Tourism and conservation

Assessing the impact of tourism on environment is notoriously difficult, and is often hindered by emotional factors or considerations of private interest. Further, data on tourist movements and volumes, particularly on internal tourist movements, and on impact itself, are scarce. It is thus difficult to provide any overview of the environmental impacts of tourists, whether in one country or worldwide. This article examines these relationships so far as data allow, largely within the framework of the UK experience.