Tourism and Natural Resources

Tourism is a rapid growing phenomenon and has become one of the largest industries in the world. the impact of tourism is extremely varied. the introduction of tourism will imply an increased stress on resources available and the tourism industry is very resource-and land intensive. an influx of tourists into the area leads to a competition for resources. this competition is compounded by employees working at the tourist sites. almost as a rule tourists are supplied at the expense of the local population. following leamer (1984), standard heckscher-ohlin vanek (hov) equations incorporating measures of factor endowments are used to explain observed trade patterns. the advantage of focusing on trade patterns is that they can be analyzed through conventional theories of comparative advantage. to test whether natural sources distort patterns of tourism's trade, variables representing the natural sources are added to the hov equations and the coefficients tested for significance. we examine the relationship between factor endowments, natural sources and tourism's net exports by heckscher-ohlin-vanek (hov) model in the 15 european countries. the results indicate the travel & tourism sector employment and energy use have negative effects, but arable land, forest area and fixed investment expenditure have positive effect on tourism's trade. the renewable internal freshwater resources flows' region is non significative in attracting tourists.