RR Tourism by Ari Lim

I agree with the writer that tourism threatens a country as it causes negative impacts on the environment. Mass tourism causes many natural areas like forests and coastal areas to be converted into hotels and resorts in order to cope with the rising amount of tourists, which brings about a loss of vegetation areas and a loss of biodiversity. The writer stated that “When coastal areas are converted into beach resorts, mangrove areas and corals that serve as fish sanctuaries are damaged or even completely removed.” This evidence is significant as it shows that due to more coastal land being used for tourism related infrastructures, it affects the flora and fauna occupying these areas, which are the mangrove trees as well as the fishes. It destroyed the habitat of the fishes, and thus the fishes may not be able to survive elsewhere due to the unsuitable environment. Hence this shows that due to deforestation for tourism, it may even result in extinction of an animal species. "Forest area in Singapore was last measured at 3.29% of Singapore total land area in 2011, according to the World Bank." In Singapore, due to our land scarcity, majority of the forested land in Singapore has been converted to form urbanised areas. Tourism in Singapore is one of the factor in contributing to more urban areas, as more shopping centres and hotels have to be constructed in order to satisfy the booming tourism industry. As such, we are losing large amounts of forested land, which affects the environment. Hence, I can conclude that tourism causes negative impact on the environment.