As international travel is becoming cheaper, more and more countries are allowing in more tourists. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

Since the opportunity for travelling is becoming financially acceptable for a wider mass, the number of visitors going to different parts of the world is increasing. Although this process might bring about the issues related to environment, they can be tackled if an appropriate approach is taken, and they are justified by the economic and social benefits which governments may get. On the one hand, rising tourist flow to some countries leads to the adverse effect on nature and wilderness. This happens mainly because, in order to attract more visitors, local businesses and authorities project construction of tourist facilities, which, in some cases, implies destruction of natural areas. For instance, in Croatia, due to the fact that infrastructure for beach resorts have been created by means of removing trees in parts of natural parks, deterioration of soil condition has started there. In order to mitigate the consequences, the government has to allocate money from the state budget. However, this case might have been avoided, if the state counsellors and scientists had estimated possible undesirable development in advance. On the other hand, ascending tourists influx, a country is able to enhance its economic potential and tackle certain social issues. The first positive merit of the developing tourist industry is that it adds significant figures to the gross domestic product. For instance, in Croatia, itself the share of income gained from the tourism makes up 15% on average, which is sufficient to cover expenses from state budget on the major social needs as public education, healthcare and transportation. Another obvious favorable feature is that travelling industry generates a considerable part of job vacancies all over the world. In fact, 10 % of the employed population is represented by those who are involved in the sector. In conclusion, since potential harm to the environment can be prevented by prior modelling of undesirable consequences on the project stage, and taking into consideration the substantial role of tourism in uplifting countries’ economies and in providing employment for people, it is clear that the benefits of the process discussed outweigh the drawbacks concerned.