Sustainable tourism and sea turtles: Analysing the Mediterranean experiences

Proceedings, First Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles. Rome, 2001

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND SEA TURTLES: ANALYSING THE MEDITERRANEAN EXPERIENCE...

FOOTSTEPS IN THE SAND Lily VENIZELOS MEDASSET-Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles, Licavitou 1c, GR-10672 Athens, Greece

INTRODUCTION The paper seeks to examine in depth the past, present and future of sustainable development as it affects the sea turtles of the Mediterranean region, in the light of 18 years experience gained in the sea turtle nesting areas of the Mediterranean, examining how man and turtles have come into mortal conflict, the sea turtles the inevitable loser.

THE STRUCTURE OF TOURISM. - ITS STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES The migratory instincts of man, dormant for a time, with modern means of travel have erupted in the formalised annual migration we call tourism. Tourism is an aggregation of a number of very diverse sectors that are often mutually exclusive, ranging from educational or eco-tourism to a cheap foreign “pub-crawl”. It is vitally important that area tourism authorities should clearly define which sector they are aiming at. The impacts on the locale vary widely.

-The early arrivals: Live close to the cultures and environment around them.

-The immigrants: Buy or rent local property becoming a part of the community.

-The day visitors: Arrive from areas higher up the tourism ladder, benefiting the local economy.

THE WEALTHY TRAVEL SET Patronise the first luxurious hotel, the smell of real money permeates the scene, and locals start to look for ways they can cash in. All kinds of peripheral tourist services appear. This is the beginning of the end for Cottage Industry Tourism. Eventually the wealthy set move on to the next “in” destination, and with empty rooms the locals look around for new sources of tourists. Using advertisements they inevitably come to the attention of the Mass Market Tour Operators (MMTOs). Soon major foreign investment in any remaining undeveloped pocket aims to make the tourist captive in its own mass market tourism facilities. The early arrivals have started the whole process elsewhere, the immigrants have sold up and followed them in disgust, the day visitors dry up, the wealthy set avoid the place like the plague. But even this 251

Proceedings, First Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles. Rome, 2001

is not sustainable, the fickle tourists move on. A barren, degraded, culture-less concrete hell has replaced the original idyllic setting. Many of the locals have moved or been driven out.

The only option left is industrial development, completing the environmental and cultural destruction. This is the unending, inevitable chain of events on the tourism circuit, each step following the other so reasonably. Who could deny the local inhabitants the right to pursue their dreams of a better life financed by the tourist dollars?

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT (STD). - IS IT A VIABLE PROPOSITION? The Brundtland Commission definition is “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WC ED 1987). Note the word “needs”, such an imprecise word. It can mean anything from mere survival to Hollywood villa lifestyle. The EC defines STD as “development which meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, and life support systems.” (Eckert and Cremer 1997). Nowhere have we seen this happen on nesting sites. Both of these definitions are formulated with reference to normal, fully functional areas, NOT the biotope of an endangered species. The needs of the present generation influenced by market forces, overrides the need of the future generations to retain severely depleted stocks of species.

STD seems to merely represent a vehicle for addressing the problems of mass tourism rather than as a means of integrating the needs of all tourist groups. (Aronsson 1994, Fyall and Garrod 1996). So far, development on turtle nesting beaches has proved to be a disaster for nesting turtles. We really should not be talking about STD; we should be talking about sustainable turtle populations. In Zakynthos, Greece, the lack of compensation payments on the newly established National Marine Park in Laganas Bay, site of the largest Caretta caretta nesting population in the Mediterranean has led to rampant illegal tourist development. The full horrors of this has been widely reported elsewhere, culminating in legal action against Greece in the European Court of Justice. Recently the protected area of Belek, Turkey, was the recipient of a British Airways award as a flagship for eco-friendly development. The year has seen 800 metres of Caretta and Chelonia nesting beach destroyed by sand extraction, four new hotel complexes, permanent beach furniture, photo-pollution, fishing, with speedboats and jet-skis operating along the shore (MEDASSET 2001). At Akamas in Cyprus, a putative National Park, nesting place for Chelonia mydas, where a World Bank management study called for strict protection and conservation, the Government has given permission for the construction of a hotel complex, a marina, car parks, roads, holiday villas etc. and much more is planned to follow (Yiordamli 2000).

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Proceedings, First Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles. Rome, 2001

SEA TURTLES. - CAN THEY COMPROMISE? Can any endangered species compromise? The sea turtles are unavoidably in direct conflict with the tourists, their nesting coincides with the tourist season. It is clear from experience in Greece and Turkey, that the biggest problems are encountered on turtle nesting beaches when accommodation and entertainment developments are allowed on the edge of the sand, and in the accompanying extremely fragile dune systems.

ECONOMICS. - MARKET FORCES AND PRESSURES According to the World Tourist Trade Council (WTTC), by 2007 worldwide total revenues from tourism will reach US$ 7.1 trillion, almost double the 1997 level and 10.9 % of the world’s GDP. The largest industry in the world. Small wonder that Governments spend vast sums of money promoting international tourism to attract revenues representing up to 10.6% of their GDP and 7% of GDP (Ellul 1996).

Experience shows it is a myth that tourism is a highly profitable industry. Permanent infrastructure built at high cost to provide necessary civil facilities to cope with the peak demands of July/August, are used at varying levels during a period of 4 months, then maintained virtually unused during the remaining 8 months of the year. The industry has to maximise income during the tourist season in order to survive 8 months without cash flow. This is the reason why despite the huge amount of cash flow generated in the season, the majority of tourist developments change hands frequently, and economies are made with the infrastructure, raw sewage and waste is piped into the sea, water supplies fail etc., Unlike some other seasonal industries, tourism cannot use the down season to stockpile holidays. Basically tourism itself is not a sustainable industry.

TOURISM TRENDS AND PROJECTIONS. - STATISTICS AND FORECASTS WTTC forecast in 1997 that over the following decade tourism around the world would grow by 42.3%. That year during 5 summer months charter flights alone delivered approx. 275,000 tourists to the airport at the heart of what was to become the Zakynthos National Marine Park (ZNMP). We could then realistically expect that in 2007 around 391,000 tourists would be arriving by the same method. But, NO, just two years later the figure had already reached close to 400,000, and although figures for 2001 have not yet been published, realistic estimates are close to 500,000. Such is the power of the mass marketing of “cheap” package holidays by organisations in far away countries, who are not stakeholders in the target location and whose profits fill pockets elsewhere. Given 500,000 charter flight visitors. If we assume that they will stay an average of two weeks each, we have 1 million visitor weeks over say a period of 20 weeks, giving an average weekly tourist population of 50,000. We know that approx. 50% of tourist facilities in Zakynthos are along the shore of Laganas Bay, within the ZNMP (Dimopoulos 2001), so from May to 253

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September there are a daily average of 25,000 tourists from charter flights in the 14.2 kmÇ land area of the protected core zone of the ZNMP. Up to 8 (sometimes more) ferries arrive per day from June to September, each with a capacity of 600-900 passengers, so it is easy to infer that arrivals by ferry are in the thousands per day. A survey conducted in 1991, regarding tourist motivations revealed that only 18.34% had reasons to deliberately choose Zakynthos, only a mere 2.5% mentioned wildlife, and a massive 56% said they would have been quite happy to have visited another similar resort (Prunier et al. 1993).

This indicates that the mass tourist trade in the ZNMP is predicated solely on the sales efforts of the tour companies and the willing compliance of the local operators.

ECOSYSTEM VALUE. - ILLUSION OR REALITY? Learned academics have tried to devise a system of biotope valuation in the pursuit of applied STD. However, no biotope can be valued in isolation. One must only appreciate the role that the sun plays here on earth to appreciate this. Can you put a value on the sun? Physical monetary evaluation can only depend on market forces, and we all can see where that gets us.

HUMAN FRAILTIES. - HUMAN NATURE...

Self-interest is the prime motivator. First self, second money, third more money. Only after these will others be considered.

POLITICAL REALITIES. - COST OR CREDIT? In Spain, the front-runner in Mediterranean Tourism, the chief problem plaguing mature coastal destinations which were first developed in the 60s and 70s, is saturation of the urban space, aggravated by seasonal fluctuation. In addition to the environmental impact, this entails a shortfall in infrastructures, e.g., roads, drinking water supply, services and so forth, the remedying of which has called for years of investment. The model is prone to problems in the medium and long term, and a start has therefore already been made on the design and application of measures to limit growth and remedy the greatest impact.

The Spanish government are now providing financial incentives for the tourists to go elsewhere in Spain (Ellul 1996).

SUMMING UP To successfully manage tourism it is necessary to fully understand all the varying facets of the industry, and the different characters of the tourists involved. Is it logical that cheap mass tourism directed at the lager lout or the ordinary family be allowed to inundate fragile ecosystems and endangered species habitats? Many would be just as happy sunbathing beside swimming pools, close by all the entertainment they want without 254

Proceedings, First Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles. Rome, 2001

destroying precious ecosystems. Foreign tour operators whose dynamism is driving the mass tourism growth, must be made responsible for the results of their aggressive sales techniques. Relocation of undesirable tourists should be considered. Harsh, but very just!

Those responsible for tourist regulation in protected areas, or areas with fragile ecosystems and endangered species must make decisions, what places are to be preserved for ecotourism; for cultural tourism; for family holidays; and where to build the mass tourism facilities. Numbers of tourists to ecosensitive locations must be controlled so as not to exceed a finite level at which they will not degrade the location. We have learned that it is wise to control the number of passengers on a boat, what we have to understand is that like a boat, a valuable fragile ecosystem can also sink without trace.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank a Friend of MEDASSET, who gave us the benefit of his 10 year experience in the tourist industry.

REFERENCES Aronsson L. 1994. Sustainable tourism systems: the example of sustainable rural tourism in Sweden. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 2: 1-2.

Dimopoulos D. 2001. A refuge for the loggerhead turtle in the Mediterranean. Marine Turtle Newsletter 93: 4-9.

Eckert A., and C. Cremer. 1997. Tourism & Environment. Questions and Answers Series, No. 3. Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.

Ellul A. 1996. Tourism and Environment in European Countries. Nature and Environment Series, No. 83. Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.

Fyall A., and B. Garrod. 1996. Sustainable Tourism. Towards a Methodology for Implementing the Concept.

MEDASSET. 2001. Update Report on Marine Turtle Conservation in Zakynthos. Council of Europe/Bern Convention T-PVS (2001) 71, Strasbourg, France.

Prunier E.K., A.E. Sweeney, and A.G. Geen. 1993. Case Study, Tourism and the Environment: The case of Zakynthos. Tourism Management 14(2): 137-141.

World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Page 43 in Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Yiordamli A. 2000. Specific file: Conservation of the Akamas Peninsula in Cyprus. Council of Europe/Bern Convention T-PVS (2000) 45, Strasbourg, France.

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