The Tourist Experience and the Challenges of the Environment

Like any other human activity, without containing intentional elements, tourism, being a consumer of space and tourist resources, participates implicitly in the degradation and the pollution of the environment of the tourist potential, either through the direct pressure of the tourists on the landscape, the flora and the fauna, or on other tourist objectives which can be damaged partially or totally, or through the wrong conception of revaluation and equipment of some areas, points or tourist objectives. The natural environment probably represents the greatest wealth of the Romanian tourism. The protection of the environment is thus crucial for tourism. The tourist experience has demonstrated, in time, that, regardless of the type of tourism people practise, a series of impacts results and they are felt by the society as well as by the natural environment. The development of tourism in a certain area must not affect the social and economic interests of the resident population, nor of the environment, and, most of all, of the natural resources which constitute the main attraction together with the historic and cultural sites.