Making holiday's greener

Newspapers seem especially thick, stuffed with advertisements from holiday companies trying to make us part with our money as early in the year as possible.

Tourism is an industry of high risk and small profit margins, and yet has become the most

successful in the world.

Unfortunately, perhaps because of the small profit margins, tourism is often one of the most damaging industries to the environment and yet least regulated.

Often there is little pressure from the consumer for tour companies to address environmental concerns, since most people go on holiday to get away from the pressures of everyday life and want to relax without feeling guilty.

Consider the impacts of tourism; the average aeroplane will emit more greenhouse gases than a fleet of cars, while airports themselves are honeypots of congestion and pollution.

Throughout the world there are relatively few areas of pristine coastline that have been spared the strip development associated with tourism.

Hot countries often have severe water shortages, yet hotels always have full swimming pools, and use large volumes of water for cleaning and laundering.

This may leave local agriculture very vulnerable to drought, while the local sewerage system (if there is one) may be overloaded.

This can cause major problems in developing countries, where environmental considerations are often neglected in the pursuit of the tourist dollar, resulting in raw sewage being dumped into the sea, egg-laying sites for turtles being developed, and coral reefs being destroyed.

Even some of the most fragile places on Earth, such as the Great Barrier Reef, in Australia, are under threat by the weight of tourist numbers.