THE CONFLICTS OF TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENT ON THE COASTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES. Tourism: resources and strategies

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1 THE CONFLICTS OF TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENT ON THE COASTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES Tourism: resources and strategies Lidija Petric Faculty of Economics, Split Resume: Although tourism has brought many benefits, mostly economic ones to the Mediterranean countries, it has also caused much damage which manifests in all the areas of the human life, that is ecological, infrastructural, sociodemographic, cultural and economic domain. Aiming at improvement of the present state and putting a stop to further damages, all the Mediterranean countries (especially the European ones) have brought the whole variety of measures that will provide development of so called "sustainable tourism", that is tourism harmonized with its environment. Without these measures further development of tourism in the Mediterranean basin would cause unpredictable damages so more, Mediterranean is estimated to remain, even in the future, the most visited tourist region in the world. Having this in mind and with the respect of carrying capacity of a tourist destination, tourism development will be a guarantee of the future prosperity not only for the certain destinations, but for the Mediterranean as a whole too.

2 THE CONFLICTS OF TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENT ON THE COASTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES Introduction: For the last hundred years, tourism and tourist movements have been constantly growing up. This tendency has been caused by the global development of the civilization, that is socioeconomic and technical development. From the previous privilege of the rich class, tourism has developed into a largest movement in the world today. "Tourism has been changing the main forms of its appearance very often during its development. It could be said that recently, after hundred and fifty years long process of "continentalisation", the process of "litoralisation" of tourism movements has begun" (Alfier, 1975, pp. 4). The constant and ever-growing orientation of tourist flows towards sea and sea shores that, during summer season gets the appearance of the mass migration, could be explained by the enormous biotropic power of sea. When such a biotropic power is enriched by the numerous other attractive factors, we get the area which, by all means could be considered unique and the most original treasury of the human spirit, that is -Mediterranean basin. The word "Mediterranean" comes from the Latin words "in medio terrae", which means "in the middle of the Earth". For the thousands of years Mediterranean was the bridge between different civilizations and influences. Even today it presents the area of confrontations between the North and the South, developed and developing countries, Europe and the countries of the so called "third world". Mediterranean region covers area of some 8 million km 2 ; it consists of 17 countries with approximately 400 million of inhabitants. Since the exquisite natural resources and numerous cultural and historic monuments witness that Mediterranean was the "cradle" of the civilization, it is quite understanding that tourism has grown up so widely and so quickly throughout Mediterranean basin. Unfortunately, too fast and uncontrolled development of tourism on this space has become the main cause of the numerous conflicts that, in different areas have grown up to be so large that serious consequences can already be seen and felt everywhere. Having this in mind, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean countries have started to think about necessity of developing such a tourism that would not confront its surroundings, or better say environment, but would contribute to its affirmation. The main aim of this paper is on the first place to define the main trends of tourism development in the Mediterranean countries, and conflicts that appear as the result of the penetration of tourism into all the areas of life in this space. Related to this, special attention will be paid to the problems of carrying capacity assessment and the assessment of saturation

3 threshold above which every further action in tourism development leads to the numerous damages. Development of tourism in the Mediterranean region As we have already stressed out, owing to its favourable position in terms of geography and climate, its natural beauty, lavish cultural and built heritage, the Mediterranean basin is the main tourist region in the world, attracting some 30% of international tourist arrivals and accounting for 28% of receipts from tourism. Between 1981 and 1994, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the Mediterranean increased from 110 million to 169 million, the average annual rate of increase being 3,34 %. Over the same period, the income for the area from international tourism was increasing much more rapidly, at the average rate of 18,48 % (WTO, 1996). Three countries of the region, namely France, Italy and Spain are among the ten strongest market destinations in the world, being the countries that have the highest net income gained from international tourism. It's important to mention that France and Italy and more recently Spain, are also countries that are important tourist generators, and have large scale domestic tourism. The importance of Spain, France and Italy can be seen from the fact that they have realized almost 80% of the global tourist overnight stays in the Mediterranean basin; countries of the northeastern Mediterranean have realized approximately 8% of the total overnight stays in the basin, while the rest of the countries have realized 8,2% (Table 1). Table 1 International tourist traffic, receipts and expenditure in the Mediterranean in 1994 Arrivals in 000 Over night stays in 000 Receipts mill. US $ Expenditure mill. US $ Spain France Italy Malta NW Medit Croatia Slovenia Greece Turkey Cyprus NE Medit

4 Arrivals in 000 Over night stays in 000 Receipts mill. US $ Expenditure mill. US $ Algeria Marocco Tunisia SW Medit Egypt Israel Syria SE Medit Total Medit Source: Yearbook of tourism statistics, WTO, Madrid, ed. 47. vol. I & II, 1995 According to the forecasts presented in so called "Blue Plan", till the year 2000, some 200 mill of international tourists will travel throughout Mediterranean basin and will "occupy" approximately 8000 km 2 of space available for the tourist purposes (compared to 4400 km 2 which are used today for the purposes of tourism and tourist industry) (Hitrec, 1988, pp ) Out of these data it can be concluded, that despite some structural changes which are expected in tourist demand, no significant changes (regarding the quantity of tourism) are expected in the Mediterranean tourist market. Impact of tourism on its environment Today's mass tourism is an expression of a modern man's need to run away from everyday's life and from stress he is exposed to in over urbanized and polluted cities. However, compared to the so called "passive tourists" from the past, today's modern nomads practically "consume" nature and affect all its elements very strongly. "As many of the modern tourists don't have any respect for the historical and geographical objects, they usually look at them only through their chronological order and not in connection with their surroundings. Therefore they don't understand or appreciate the real meaning that these objects and phenomena have in the global relations. That's why many of the tourists treat cultural heritage and natural beauties not only with the lack of respect, but also destructively. Hence, a strange and fatal paradox happens; tourist migrations that, by their very nature and regarding the motives that move them, should have to be guardians of nature and cultural heritage, cause as many negative effects as industrialization itself" (Alfier, 1975, pp. 11).

5 Since the consequences of the tourism hyper expansion in the Mediterranean basin as the most visited tourist region in the world, have already been felt in all the aspects of life, the necessity for intervention has become very strong. The main cause of the environment's degradation is not destructive nature of tourism itself, but wrong tourism development methods and lack of responsibilities of the national, regional and local authorities that neglect long term development benefits for the sake of the profit making. The present state of tourism development versus environment can be observed through three basic types of tourism areas (rivieras, islands and historic settlements) and five basic aspects (eco-spatial, infrastructural, socio-demographic, economic and socio-cultural). The estimation of the intensity level of these conflicts is given in the following table: Table 2 The main aspects and level of conflict intensity caused by tourism development in the Mediterranean countries The type of a conflict The estimation of the conflict intensity level on the main types of tourist areas rivieras islands historic settlements I ECO-SPATIAL CONFLICTS - building in the very vicinity of the coastal zone inadequate land use visual devastation of the scenery building of too many secondary residences over concentration of tourists during summer season sea pollution caused by too many motor boats sea pollution caused by too many bathers sea pollution caused by different waste materials fire danger II INFRASTRUCTURAL CONFLICTS - the overloaded water supply facilities the lack of drinking water (especially during summer season) unsolved problems of waste waters disposal too heavy traffic concentration III SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CONFLICTS - too many seasonal workers worse status of seasonal workers compared to those with full time employment unbalance of the age and sex structure of the population orientation towards service activity employment depopulation of the hinterland 4 2 2

6 IV ECONOMIC CONFLICTS - reduction of the labor force in the primary sector reduction of the agricultural fields tourism becomes a monocultural activity over exploitation of the cultural and historical heritage the growth of the real estates values the growth of differences in the level of economic development the local economy is overloaded by the costs of the tourist establishments' building V SOCIO-CULTURAL CONFLICTS - loss of the cultural identity misunderstanding and conflicts between local resident population and tourists - growth of delinquency damages on the cultural and historical monuments *The explanation of the marks given as the illustration of the conflict intensity level 1 -- conflict doesn't exist 2 -- an easy conflict 3 -- conflict of the medium intensity 4 -- strong conflict 5 -- very strong conflict Source: Guidelines for an Environmental Approach to the Planning and Management of Tourism Development in Mediterranean Coastal Zones, (1989), Zagreb, Institute for Tourism, pp. 3-7 It is quite evident from the above table that rivieras are the most endangered areas because most of the tourists visiting Mediterranean countries still come for the reason of enjoying "sun, sea and sand" (although the tourism demand preferences have been changing recently). Too many tourists cause, on the first place conflicts related to eco-spatial aspects that are directly connected with the infrastructural aspects, such as water supply sewerage, electricity and gas supply, public services, etc. The conflicts of infrastructural nature are the most obvious on rivieras and islands of the Mediterranean basin and little less in historic settlements (mostly because they are usually under special protection of the local authorities). As about sociodemographic aspects of "tourism versus environment development", it can be said that tourism has caused not only negative trends in this domain but also positive ones (especially on rivieras and islands) such as: the population growth, better age structure, it has also stopped the process of the islands' depopulation. In the same time the most common negative trends are: depopulation of the hinterland (on rivieras), too strong orientation of the local resident population on tourism that caused neglecting of the traditional activities such as agriculture... The consequences of the tourism and environment conflicts can be seen very often in the economic domain which has commonly been thought to gain only positive effects out of

7 tourism development. However, tourism leads towards abandoning traditional activities and turns out to be a monocultural activity; it also generates the price growth that causes inflation. Recently there has been much talk about sociocultural aspect of conflicts between tourism and environment. This kind of conflicts is very hard to notice and express quantitatively because it depends on a country's level of development, its cultural and national identity and tradition. However, all the Mediterranean countries have experienced, more or less, some of these conflicts. They manifest through the loss of cultural identity, devastation of cultural and historical monuments and through different forms of criminal behavior. At the end, it can be concluded that rivieras of the Mediterranean countries are the most endangered areas, but recently even other areas (islands and historic settlements) are also experiencing different kinds of conflicts. Some parameters of "tourism versus environment "relations The tourism development in the most of the Mediterranean countries has already passed over so called "saturation threshold". Actually, some areas have already been saturated to such an extent that the level of visitor's satisfaction has essentially been diminished and on the other side it has caused lots of damages on environment. 1 What is the saturation threshold and how does it happen? As a paradigm for its explanation can be used "the law of diminishing returns" introduced into economic theory by Jacques Turgot ( ). He noticed that absolute return on an agricultural field rises up to a certain point parallel with the rise of inputs, but in the same time an average return per labor unit falls down constantly. Digressive rise of the absolute and diminishing of the marginal and average return would also have happened if the investments into use of fertilizers had been increased with the unchanged labor input at the same time. The above law works out in the tourism sector as well. However, here we can't talk about the rise of tourist products in quantitative sense. Namely, tourist product is not a concrete product but the whole variety of products and services very often sold in a form of so called "package tour". Therefore, in the case of tourism, we can talk about the rise of the sold package tours or the number of tourists in a destination. Mediterranean countries try to attract as many visitors as possible by enriching their tourist supply constantly investing into tourist sector. In this way they try to gain higher incomes, which, expressed in absolute numbers, they succeed. However, there appears a paradox; the number of the sold package tours (or tourist arrivals) rises up to a certain point parallel with the rise of inputs into tourism. After certain period of time, when passed the said point, financial effects per input unit (or relative returns) are diminishing. If the fall of financial results (in relative sense) is accompanied by degradation of 1 Because of the lack of space, tourist density ratios in different Mediterranean countries, which can be used as an illustration of a country's saturation level can be seen at author's and discussed with her.

8 natural environment and devastation of cultural and historical monuments caused by too many tourists, than it is quite obvious that effects of mass tourism development confirm that the law of diminishing returns works out in tourism as well. It can be said that the saturation threshold in the tourist area is passed when the negative effects become predominant and benefits from tourism start to fall down progressively. It is impossible to find out a unique formula for determining the main indicators of a certain area saturation threshold because each country, each region and even each local community has quite distinctive characteristics that make them different from the others in spatial, ecological, social, economic and cultural sense. Therefore it would be necessary for each tourist region to find out what their carrying capacities are. "The carrying capacity of a tourist resort may be defined as the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time without causing destruction of the physical, economic and socio cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of the visitors satisfaction."(wto, 1981) The carrying capacity assessment has become one of the main techniques of tourism planning and management. Its aim is to determine the upper desirable limits of development, that is, the optimal use of tourism resources. The understanding of what carrying capacity assessment means in the field of tourism has been evolving over the years, from the orientation to easily measurable physical and ecological parameters through to the socio demographic, socio cultural and economic parameters that are not so easy to measure. Therefore, in determining tourism carrying capacity in the Mediterranean, three groups of parameters, namely a) physical-ecological parameters, b) socio-demographic and c) political-economic parameters, should be specially discussed. Ad a) Physical-ecological parameters refer to all the fixed and flexible components of the natural environment, as well as infrastructural systems, since these are mostly linked to natural resources. The fixed components include ecological capacity, the natural heritage capacity, length of the coastline, climate, etc. As these elements are mostly easy to measure, it is necessary to determine their numerical values that will then serve as the basis for determining the total carrying capacity. As an illustration of this we give some numerical values of those fixed components applied in some Mediterranean countries; in Turkey the maximum number of tourists per surface unit (tourist density) is 100 persons per 1 hectare the ratio of the number of tourists and local resident population in France is 3:1 in areas where the population density is less than 25 people per km 2 and 2:1 in areas with higher population density

9 density of users on sandy beaches in Rhodes (Greece) is: 6 m 2 per bather for medium category hotels and similar establishments and 8 m 2 per bather for high category hotels and establishments; in Cyprus it is 6 m 2 per bather for the sandy beaches, m 2 per bather for mixed beaches and 30 m 2 per bather on the rocky beaches length of the beach coastline per person; in Brijuni, Croatia it is 2 m of the beach coastline per person or 5 m per person if it is a nudist beach (Brijuni is a highly sensitive area and develops high category tourism) the zones exclusively used for tourism purposes cover the areas that are at least 1000 m far from the seashore in Cyprus, in Spain these zones shouldn't be nearer than 500 m considering the topographic characteristics of the terrain, in Italy it is 300 m and so on. The flexible components refer primarily to infrastructural system, that is water supply, sewerage, electricity and gas supply, transportation (road traffic in particular), public services such as postal and telecommunication services, health care, etc. Although the capacity of infrastructural systems is comparatively easy to measure, the numerical values cannot be used as the basis for determining their carrying capacity but rather as a framework for orientation. That is because economic and political factors may have considerable influence on the raising of the infrastructural carrying capacity limits through eventual state investments in infrastructure. However, we shall give some numerical values of the infrastructural parameters used in different Mediterranean countries as an illustration of their intervention in that field; the water supply parameters; in Cyprus the quantity of water per hotel bed is 0,43 m 3 or 2,5 beds per 1 m 3 of water daily in the high category hotels the parameters regarding the traffic infrastructure require that the immediate coastal belt can be used only by pedestrians with the exception of the ambulance or firemen vehicle; in Spain that belt is 6-20 m wide in Spain motor vehicles are allowed to approach the seashore not closer than 500 m, walking paths can be made at least 200 m far from the very seashore the road categories are determined regarding the sensibility level of the tourist zone; for example in Israel roads of the lowest category in undeveloped tourist zones have to be 4 m wide with the minimum 20 m arch radius, local roads in the middle developed zones are 7 m wide with the 50 m arch radius; regional roads in developed zones are from 7-10 m wide with the 150 m arch radius and highways in the most developed zones are m wide with the 500 m arch radius. - the maximum number of the parking places considering the destination's sensibility level (in Israel it is 150 m 2 or 6 places in undeveloped areas; 3000 m 2 or 120 places in the most developed tourist areas) the motor boats are not allowed to approach the coast, especially the beaches (in most of the Mediterranean countries they are not to come closer than 100 m, in France it is 50 m)

10 the number of anchors in marines is also determined regarding the sensibility level of a zone (in Israel the allowed number of anchors is 20 in the most sensitive areas and 500 in the least sensitive and in tourist sense the most developed zones). Ad b) The socio-demographic parameters refer to all the elements that concern social communities as well as local resident population with tourists and their interrelations. Unlike the demographic elements that are in general easier to measure (available man power, educational level of workers), the sociocultural parameters such as cultural identity of the local population, tourist experience and the absorbing capacity for receiving new workers and tourists are less measurable. Ad c) The political-economic parameters primarily refer to the anticipated investments and economic measures for tourism development. These issues should be attempted to quantify, wherever possible, particularly with regard to the lower limits of the total carrying capacity. Although these parameters are mostly corrective factors of the physical-ecological and sociodemographic parameters, in many cases they have had a key role in determining carrying capacity. Instead of conclusion: Planning as the process of coordination of tourism development harmonized with its environment From the above analysis, it can be concluded that there are numerous problems on the relation of tourism versus environment. Lack of the planning process and passive attitude of the public sector towards tourism development has caused over orientation of the tourist enterprises to profit making behavior and neglecting of the community interests. The process of planning and management of tourism development requires systematic and simultaneous use of social, economic, developmental, ecological and environmental data; analysis should stress interactions and synergy, and a broad range of analytical methods should be encouraged so as to provide various points of view. Aiming at minimizing threats caused by mass tourism, development of selective forms of tourism (such as rural tourism, "Robinson" tourism, etc.) has been suggested. In the same time importance should be given to selective marketing techniques which should attract tourists with developed "ecological" consciousness and which would help in an equally distributed tourist traffic throughout a year. The process of planning and management is aiming at development of so called "sustainable" tourism. The essence of sustainable tourism development is harmonization of the overall local situation with the regional and national interests. In this way a harmonious management of the resources that are the attraction for tourism and of planned tourism activities, is achieved.the set of measures aimed at achieving sustainable tourism development includes:

11 1) Cultural measures which include protection of cultural and historic monuments, manifestations, traditional artifacts and activities connected with the cultural identity of a country and its people, 2) Institutional measures apply at political, administrative and economic measures aimed at even distribution of costs and benefits in tourism 3) Developmental measures coordinate all the activities that help the implementation of tourism into certain area respecting its specific features. These measures are aimed at achieving long term developmental objectives of an area. 4) Promotional and marketing measures are aimed at the market exploring, tourist product diversification, development of distribution channels using modern technology. All this is aimed at strengthening the competitive position of a certain country or destination on the international tourist market. 5) The resource use strategy consists of the measures and parameters which ensure that the use of resources is within the limits that protect them out of devastation. Bibliography: i) Books; 1. Alfier, D. (1975): The Protection of Nature in the Process of Tourism Development, doctoral dissertation, Zagreb, Faculty of Economics 2. Dulèiæ, A. (1990): Tourism, the Principles of Development and Practice, Zagreb, Institute for tourism 3. Pearce, D.(1981): Topics in Applied Geography - Tourist Development, New York, Longman Ltd. ii) Contributions in collective works: Apostolides Patrocles, Crosby A., Terzibasoglu E. (1989): Guidelines for an Environmental Approach to the Planning and Management of Tourist Development in Mediterranean Coastal Zones: Institute for Tourism Zagreb & Priority Action Programme/Regional Activity Centre, Split iii) Articles: 1. Hitrec, T.(1988): The Future of Tourism on the Mediterranean and Cooperation of the Nonalined Coastal Countries, Turizam, No. 4, 1988, pp Klariæ, Z. (1987): The Actual State of Tourism Development on the Mediterranean versus Environment, Turizam, No. 9, 1987,pp Saturation of Tourist Destination, Report of Secretary General, (1981), WTO, Madrid iv) Statistical sources: 1. Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, (1995): WTO, I & II vol, 47.ed. Madrid 2. Compendium of Tourism Statistics , (1996): WTO, Madrid 3. International Financial Statistics (1997): International Monetary Fund, New York