Perspectives of leisure operators and tourists on the environmental impacts of coastal tourism activities: a case study
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Perspectives of leisure operators and tourists on the environmental impacts of coastal tourism activities: a case study of Mauritius Yashna Beeharry1 · Girish Bekaroo2 · Devina Bussoopun1 · Chandradeo Bokhoree1 · Michael Robert Phillips3 Received: 3 September 2019 / Accepted: 3 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Mauritius is a popular destination for tourists who visit the island for the sun, sea and sand in addition to tourism activities. Although the consumption of tourism activities brings various benefits to the island, there have been concerns over the adverse impacts of such activities on the marine and coastal environment, such as loss of biodiversity and disturbances caused to marine plants and animals. In order to reduce the impacts of these activities on the environment, actions from both the providers and consumers of such activities, notably leisure operators and tourists, are necessary. This paper investigates and presents findings on the perspectives of leisure operators and tourists on the environmental impacts of coastal recreational tourism activities, through answering four research questions. Following a survey conducted within the island, findings revealed a significant negative overall linear relationship between tourism activities and the negative impacts on the environment. The survey provided a means to rank the tourism activities in terms of the harms caused to the environment along with the significance of their adverse impacts. In addition, for engaging leisure operators and tourists towards sustainably minimizing the environmental impacts of tourism-related activities, a framework has been proposed within this paper. Keywords Tourism activities · Environmental impacts · Perception · PDCA cycle · KIE framework
1 Introduction Tourism has been regarded as a major and rapidly developing economic industry around the world and within this industry, coastal tourism is considered as one of the quickest growing areas (Nara et al. 2014). It has recently been predicted that international arrivals * Girish Bekaroo [email protected] 1
University of Technology, Mauritius, La Tour Koenig, Pointe aux Sables, Mauritius
2
Middlesex University Mauritius, Flic‑en‑Flac, Mauritius
3
College of the North Atlantic - Qatar, Doha, Qatar
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are expected to boom annually by 4.3% to reach 1.8 billion by 2030 (UNWTO 2016) and coastal areas remain attractive tourist destinations for millions of visitors who prefer to take advantage of the sea air, sun, water, seafood, beaches and scenic views. The decision to travel to a destination is influenced by several factors, where an important one includes recreational tourism activities. According to Hall et al. (2017), tourism activity here refers to “any endeavour such as experience, game, sport and hobby undertaken beyond someone’s usual environment for a particular duration and that the principal motive behind travelling is not to generate any income from the place visited”. Key coastal recreationa
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