Issue of Overtourism Within The Tourism Industry

Running head: ISSUE OF OVERTOURISM
ISSUE OF OVERTOURISM WITHIN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS OF
CANADA’S MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARKS
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1ISSUE OF OVERTOURISM
Introduction
As per Forbes.com (2020), the global tourism industry presently had shown a significant
amount of boom and the total revenue generated by the concerned industry for the year 2018 was
an impressive $1.45 trillion which accounted for around 11.9% of the total GDP of the world.
Milano, Cheer and Novelli (2018) are of the viewpoint that the growth of the tourism industry
had brought with itself various issues and the most important one among them is the issue of
overtourism. More importantly, the problem of overtourism had adversely affected the status quo
of the different nations along with the damage that it causes to the environment and it is because
of this that the various nations of the world are presently using the approach of sustainable
tourism or responsible tourism for the purpose of resolving the issue of overtourism (Koens,
Postma & Papp, 2018). Canada’s Mountain National Parks is an important tourism destination
which in the present times is reeling from the adverse effects of overtourism and this had started
to take a toll on the natural ecosystem of the concerned parks as well. The purpose of this paper
is to undertake an analysis of the issue of overtourism at Canada’s Mountain National Parks and
recommend possible measures through which this issue can be resolved.
Overtourism at Canada’s Mountain National Parks
Canada’s Mountain National Parks is located in the Canadian Rockies Mountain range
and the destination is famous for its picturesque natural beauty which boasts of various
mountains and rivers (Nationalpost.com, 2020). More importantly, this particular destination is
also famous for the rich diversity of its natural flora and fauna which consists of some of the rare
species of plants and animals that are not found in any other part of the nation of Canada
(Thetyee.ca, 2020). In addition to these, the concerned parks also have historical value since the
region once used to be the home of the First Nations or for that matter the indigenous people of
the nation of Canada as well. It is in the light of these attributes that the concerned destination
was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the year 1990. However, since this
declaration made by the UNESCO the number of people undertaking tourism in the concerned
destination had increased in an exponential manner (Nationalpost.com, 2020). As a matter of
fact, it had been seen that 19.7% of the total international tourists visiting the nation of Canada
make it a point to visit the tourist destination under discussion here (Thetyee.ca, 2020). This in
turn had contributed towards the issue of overtourism faced by the concerned destination.
Moreover, it had been seen that the large number of tourists who visit the concerned destination
every year had started to adversely affect the ecosystem of the region which in turn is posing
various kinds of environmental concerns to the nation of Canada (Fontanari & Berger-Risthaus,
2019). This can be explained on the basis of the fact that the large amount of pollution caused by
the tourists along with the disturbance that they cause to the living beings of the concerned
destination had started to take a toll on their lives (Dodds & Butler, 2019). Thus, if immediate
measures are not being undertaken for the resolution of this particular issue faced by the tourism
destination under discussion here then it would pose serious threats not only to nation of Canada
but to the entire world itself.