Tourism and Environment : Concepts, Principles and Approaches

Contents: Preface. 1. Basic concept, nature and ingredients of tourism. 2. The basic concept of man-environment relationship and basic ingredients of environment. 3. Components of environment and the Indian philosophy of its conservation ethics. 4. The need to relate tourism with conservation of environment. 5. Delineation of tourism\'s boundaries with other developmental activities: an environmental concern. 6. Relationship between tourism and environment and role of community in this interaction. 7. Tourism as an instrument of conservation of environment. 8. Tourism: politics of environment and legal provisions for conservation of environment. 9. Environmental concerns in the formulation of policy for the development of tourism and its infrastructure. 10. Identification of pressures of tourism on environment and understanding the thresholds of irreversible change in environment. 11. Analysis of visitor (Tourist) behaviour and its impact on host (local) population. 12. Environmental impact of tourism and tourism industry on vegetation and wildlife. 13. Environmental impact of tourism and tourism industry on mountains. 14. Environmental impact of tourism and tourism industry on Wetlands, islands and beaches. 15. Sports tourism and its impact on environment. 16. Environmental impact of tourist accommodation -- hotels and resorts. 17. Tourism as the source of socio-economic and socio-cultural interaction and its impact. 18. Problems faced by tourists and tourism industry. 19. Tourism: the future visualized. Bibliography. Index.

"Human beings have always exploited the natural resources available in their natural surroundings for their benefit. Air, water, land atmosphere and living organism--each of these elements is of vital importance in some form or the other to human beings but uncontrolled and unplanned tourism leads to pollution and in extreme cases to sheer disaster. This pollution may take many shapes--that of destruction of natural resources, that of socially unlawful activities and that of cultural exploitation. In a word, we may say that tourism effects the local environment in a big way." (jacket)