard to imagine this place has ever looked different than it does now.

The best way to honor the dead is for locals to continue their lives—to use once-bloody battlefields as agricultural fields; to swim in the waves that once served as watery graves for thousands of soldiers.

These beaches today are filled with those standing solemnly, remembering, imagining; but also with children laughing as they build sand castles; young couples strolling hand in hand, walking barefoot in the gentle surf; windsurfers shielding their eyes from the bright sun as they determine the best place to set sail. Silently, the events of 1944 play about like ghosts, their significance unseen by modern eyes but replayed in the imagination and memory, while life continues in these same spaces 70 years later.

Beach & Cruise Tourism: Volume vs. Value

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Martha Honey

[Above: Three cruise ships at the Philipsburg pier in St. Martin. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot]

July Symposium in Grenada to Address Worldwide Coastal Tourism Overload

Tourism based on sun, sand, and sea is the largest, fastest growing, and most lucrative sector of the tourism industry. Globally, 12 of the 15 top international destinations – including Mexico, France and the United States — are countries with coastlines. In the U.S., three coastal states (New York, Florida and California) host nearly three quarters (74%) of the total number of overseas visitors to the country. And Mexico has over 2,000 hotels along its Pacific, Gulf, and Caribbean coastlines.

The growth and expansion of cruise tourism has been even more dramatic, with the number and size of ships, passengers, ports of call, and profits all on the rise. Cruise tourism is dominated by three main cruise lines – Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Star/Norwegian Cruise Lines – which control 90% of the North American market. From 1970 to 2012, the cruise industry grew 40-fold, from 500,000 in 1970 and 4 million in 1990, to 20 million in 2012. Ship size increased from 500 – 800 passengers in the 1970s to today’s “floating cities”, the largest of which accommodates over 7,000 passengers and crew.

Cruise and all-inclusive coastal resorts are expected to remain popular, as increasingly urbanized travelers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia seek sun and sea combined with easy-to-book, fixed-price, and standardized holiday packages. Cruise and resort bookings have become the bread-and-butter business for tour operators and travel agents. And tourism-dependent countries, which typically measure success by increased tourist arrivals, have put out the welcome mat for big box coastal resorts and mega-cruise ships.

Environmental and Social Impacts

The expansion of coastal and marine tourism has, however, led to a range of serious environmental and social problems. These, in turn, have spawned increasing resistance from coastal communities and environmental groups, alarmed by destruction of mangroves and coral reefs, competition for fresh water and other scarce resources, rising real estate prices, and displacement of local fishing and farming communities.

High-volume, low-margin beach tourism in Spain. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot

In April 2013, for instance, a group of eleven conservation organizations petitioned Mexico’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation to stop development of four massive tourism resort projects around the Gulf of California. They charge that the projects violate Mexico’s environmental laws and threaten unique coral reefs and mangrove ecosystems as well as endangered species of whales, sharks and many types of migratory birds. And currently, in Haiti, the extremely poor residents on the tiny island of Ile-a-Vache are protesting government moves to expropriate their land to make way for high-end resort development.

Cruise ships have also caused a range of environmental problems. Beginning in the late 1980s, garbage dumped by cruise ships was washing up on Florida beaches and the Gulf of Mexico coastlines. Cruise lines have faced a steady stream of fines for illegal dumping. Between 1998 and 2002, for instance, the cruise lines paid over $50 million in fines. A combination of new regulations, NGO campaigns, and bad press has led cruise companies to take series of steps to clean up their practices – and their image. However, by the new millennium, civic activism had expanded to also include concerns about cruise ship impacts on destinations, both ports of call and home ports. Public protests have percolated in destinations as diverse as Hawaii, Alaska, Key West, Charleston, S.C. in the U.S.; Venice, Italy; Cozumel, Mexico, and Bermuda in the Caribbean.

The Economics of Cruise and All-Inclusive Resort Tourism

The economic model of cruise lines and all-inclusive resorts is largely the same — to keep tourist spending concentrated within the business – and this, in turn, has negative consequences for the economies of coastal destinations.

The cruise sector’s economic success is facilitated by a legal loophole: the “flag of convenience.” The three major cruise lines, while headquartered in Florida and carrying mainly American passengers, have registered their ships offshore, in Liberia in West Africa, Panama, and, the Bahamas. This allows them to circumvent a range of U.S. laws, including minimum wages and tax liabilities as well as safety standards, inspections, and environmental and labor laws.

In addition, on-board spending is an increasingly important part of cruise line income, ranging, according to a UN World Tourism Organization study, to between 25% and 35% of total income. Cruises have a captive market within ships as well as at ports, with onshore excursions and facilities often owned by subsidiaries of cruise lines. According to another recent study, the average customer spends about $1700 for a cruise, including on ship and on land expenses and the majority of these expenses are captured within the cruise ship.

Fifty percent of cruise tourism takes place in the Caribbean where it goes toe-to-toe with land-based tourism. Both bring about 15 million visitors a year, but, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), land-based, stay over tourists spend 13 times more than cruise passengers ($994 vs. $77). CREST’s studies in Central America (Costa Rica, Honduras, and Belize) found similar disparities, with stay over visitors spending between six and eighteen times more than cruise passengers. These findings from the Caribbean and Central America confirm that stay over tourism is far more beneficial to the local economy than cruise tourism.

CREST has also analyzed the different types of stay over tourists in Costa Rica, comparing those coming to the large coastal resorts versus those coming for ecotourism. Based on airport departure surveys, we found that ecotourists in Costa Rica stay longer – on average, 12 nights in 2012 compared with 9 nights for those staying in coastal resorts – and spend more — $1300 compared with $1079. In addition, ecotourists visit more parts of the country and engage in a wider range of activities. Ecotourism therefore leaves more in the local economy and spreads the economic benefits around the country.

A range of other studies in Tobago, Turkey, Kenya, Canary Islands, and Barbados have found that all-inclusive resorts tend to kill off local restaurants and other businesses located outside the resort, while staff in all-inclusives face less favorable working conditions, including greater levels of stress, considerably less tips, and larger numbers on short term contracts than employees in other types of accommodations.

These findings show that that arrival numbers alone say little about the actual costs and benefits of tourism. The more limited economic benefits of large scale cruise and resort tourism, combined with their often negative environmental and social impacts, demonstrate that tourism planners need to put more emphasis on high value rather than high volume tourism.

Symposium & Sustainability Expo, July 9-11, 2014, in Grenada

St. Georges waterfront, Grenada. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot

Many coastal businesses and individuals are taking steps toward high value tourism through environmental, social, and economic innovation. CREST is partnering with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the island of Grenada to present the 3^rd Innovators in Coastal Tourism Symposium & Sustainability Expo, July 9-11, 2014, in Grenada. This unique event will bring together 100 to 150 invited ‘green’ experts and practitioners, including real estate developers, operators, investors, and other businesses committed to (or considering) new sustainable models of marine, coastal, and island tourism development. These are the thought leaders who are breaking the mold of cookie-cutter resort development and mass-market cruise ships. In addition to business leaders, a select group of participants will be invited from key government agencies, NGOs, academia, community organizations, and international development organizations. Climate change and the need for responsible development has made these discussions all the more important, and we welcome all with an interest in sustainable coastal tourism to attend. Full updated Symposium details are available at: ctocrestsymposium.com.

This post adapted from my forthcoming book: Selling Sunshine: Coastal and Marine Tourism in the Americas, Island Press, 2015.

Visitation and Fragile Landscapes: The BLM Solution

Posted on January 3, 2014 by bobmadden

As a photographer, I am interested in unusual landscapes and recently visited the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, a 280,000-acre property administered by The Bureau of Land Management (BLM). One hot spot for photographers is “The Wave”, a mesmerizing set of sandstone formations in northern Arizona eroded by water and wind.

The Wave – North Coyote Butte.
Photo: Bob Madden

The expansion of the Internet has publicized The Wave – specifically thorough the proliferation of images and video available on the web. In addition, an article on the Vermillion Cliffs in the February 2012 issue of the National Geographic Magazine sparked the interest in The Wave and other nearby formations for millions for their readers.

Given this publicity, the challenge is how to keep too many visitors from spoiling the place. Continue reading →

Challenging Hit-and-Run Tourism in Cultural Heritage Sites

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Engelbert Ruoss

Cultural Heritage sites facing Hit-and-Run Tourism need to elaborate targeted strategies in order to balance tourism and heritage conservation, to define limits or find solutions in order to protect natural and cultural heritage and to mitigate negative impacts. In a paper by Engelbert Ruoss and Loredana Alfarè of the Global Regions Initiative, nine heritage sites in South East Europe are studied, including typical Hit-and-Run destinations such as Venice (I), Dubrovnik (HR), Hallstatt (A) and Aquileia (I), allowing four different types of Hit-and-Run sites to be distinguished. Continue reading →

Cruise Numbers Overwhelm Small Ports

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Jonathan Tourtellot

Carnival’s latest crises have relatively little impact on destination quality, but their circumstances do. At this writing, Carnival’s third embarrassing malfunction of the year is underway in St. Martin, where the Carnival Dream is stuck with a bad generator. The company has to fly some 3,600 passengers home. (Picture how many aircraft that involves.)

Three cruise ships at the Philipsburg pier in St. Martin. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot

Three cruise ships unload at the Philipsburg pier in St. Martin. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot

It’s those four-digit passenger counts that can turn cruise ships into the strip mines of tourism when it comes to their impacts on small port cities. Continue reading →

Destination Stewardship Center

Extending the work of the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations.

Tag Archives: carrying capacity