Tourists' Impact on Coral Reefs

Nowadays, tourism has become a major force in industry; both international and domestic tourism are bringing many benefits to the economy. It has had sustained growth in the last quarter of the twentieth century. According to Cooper(1989), 'Tourism generates and supports 204 million jobs. This is equivalent to more than 10% of the world's workforce and is forecast to rise to over 11% of global manpower in the early years of the next millennium.' It is hard to believe that the tourism industry would also be the drawback to our society. Yet, everything has two sides, so does tourism; in fact, today travel and tourism may have adverse effects on our environment, both in the land and in the sea. For instant, the clearing of land and forest to provide access for tourists is detrimental to that particular area of the environment Fletcher(1998). Likewise, the sea has been badly affected by tourists wishing to see and examine the coral reefs and to catch the fish.

English: A Blue Starfish (Linckia laevigata) resti...

Ancient Coral Reefs Español: Antiguas Arrecifes d...

This image depicts all of the areas that the Mille...

Constant damage to the coral will cause it to die, which in turn will destroy that local ecology. This essay will describe the tourism-related impacts on coral reefs and some solutions to cope with the situation.

Coral reefs are one of the most important natural resources in sea coasts. They also supply a special living arrangement where by sea animals can work together to benefit each other. According to Zim(1966), coral is one kind of marine invertebrates ;which have calcium carbonate skeletons for support.

The anemone lives on the coral and provides protection for the clownfish who in turn provides food for the anemone. As they provide home to marine animals, coral reefs also block the sea waves to protect shorelines. As it can be seen, the importance of the coral cannot be over stated.