Tourism: a special case

Tourism is one of the world's major industries, a very high proportion is linked to coastal areas. Arrivals in the Mediterranean were estimated at 135 million in 1990 and projected to 350 million by 2025, at least 50% of which were aiming for coastal destinations. In the Caribbean tourism, which is almost entirely coastal based, contributed about 25% of of the GDP of the entire region.

By its nature, most tourism is highly consumptive, and as such generates very large amounts of waste, including sewage and solid waste. Much touristic development has taken place away from urban centres, often moving into natural or agricultural landscapes. The building of such infrastructures often results in erosion and siltation, whilst completed infrastructure may remain unconnected to sewerage networks and a large number of tourist hotels and other facilities provide little or no sewage treatment.

Many hotels provide a highly altered environment, with extensive gardens, and swimming pools, all of which are maintained by chemicals such as chlorine, fertilisers and pesticides and which may be taken into the sea via direct runoff or through drainage systems. In quite a few cases hotels are also responsible for significant levels of coastal engineering, such as the building of groynes or sea walls to prevent erosion, or even of structures such as jetties into the sea. These can all have a significant impact on natural coastal dynamics and may affect sediment distribution and patterns of erosion or deposition over wide areas of coastline.