The Major Sources Of Economic Income Many Areas Of The World Tourism Essay

The Major Sources Of Economic In move up much(prenominal) than than Areas Of The foundation tourism EssayMallorca is the largest of the Balearic Island, at a size of 3,667 squargon(p) Kilometres and is located get rid of the South-east coast of Spain. The islands coastline stretches for 550 km, and has a climate of luscious passs and mild winters with average temperatures r from each oneing 21 Celsius. Mallorcas authoritative universe of discourse is save over 790,000, and the official language is either Catalan or Spanish, although imputable to the increasing piece of phaetons umteen young Mallor prats can speak slightly English and German. Tourism in Mallorca began to grow rapidly in the 1950s, with 98,000 holiday put one acrossrs see the island. By 1995 almost three million holiday touchrs had visited, and by 2001 more than 19,200,000 passel had visited the island by air, with an otherwise 1.5 million visiting by ocean. The master(prenominal)(prenominal) attr actions to Mallorca for touring cars are sandy beaches, the weather, tourist infrastructure and for some, the many clubs located on the island. In total at that place are three million beds available on the island, which is more than enough for three times the topical anesthetic population. Since this huge turf out in the number of tourists, touris turn out has baffle the main form of income for Mallorcans and touristry accounts for 85% of the islands income (Jackson et al 1999). The summer months is the peak oceanson for tourists visiting the island, small-arm during the spring, winter and autumn it is cooler and cheaper. Normally the winter caters for those with second homes on the island, and too elderly holidays.The consequences of mass, concentrated tourism in Mallorca has however conduct to many problems on the island. Tourists feature a truly negative encounter on Mallorcas environment. On a field bloodline to Mallorca in 2007, it observed that at peak times of the year, 25 tons of sand is carried from Es Trenc beach by tourists in their towels, toes and shoes. Tourists in any case cause water shortages across finished swimming pools, hotels and golf courses. Tourists also tend to fileer a lot more often than the host population. This is very damaging for Mallorca as water then has to be shipped in from main land which can be very costly. Mallorca also has a lot of air defilement. amazingly Mallorcans own the most number of cars per head in Europe. In Calvi totally in that respect are eight hundred cars per thousand of the population. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), s crimsonty million cars pass through Calvi each year. Fifty million of these are driven by tourists. Also of course there is the number of litter that tourists leave behind which has a major(ip) wallop on the environment and wild life. further, the cost to Mallorcas environment has been blinded, at least until recently, by the great economic pros perity that tourism has brought to the island. Mallorcas de outlivery is heavily reliant on tourism (85% of income).Tourism is an integrated and fragmented product, means that money from tourists goes directly to hotels, restaurants and shops. This expenditure coming from tourists can also kick in indirect benefits with improvements to infrastructure and community services (Mathieson et al 1992). This has been proved in Mallorca because Mallorcans enjoy some of the senior high school-pitchedest living standards in Spain. Tourism in Mallorca is also the main employer, and Mallorcas employment levels are very low because of the tourism industry and also the current housing and construction boom, to cater for more tourists. However, Mallorca has become far too reliant on tourism as its main source of income. Should the tourism industry for what ever reason collapse in Mallorca, then the parsimoniousness could potentially be devastated. With the current financial crisis, tourism h as already fallen by 15% ( Unger Saln 2009). Also with high seasonal variation, should a tourist business not be happy during the peak season (summer), then it leave alone be very expectant to survive financially through the winter months. The tourism boom in Mallorca has also light-emitting diode to a 30% increase in the toll of land, partially collect to homes being reinforced with black money. This has forced many young Mallorcans to leave the island in search of affordable land to live on. This potentially has effects for the future of Mallorca as young people are seen as being initiative and are being forced off the island.As you can see, past tense and even some amaze tourism practices are not sustainable in Mallorca. However, since the end of the 1980s to present the regional and national brass policies allow performanceed hard to try and shake up tourism in Mallorca more sustainable.The WTO defines sustainable tourism as see the needs of present tourist and host regions piece protect and enhancing the probability for the future (1992). Perhaps a definition of sustainable tourism more relevant to Mallorca would be Tourism should be sustained without having an effect on other activities within the field. It should not hog or displace the current economy but should complement and bolster it. It should process diversify the economy rather than replacing certain aspects of it. Can Mallorca actually achieve sustainable tourism? Since the mid 1980s, and even more so during the 1990s, government policies have been trying to make tourism in Mallorca sustainable.During the 1970s tourism in Mallorca was seen as a job creator, and the effects on the environment were ignored. The government first began to notice the problems associated with tourism during the recession in 1974. Visitor metrical composition were at their lowest levels since the Franco regime, and it began to show on the island (The Mallorca Tourist Board 2006). In 1983 the Balearics were given full autonomy to establish its own tourism form _or_ system of government, self-directed from Central Government in Spain. This was a major step on the road to sustainability as local government could be far more stiff in distributing sustainable policies as they k flat what the most debatable areas are. Following autonomous government decrees came a series of policies to make Mallorca a more sustainable tourist goal. Work by Estaban Bardolet suggests that Mallorcas aims were to protect the environment, dividing line reaping, improve fiber of services, infrastructure and product. These aims will be utilitarian in order to find out how effective Mallorca has been about fair more sustainable. To find out right how effective sustainable polity in Mallorca has been, the essay will be split into sub sections, first off looking at environmental protection, then make up ones minding growth and at long last up(p) the caliber of product.Environmental protectionTh e first rightfulnessfulness on protecting the environment came in 1984 with protecting inborn areas of special interest, which modified tourism increase and protected natural resources, and was followed by a law on territorial syllabusning in 1987. The 1987 law was very important, as it was the first law put into place that regulated the construction of hotels and other buildings, which in the past had been allowed to be built almost anywhere (Middleton et al 2001). Before this law was put into place, many reinvigorated constructions were built on the beach front, which severely damaged the ecology of the sand dunes.In 1988, a wetland area of approximately 2,580 ha with a perimeter of 32 km was been created at SAlbufera. It was created in to help preserve Mallorcas natural environment and animal(prenominal) habitats. Since then the area has been declared a ZEPA, Bird Special Protection Zone, a Biosphere and a Ramsar site. Tourists are attracted to the area to see the rare d omestic fowl species, which is ironic because the area was created to stop the mass tourist development and preserves the environment in the area. This was one of the very first environmental policies introduced by local government in the Balearics, and was followed up in 1991 with the law on Natural Areas which put 33% of territory in the Balearic Islands under protection. This law proved very significant as it prevented any construction on these areas of land, and therefore preventing further damage to the natural environment.In 1997 the government expand its 1987 policy on territorial planning to focus on more long term planning for all activities and to encourage higher shade tourism without depleting natural resources this came through work with topical anesthetic schedule 21, which will be discussed later using Calvi as an example. Also a impartiality of Rural Land was passed which put a cap on the amount of tourist villas and second homes which were allowed to be develope d in rural areas. However, there was no evidence to suggest that this law lessened construction of tourist homes in rural areas and there has also been an increase in the regaining of old farm houses, which has further weakened the presence of agriculture in rural areas of Mallorca.In 2002, the Government of the Balearic Islands launched a tourist eco tax to help counteract the environmental problems caused by tourists. The tax amounted to an extra 1 per day, per openhanded (over 16) and would be collected by registered tourist readjustment (Middleton et al 2001). However the tax was abandoned in 2003 following a change in government. During its brief time the tax helped raise 25 million, which was used to help clean up Mallorcas environment (geographypages.co.uk). However the abolishment of the tax did show that the government were not fully committed to helping improve Mallorcas environment. constrictive GrowthOne of Mallorcas main problems as a tourist destination was its over crowdedness and frequently exceeding the carrying capacity. One of the first government policies to limit growth came in 1984 with Decree Cladera I. This policy demanded that 30m of land for individual tourist beds and that some of the land was to be used for leisure. (Batle et al 1999). Then in 1987 the Decree Cladera II expanded the required land to 60m and introduced a new minimum quality hotel standard. These policies were very successful as they limited the growth of cheap, poor quality hotels on the island. However, it can also be argued that this would apparently cause a greater number of tourists to the island, because by the 1990s, people had more disposable incomes, and no longer had to look for cheap, poor quality accommodation whilst on holiday as they could instantly afford much better.In 1997 the D plan was introduced which highlighted the need to promote off peak tourism to the island. The Mallorcan government worked hard to advertise and promote off peak visits to the island to try and relieve some of the pressure during the summer months. The plan has been reasonably effective with more people, especially the elderly visiting the island during the winter months. However there is free far too much pressure on the islands resources during the summer to say this plan has been effective.In 1999 the Balearics Government introduced a new Tourism Law which brought together anterior legislative acts. The new law halt bed capacity for all of the Balearic Islands (Middleton et al 2001). This is very important because by decreasing, or stopping increases in the amount of tourist beds, you effectively visit tourism growth on the island. The new law also pile about limiting further development in urban areas, leave off for all ready approved sites. The most important act to come from this new law was to make any construction closer than euchre meters of the sea shore forbidden (in 1988 the Spanish Government had previously beat it at 100 meters) (Middleton et al 2001). This again was very important as the construction of hotels and other tourist buildings along the seashore had on the past been destroying the coast line. On a fieldtrip to Mallorca in 2007 an examination of how construction had alter the ecology of sand dunes at Es Trenc took place. The sand dunes examined were very unhealthy, due to the fact that a hotel had been built on it at.Improving quality of productAt the end of the 1980s began the International Drinking piddle Supply and sanitisation Decade. In 1988 the External Support Agencies (ESAs) Collaborative Council was regulate up to help co-ordinate water sanitation. Following the establishment of this council the Global Sanitation Plan was introduced in 1989 and was to be completed by 1997 at a cost of US$200 million (Bardolet). As a conduce new water sewage systems were built in Mallorca which helped keep the sea clean. The plan was very successful in keeping beaches clean as by the end of the 20t h Century, fifty beaches in the Balearics had been awarded Blue sign status. However the plan was not completely successful as there is a worry that the water table may have been contaminated by water that has not been recycled properly.In 1990 a plan to dress tourist resorts was introduced. Over US$100 million was invested to coastal areas to make walkways, lighting and green spaces along the seaside. The plan was very successful as it made coastal areas aesthetically very attractive to tourists. However, many local people living in the sea side areas dislike it as it has made seaside areas very urbanised.In 1994 the Balearic Government introduced the Hotel Accomodation modernisation plan. The plan stated that hotels built before 1984 were to be inspected and then renovated. The government set a deadline of completion of renovation by 1997. Any hotels which did not consent would be shut down, however by 1997 30% of hotels had not barely been finished so the deadline was extend ed to 1999 (Bardolet). The renovation work cost just under US$800 million. However this plan greatly improve Mallorcas tourist accommodation, as combined with other acts, the emphasis on accommodation was now on quality rather than quantity. In 1996 the Law on Modernisation of the Complementary Tourism Supply was introduced to run along side the previous plan of 1994 however this law was aimed at the catering sector. Again this improved the quality of product as it improved the standards of the catering industry, and there for improving the quality of experience for tourists.Case study CalviCalvi has grown as a tourism resort since the 1960s and is now the second largest urban area in Mallorca after Palma. Calvis economy is highly reliant on tourism, with 95% of jobs being tourist-related. Average family incomes are 130% the national average, and one hundred five% the European average (United Nations publication 2003). However, years of mass growth has led to environmental damage, aging leisure facilities and poor quality services for tourists (Aquil 2005). Calvi was bonnie overcrowded with its population 3,000 to 40,000 inhabitants over a short period of time (Calvi Local docket 21). The first consequences of this were seen between 1988 and 1990 when tourism fell by 20%, Calvi was losing its competitiveness as a tourist resort.Calvi had become unsustainable because damage caused to its natural environment, especially along coastal areas. The area suffered water shortages, air pollution and had problems with extensive amounts of rubbish. It also had very poor transportation links and lacked respective(a) employment opportunities as most of the population was employed in the tourism industry. However, biggest problem was tat Calvi had greatly exceeded its carrying capacity, and could no longer cope with the number of tourists visiting the area in the high season.To reinstate Calvi as a major tourist destination in Mallorca, local councillors along with the Spanish Ministry for Tourism developed The Calvi Plan for Tourists Excellence at the start of the first 1990s (Calvi Local Agenda 21 Bustamante 1999). The plan had three main points, clear buildings along coastal areas, promote off-peak tourist practices and to train the population in employment in the tourism industry. However the plan did have its limitations. It is argues that it did not look at the long term development of the area, and alone wanted to deal with trying to once again boost tourist areas. It was also not properly co-ordinated in terms of economic, social and environmental interaction.The failure of Calvi Plan for Tourists Excellence led to the adoption of Calvi Local Agenda 21, one of the main sustainable policy instruments to come from Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (Aguil 2005). A strategy was put forward in 1996. The main aim of this policy was long term tourism .and local sustainable development with protecting and enhancing the environment being the main objective (Molz 2004). Ten action plans were devised, and twoscore initiatives were put into action. This approach meant a new integrated approach to tourism between local council, national council and Non Government Organisations NGOs working together to make Calvi a more sustainable destination. It also allowed for resident participation, one of the key features of sustainable development (Bell et al 1999).The sustainable action plan through Calvi Local Agenda 21 has been very successful in fashioning Calvi a more sustainable tourist resort and in attracting tourists rachis to the area. In 2000 1.6 million people visited Calvi, from which 86% came from abroad (Calvi Local Agenda 21).ConclusionIn the Twenty First Century, Mallorca has developed itself into a high quality tourist resort, partly due to the efforts and policies put into place by the governments of the late 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, there were 180 hotels and agroturismos (transformed traditional Mallorcan fincas) had been b uilt inland (Cox 2005). At first this may seem like a bad thing, as tourist developments are taking up even more land. However, this type of tourism accommodation is marketed to the eco-friendly tourist, who cares about their own impact on the tourist destination. This type of tourism is also of a very high quality, and also limits growth and overcrowding as the carrying capacity of these resorts is low. However, being so far inland the tourist is more likely to use a car to get to other areas because they are not in go distance. This type of tourism is much more sustainable than the traditional sun, sea and sand holidays that had previously been associated with Mallorca.Mallorca has now emerged as a high quality tourist destination, challenging the traditional views of a bargain holiday destination. Mallorca now boasts five-star resorts, luxury hotels and very high quality restaurants. The service industry has also gained from higher class tourism, especially catering. In 2006 Mal lorca had six Michelin- starred restaurants (businessweek.com 2006).However, Mallorca still suffers from the stereotypical idea that the island is a cheap holiday destination whirl beaches and cheap drink. Some government policies such as the eco-tax have failed, while others have not done enough to tackle problems such as the environmental damage caused by years of irresponsible tourist development plans. Some policies and work from groups in the 1990s have helped Mallorca become informed that tourist practices can not continue. However, there is still much work to be done in order to make Mallorca a fully sustainable holiday destination.