Impacts of biophysical and ecologial factors (nature, spaitialpatterns, & future directions)

Analyse the impact of biophysical and ecological factors upon the nature, spatial patterns and future directions of an economic activity that you have studied

Tourism is an activity where a person undertakes travel and being a house apart from their own for at least one night. It affects all ecospheres and the sustainability of the environment by its characteristics, why and where it’s located and its foreseeable trends.

The characteristics of tourism is its direct link to technology, and because of this it is 10% of the world’s GDP, as we continue to research the cost margin decreases and other areas of interest can be deemed able to visit, such as space technology. In the near future we will have the option to be able to visit the “nothingness” of space. Why would we want to visit that? There are several reasons why tourists travel. For space it might be the aesthetic view of the Earth from Space, it could also be that the tourist has always wanted to be an astronaut, but was not able to achieve it and now they can, and it could also be because he just has the money to do it! In other cases such as the Amazon rainforest, people may visit it for its diversity of animals and also because it’s an ecosystem at risk, this is called ecotourism. Ecotourism is not a sustainable form of tourism as the tourist themselves disrupt the habitat by;

• Making loud sounds and frighten animals that are close by • Trample wildlife habitats • Leave waste in the environment at risk • Putting a burden on the government to provide more tourist facilities which is sometimes coming from the ecosystem at risk itself!

Tourist destinations usually have a cultural or aesthetic value that appeals to the tourist.

• Las Vegas has her casinos and Antarctica has its intense icecaps. But depending on where the destination is the temperature can also a relevant factor.

• For example Brasilia would experience a far more tropical weather than Antarctica or Sydney; therefore if a person who is seeking for a change of climate as well is a cultural or aesthetic value, they could choose Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for its Carnivale or England for the aesthetic value of Stonehenge.

• Another category can also be form where ‘sports crazed fans’ join there teams for a grand final situated in a domestic or international region. This could be for crickets “the ashes” or “The English Premiere League”

The four ecospheres always have an impact on tourism.

Atmosphere You would probably find that the United States are not as popular during Hurricane seasons, but then again it may be the aesthetic view of the hurricane that attracts the tourist!

Lithosphere What attracts the English to Australia? It is our marvellous beaches in conjunction with our almost tropical weather of the Gold Coast, in Queensland.

Hydrosphere Bad weather and storms (tropical cyclones) can and will affect the tourism destination of the Gold Coast. Many tourists do not want to the beach when there is overcast because it has lost the aesthetic value that was what attracted them to it.

Biosphere Native flora and fauna, such as the kangaroo can also be a reason for a tourist to visit Australia. It can also have the reverse affect, SARS which spread quickly over the Asia-Pacific area created a large decline of Asia-Pacific continents, which is an average of 10% of the annual GDP. If they did not take the right precautions the outbreak could have affect their economy a lot worse than it did.

The future of tourism is inevitable. It will increase exponentially as long as technology resumes its current path. The invent of jet engines in the 1960’s was the first leap for tourism, this led to mass transport and cheaper travel costs. Technology also allowed for the average person to have more free time and holidays. If we extrapolate the current trend of tourism and technologies we can safely say that in the future more travel destinations will be created and older travel destinations will become cheaper. This is not a good perception of the future. Tourism is a threat to most Ecosystems at Risk and with its exponential growth it has the potential to be the one sole activity to wipe out several unique and aesthetic ecosystems.

Due to the overwhelming (10% GDP) and destructive power of Tourism there should be speculation on where and why a tourist destination should be available. If we let the whole world be our global market, the world would eventually become a ‘monoculture’ or better phrased as ‘Americanisation’ and once this is established there would be no need for tourism as what you see down your street is the same scene all over the world.