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Essay / Unsustainable Tourism Case Study - 1503
The economy of tourist destinations can be unstable with obvious fluctuations in prices and seasonal labor. For example, in The Gambia, almost 30% of citizens depend on tourism to earn their living (OECD, 2009). The development of tourism has caused prices to increase by 8% in Belize (UNEP, 2006). Dependence on tourism to grow the economy is another serious problem, especially for developing countries. For these countries, they might consider that tourism is the best way to obtain immediate profits and would therefore devote too much attention and investment to promoting its development. This results in a reliance on tourism to grow the economy. Malta is a country of 380,000 inhabitants, but was visited by 1.2 million tourists in 1999; tourism contributes directly and indirectly to approximately 40% of GDP (UNEP, 2006). Furthermore, the environmental and social impacts of unsustainable tourism will lead to economic consequences, requiring higher costs to compensate for the destruction caused by tourism on the environment and