Sustainable Tourism

A. Virginia Beach Hotel as "jewel of the waterfront," (Castleberry, 2010, p. 91), later named the Princess Anne.

Making tourism more sustainable is not just about controlling and managing the negative impacts of the industry. Tourism is in a very special position to benefit local communities, economically and socially, and to raise awareness and support for conservation of the environment.

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. About half of the Bay’s water volume comes from salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. The other half drains into the Bay from its enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed. Estuaries are among the most productive environments on earth, creating more organic matter each year than similarly-sized forests and agricultural areas. Estuaries also provide diverse habitats for wildlife and aquatic life, protect our communities against flooding, reduce pollution of waterways, and support local economies through commercial and recreational activities. Thousands of species

The word Chesapeake, although there is some scholarly dispute, likely means “Great Bay of Shells” or “Great Shellfish Bay” in the language of the Algonquian Native Americans (“Oyster History”). This translation is appropriate and accurate to anyone familiar with the Chesapeake Bay and its rich history of oysters. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States with over 150 rivers and streams flow into its basin. It measures roughly 200 miles in length, 3.4 to 35 miles in width and stretches across six states. The bay is home to over 2,700 plant and animal species, making it one of the most complex and productive estuary systems in the world (“Facts and Figures”). However, one species

The word Chesapeake, although there is some scholarly dispute, likely means “Great Bay of Shells” or “Great Shellfish Bay” in the language of the Algonquian Native Americans (“Oyster History”). This translation is appropriate and accurate to anyone familiar with the Chesapeake Bay and its rich history of oysters. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States with over 150 rivers and streams flow into its basin. It measures roughly 200 miles in length, 3.4 to 35 miles in width and stretches across six states. The bay is home to over 2,700 plant and animal species, making it one of the most complex and productive estuary systems in the world (“Facts and Figures”). However, one species of animal stands out above the rest in its value and legacy to the Chesapeake region: the eastern oyster.

In the early 1600s many Europeans became interested in colonizing the New World. Motivated by the success of Columbus, rival countries wanted to gain land and power in the newly discovered continent. After establishing their American colonies, these Europeans eventually encountered the local Indians. Despite the Indian's attempts to make peace with the colonists, fighting broke out in various parts of North America as more settlers emigrated to the New World. The Indians were annihilated or pushed to the fringes of their territory as a result of war, disease, and slavery.

About 18 thousand years ago, glacial sheets from the last ice age begin to melt (Chesapeake Bay Program n.d.). As the glaciers melted the large volume of water began to raise sea levels. The rising seas levels engulfed the coast and flooded the Susquehanna river (“Geological History” n.d.). Once the seas levels have risen, the temperatures continued to rise changing the landscape. So “oak, maple, hickory, and other hardwood species started to appear” (Chesapeake Bay Program n.d.). Once the temperature increases even more hardwood forests and wetlands are created. As even more of the glaciers melt it floods the Susquehanna river more and it even floods the Potomac, James, and York rivers pouring into the Atlantic Ocean creating the Bay’s

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It is located on the eastern seaboard, with the upper portion of the bay in Maryland and the lower portion in Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay is vital to the ecology and economy of both Virginia and Maryland. There are more than one-hundred-fifty rivers that flow into the bay. Within the Chesapeake Bay, there are around 2,700 species that live there. Needless to say, this is a very important ecosystem that needs to be protected. The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act does just that.

Apalachicola Bay is wide estuarine system located in Florida panhandle and covers an area about 539 km2 (Figure-1). The bay is relatively shallow with an average depth of 3.0 m. It is one of the most productive natural systems in North America and highly recognized by the state, federal and international organizations for its pristine water quality and unaffected estuarine habitats (ANERR, 2008). Apalachicola bay and its barrier islands were formed by deltaic processes of Apalachicola River, which is one the unpolluted alluvial system left in the United States. The bay is surrounded by four barrier islands, St. Vincent Island, Little St. George Island, St. George Island and Dog Island. The water exchange

Growing up in one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in North America impacted my perception on nature from my first thought until now as a young adult. If you are from the south most people get a glimpse of how pretty Florida is but unless you fish, very few people get to check out the Indian River Lagoon. This massive body of water stretches whopping 156 miles and surprisingly takes up over 30% of Florida’s east coast. Here the Atlantic collides with fresh water and creates an epic battling ground for fisherman and a lovely home for more than 2000 animal species (SJWM). I fortunately have had access to this wonderful estuary thanks to my grandparents. They moved into the developing town of satellite beach early on and bought property

When it comes to the topic of ecotourism, most of us will readily agree that it is a less harmful alternative to mass-tourism and that it promotes responsible and low-impact travel to areas where flora, fauna and cultural heritage are the primary drawing power. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what the impact of ecotourism actually is and what its long-term consequences are. Whereas some are convinced that ecotourism provides the basis for sustainable development, particularly in places that suffer from exploitation and excessive resources’ usage, and that could only improve the general conditions of the local people, others maintain that we are still far from true ecotourism, for many are those in the

The use of natural resources to attract tourists, if successful, leads to the obligation of an infrastructure upon ‘nature’. Over time, it is the manmade structures that maintain the desirability of the tourist resort, not the natural features that prompted the original.(Ryan, 1991) Thus by focusing too much on attracting tourists

As mentioned by Rimmington & Morrison (2009), the assistance from different parts of the world presents a new and diverse outlook for future research including theoretical innovations and revelations, cultural and environmental aspects, tourist destination and other ecotourism and recreational aspects of tourism and hospitality industry (Brotherton,

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Retention of Visitor spending: The key to achieving economic sustainability for tourism in (i.e. California and Giants Causeway) is maximising the economic retention of tourist spending in your local economy. The sustainable tourism businesses need to develop strategies that are capable of meeting the long-term economic needs and aspirations of the local community. If the communities are engaged by tourism organisations as stakeholders in tourism, and economic partners in the tourism industry, this will actively support local tourism businesses. Tourism is a rapidly growing industry and has far-reaching economic and environmental impact across the destinations; hence, if tourism is an important source of local employment and a significant