Making holiday's greener

Now Christmas is well behind us, and the winter still seems endless, thoughts at this time of year often turn to the summer holiday.

Newspapers seem especially thick, stuffed with advertisements from holiday companies trying to make us part with our money as early in the year as possible.

Tourism is an industry of high risk and small profit margins, and yet has become the most

successful in the world.

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Unfortunately, perhaps because of the small profit margins, tourism is often one of the most damaging industries to the environment and yet least regulated.

Often there is little pressure from the consumer for tour companies to address environmental concerns, since most people go on holiday to get away from the pressures of everyday life and want to relax without feeling guilty.

Consider the impacts of tourism; the average aeroplane will emit more greenhouse gases than a fleet of cars, while airports themselves are honeypots of congestion and pollution.

Throughout the world there are relatively few areas of pristine coastline that have been spared the strip development associated with tourism.

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Hot countries often have severe water shortages, yet hotels always have full swimming pools, and use large volumes of water for cleaning and laundering.

This may leave local agriculture very vulnerable to drought, while the local sewerage system (if there is one) may be overloaded.

This can cause major problems in developing countries, where environmental considerations are often neglected in the pursuit of the tourist dollar, resulting in raw sewage being dumped into the sea, egg-laying sites for turtles being developed, and coral reefs being destroyed.

Even some of the most fragile places on Earth, such as the Great Barrier Reef, in Australia, are under threat by the weight of tourist numbers.

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There was even the report of a rat turning up on the Galapagos Islands, having escaped from a cruise ship and potentially causing a great deal of havoc for this unique ecosystem.

Although some authorities have tried to address the problem, one of the most controversial schemes was scrapped after a relatively short time.

The Balearic Island (Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza) authorities tried a one Euro per person per night, tax as a way of reducing the damage caused by tourism.

The tax was to help pay for preserving nature reserves, building water and energy conservation projects and funding new cycle lanes.

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Some of the islands' ugly seafront hotels were even supposed to be removed as part of the scheme.

However, due to its unpopularity, after a couple of years, the "tourist tax" was abolished, and the contributions to the scheme were met from elsewhere.

Some companies have tapped into the eco-tourism market, maybe sensing people who want to reduce their impact on the local environment may also have more money at their disposal.

Perhaps, eventually, eco-taxes will become a regular part of the tourism industry and ensure we can all have a guilt-free holiday, safe in the knowledge we are helping to reduce the impact of our two weeks in the sun.

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