Human-environmental relations with tourism

While the social impacts of tourism in developing countries have been extensively researched, virtually nothing is known about the changes it initiates in human-environmental relations. In order to investigate this interaction, a survey was conducted in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Evidence suggests that tourism is fundamentally changing the relationships individuals have with society and nature in a way detrimental to the goals of sustainable development. Ultimately, the findings might explain the rapid growth in this industry as a self-reinforcing process. Sustainable tourism-or the notion that development can be managed in an environmentally neutral way-might thus be a contradiction in terms. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.