Author(s)

S. Zahedi

Abstract

Tourism development in the coastal environment has interfaced with the original characteristics of the area upon which it relied for attracting tourists. An overall review of tourism research on the environment shows that nations do not give priority to environmental sustainability and disregard it to the benefit of economic development. Rapid and uncontrolled tourism development in the coastal zones has exposed their fragile ecosystems to an ever-increasing risk of environmental degradation. Tourism has also impacted on global warming through excessive energy use, transportation, water consumption, waste generation, etc. The impacts of tourism have been sorted into four general categories, with more elaboration on the impacts of ‘3 Ss’ tourism on coastal areas, followed by a few facts about the negative impacts of tourism in different countries; the author presents a general framework for tourism impact assessment in coastal environments. The article ends with some suggestions in the hope of effective transition towards sustainable tourism in coastal areas. Keywords: complex systems, 3 Ss tourism, green productivity index, TIACA. 1 Introduction Tourism is the interrelated system that includes tourists and the associated services that are provided and utilized (facilities, attractions, transportation and accommodation) to aid in their movement [14, p. 2]. The prerequisites for tourism are: attractiveness, facilities, accessibility of destination, ability to travel, and motivation [19, 27]. Tourism in coastal areas is one of the fastest growing types of the world tourism industry, but whether it destroys more than it protects will depend upon how it is put into practice. Tourism development in the coastal environment has interfaced with the attractiveness of the destinations and has changed the original characteristics of the area upon which it relied for attracting tourists. This means

Keywords

complex systems, 3 Ss tourism, green productivity index, TIACA.