ABSTRACT
Introduction Tourism is often a source of much-needed foreign income; tourism is a consumer of environments and human communities; tourism damages social structures. Clichés, maybe, but proved in many cases to be true. The ultimate truism is yet another cliché, namely that ‘tourism is here to stay’ and human mobility is increasing. One of the first trends observed in countries gaining greater economic and political freedom is the desire of the people to travel. ‘To some, tourism represents an opportunity-a means of capitalising on the legacy of history-to others, perhaps it may be something of a threat unless it can be managed safely’ (Stuart 1989:1). For the urban environment tourism will continue to present the potential of a clean industry and a valuable source of income and employment. The development objective, therefore, must be to harness the source, while safeguarding the future of the natural resource, the historic town and its community. The leisure and cultural tourism industries are attracted to historic towns as a destination; and historic town authorities look to tourism as a new, clean and profitable industry. In comparison to ‘smokestack’ industry, tourism is deemed to be ‘clean’ with a potential to enhance quality of life, and reduce pollution and environmental destruction. With careful planning and management, tourism can play an important role in an environmentally sound future for historic towns.
