Dear
Sir-As someone who has travelled throughout Asia on business and holiday
I would like to give my opinion on its environmental impact. Having visited
Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia I understand that tourism can bring money
to developing countries. However, this money often goes into the pockets
of foreign investors, and only rarely benefits local people. Multinational
hotel chains also have little regard for the surrounding wildlife when
they build new resorts. This can cause many problems.
In view of these facts we, as tourists, can directly affect these countries
in a positive way if we are thoughtful. When we visit these countries
we can visit restaurants, bars and even hotels that are owned by local
people. In addition, we can refuse to give luxury resorts our patronage
and therefore prevent them from becoming even larger. Most importantly
we should check that any tours or excursions we take have minimal effect
on the natural surroundings. Finally, we can even attempt to change the
behaviour of other tourists by sharing our opinions.
If we follow these simple steps we can be sure that our pleasure is not
causing any harm to people or places that we visit.
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This site created
by
Charlie Williams M.A.
Claire Weetman M.Ed.
23rd June 2003
updated 01/01/05