ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the major environmental impacts of tourism and future challenges for tourism such as climate change. Tourism development in many places has led to a deterioration in environmental quality and numerous studies have highlighted the growing scale of the problem. The relationship between tourism and the environment is complex but may be viewed from three perspectives. This demonstrates the holistic approach to the term ‘environment’, which includes the natural and sociocultural interface. The three perspectives are: tourist–environment interactions, tourist–host interactions and host–environment interactions. To facilitate the study of environmental impacts of tourism, it is advisable to break ‘tourism’ into its component parts. While there is some overlap between these categories, this provides a satisfactory basis for analysis. Much concern has been expressed about increasing levels of transport on roads and in the air in industrialized nations, and the consequent wider effects on the environment and human health.
