ABSTRACT
Tourist facilities in the tropics, and eco-tourist facilities in particular, target very valuable and usually highly sensitive environments. For example, the greatest demand for tourist development opportunities in Australia can be seen on its eastern coast, from the central coast of New South Wales to Marlin coast (the coastal area near Cooktown) in the far north of Queensland. Concentrations of this demand build up pressure for extensive development in several locations, including the entire coastal strip in the tropics up to Daintree, Cooktown and Cape Melville National Park. While in the south of Australia the natural environment has been subjected to urbanisation for many years, in the tropics this type of modification has been introduced fairly late, in the last several years. In other words, the targeted tropical section of the coast in Australia remains its only unspoilt part, the only refuge for many endangered animals and the only remaining habitat for many endangered plants. This trend was also noted, and a response to it called for, by the Alliance of Small Island Developing States in its 1994 Barbados Programme for Action (WMO 1995). The same can be said about other parts of the world. The focus of tourist developments is nowadays firmly trained on previously untouched or undeveloped areas. Figure 1.1.
