Sample Assignment on Tourism PDF

Running head: TOURISM
Tourism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TOURISM
Introduction:
Costa Rica being a central American country with coastlines along the Caribbean and the
Pacific areas forms quite an interesting option for the flourishing of the tourism sector in the
country. It is in fact one of the countries where the tourism sector is growing at a rapid economic
growth rate. It is in fact considered to be the highest contributor in terms of foreign exchange
earnings in the country. The massive increase in the tourism sector earnings increased since the
year 1987.Because of the presence of a large number of preserved areas and national parks, this
region has become one of the biggest natural tourism spots. The country is also equally rich in
biodiversity and houses a variety of plants and animals within the geographical borders. Costa
Rica is also know for many other geographical features including volcanoes, which are generally
not found in most natural tourist destination spots. In other words it is one of the biggest
international tourist spots in the world. There are many issues however facing this industry in the
current time. These issues are basically based on the fact that some major tourism policies and
events are harming the environment of the area and affecting the biodiversity of the region. This
is why firms are increasingly trying to take up initiatives that will help in mitigating these
already existing problems. These problems generally arise from the construction of high rise
buildings in the form of hotels or other tourism infrastructure.
Task 1:
This section of the report focuses on some of the issues that the tourism sector in Costa
Rica imposes on the communities and the biodiversity of this area. The negative impacts of the
tourism sector on the social and the environmental aspects of the region are discussed in details.

2TOURISM
Although, the tourism sector of Costa Rica has contributed vehemently to the gross domestic
product generation, it has happened at the cost of the local inhabitants of the region being
restricted from gaining access to regions earlier inhabited by them. Moreover, the environmental
impacts have also been widespread covering both the land and the ocean areas thus affecting the
species of both these regions.
Issues Facing Tourism Industry in Costa Rica
Issue 1:
There are various issues which are faced by Costa Rica as a result of the tourism most of
which are based on the notions of the nature and the environment of the place being adversely
affected. There are other issues facing the tourism industry in this region including the local
communities of the are being harmed and the diversity being lost (U.S. 2018). Thus, there exists
a paradoxical situation in the region pertaining to the impacts of the tourism industry in Costa
Rica. Reports and articles suggest that the level of eco-tourism that was once prevalent in the
region. The coasts and the beaches are increasingly being inhabited and structures or buildings
for the tourism purposes are being built. This in turn is causing the beaches to corrode which in
turn is harming the reputation of the region as being one of the regions full of biodiversity. The
tourism is also known to have impacts on the social and cultural aspects of the region (Hunt et al.
2015). This is so because foreigners are increasingly migrating to this region and building resorts
and other tourism related infrastructure, which is impacting the upholding of the traditional
social integrity of the place. It is also reported that not only the land and the society but also the
water of this region is being polluted immensely due to causes related to tourism (Mowforth and
Munt 2015). This includes the enormous number and frequency of cruises bringing in and taking

3TOURISM
back passengers as well as the different types of tourist attractive activities carried out in the
waters surrounding this region.
Issue 2:
The impact on the environment has been immense and is actually stringent. This is
proven from the fact that the increase in the amount of tourism in this region has adversely
impacted various species like the leatherback turtles. These turtles are affected due to the light
pollution caused by the tourism activities and initiatives that take place at the beaches and costs
of the region where they used to thrive and breed. There has also been a lot of construction in the
last few years that has contributed to the increase in income for this sector and hence the
generation of employment. However, this has led to the disruption of the sewage systems in
these areas where the same sewage has leaked into the oceans causing substantial levels of water
pollution which in turn has had harmed the natural ecosystem of the oceans of the region
(Blackman et al. 2017). All of these factors might soon cause the downfall of the rank of the
region as a naturally vibrant region for tourism. This increase in the number of constructions is
occurring because of the lack of proper rules and regulations on which the infrastructure and
construction should be based.
Measures to be Taken
Moreover, as has been mentioned before, the development of the place based on the
revenue generated has come at the cost of the cultures not being preserved in this area. Even
though the number of people who live in the rural areas is small, their livelihood is being greatly
affected in a negative way due to the influx of foreigners who are generally not able to recruit
these people because of the lack of the appropriate skills needed. There are privatised beaches in