Environmental impacts of tourism in the Gulf and the Red...

Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

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Marine Pollution Bulletin

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Environmental impacts of tourism in the Gulf and the Red Sea

William Gladstone a,⇑, Belinda Curley a, Mohammad Reza Shokri b

a School of the Environment, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australiab Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o

Keywords:Coral reefDivingEnvironmental engineeringEnvironmental impact assessmentIntegrated coastal zone managementSustainability

0025-326X/$ - see front matter � 2012 Published byhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.09.017

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9514 8272; faxE-mail address: [email protected] (W

Please cite this article in press as: Gladstone, Wdx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.09.017

a b s t r a c t

The Gulf and Red Sea possess diverse coastal and marine environments that support rapidly expandingmass tourism. Despite the associated environmental risks, there is no analysis of the tourism-related lit-erature or recent analysis of impacts. Environmental issues reported in 101 publications (25 from theGulf, 76 from the Red Sea) include 61 purported impacts (27 from the Gulf, 45 from the Red Sea). Gulfliterature includes quantitative studies (68% publications) and reviews (32%), and addresses mostly landreclamation and artificial habitats. Most Gulf studies come from Iran and UAE (64%). Red Sea literatureincludes quantitative studies (81%) and reviews (11%), with most studies occurring in Egypt (70%). Themost published topics relate to coral breakage and its management. A full account of tourism’s environ-mental impacts is constrained by limited tourism data, confounding of impacts with other coastal devel-opments, lack of baseline information, shifting baselines, and fragmentation of research acrossdisciplines.

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1. Introduction

The tourism industry represents 5% of global economic activity(Buckley, 2011). With an annual growth rate of 6.2%, the annualeconomic value of tourism surpassed US$1 trillion in 2011 andthe number of international tourist arrivals is predicted to reach1 billion in 2012 (UNWTO, 2012a). Seen as an expanding sourceof economic growth, developing nations have invested in theirtourism industries and in 2010 these destinations represented47% of global tourism activity (UNWTO, 2012b).

The coastal zone attracts the greatest number of tourists(Davenport and Davenport, 2006) and the greatest growth in tour-ism is occurring in the sub-sector of coastal and marine tourism(UNEP, 2009). Coastal and marine tourism activities are diverse,and include activities on the shore (e.g. walking, curio collecting,animal observation, off-road vehicle tours), in coastal waters (e.g.swimming, surfing, boating), in offshore waters (cruising, marinemammal observation, fishing), under the water (e.g. diving, sharkfeeding), and specialist niche activities (e.g. marine research tour-ism, adventure tourism) (Hall, 2001; Orams, 2007; Wood, 2010).The economic value of coastal and marine tourism is significant.For example: (1) recreational fishing, whale watching, and divingglobally involve 121 million people, expenditure of US$47 billion,and employment of 1 million people (Cisneros-Montemayor andSumaila, 2010); and (2) tourism in the Great Barrier Reef Marine

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: +61 2 9514 4079.. Gladstone).

., et al. Environmental impact

Park contributed A$5.0 billion to the Australian economy in2006–2007 (Access Economics Pty Ltd., 2008).

The continued growth of coastal and marine tourism has led toongoing concerns about its environmental sustainability(Beekhuis, 1981; Miller and Auyong, 1991; German Federal Agencyfor Nature Conservation (Ed.), 1997; Orams, 1999; Bellan andBellan-Santini, 2001; Hall, 2001; Jennings, 2004; UNEP, 2009;Bulleri and Chapman, 2010). Coastal and marine tourism candirectly affect the environment through localised pollution, re-source depletion, habitat loss and conversion, habitat disturbance,and wildlife disturbance. Indirect environmental impacts may arisefrom the construction and presence of support infrastructure, thedisposal of wastes arising from the provision of services, introduc-tions of exotic species, and the associated growth in local humanresident populations. Although not documented to date, trans-national and global-scale impacts of coastal and marine tourismarise, for example, from the direct and indirect contributions toproduction of greenhouse gases and water shortages (Hall, 2001;Buckley, 2011).

The Gulf is a semi-enclosed sea bordered by Bahrain, Iran, Iraq,Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates(UAE). Formed nearly 15,000 years ago by rising sea levels, the Gulfis shallow (maximum depth around 60 m) with a varied coastlineof rocky headlands, beaches, and mangroves. The shallowness ofmost of the nearshore waters of the Gulf and the small wave cli-mate, while providing a safe venue for leisure activities, has alsofacilitated large-scale land extension by dredging and filling. Areasof coral assemblages occur in Abu Dhabi, Oman (in Musandam),Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with the best developed coral areas

s of tourism in the Gulf and the Red Sea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2012), http://

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.09.017

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2 W. Gladstone et al. / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

occurring along the coast of Iran and previously in Bahrain. Othersubtidal habitats covering large areas of the Gulf include beds ofmacroalgae, seagrass and unvegetated sediment. With high maxi-mum water temperatures, a large seasonal variation in sea temper-ature, and high salinity, many species exist at the limits of theirphysico-chemical tolerance, and the Gulf has a small number ofspecies of corals compared with other sub-regions of the IndianOcean. The distribution of many corals has been negatively af-fected by episodes of high sea temperatures in the last two decades(Sheppard et al., 2012). Rapid coastal development began in 1970s,with the development of petroleum-based economies in severalbordering countries and the emergence of others as financial cen-tres, with the result that more than 40% of the Gulf’s coastline hasbeen developed (Hamza and Munawar, 2009). Rapid and extensivedevelopment and elevated temperatures are major pressures onGulf ecosystems.

The Red Sea is a semi-enclosed sea bordered by Egypt, Eritrea,Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. The Red Sea is wellknown for its extensive and easily accessible coastal fringing coralreefs, and their clear and warm waters. A central trough in the Gulfof Aqaba reaches a depth of 1800 m. In the northern and centralRed Sea this central trough reaches more than 2000 m. From thistrough, the sea bed rises sharply to a continental shelf which israrely deeper than 300–400 m, and is often much shallower ataround 50 m deep. The width of this continental shelf varies con-siderably down the Red Sea, being generally broader to the south.The deep trough is absent in the Gulf of Suez. The coastal and mar-ine environments and biodiversity of the Red Sea include: welldeveloped coral reefs from Egypt to the central Red Sea of SaudiArabia and Sudan, a distinctive biogeography and large numberof endemic species, the atoll-like formation of Sanganeb Atoll inSudan, and extensive stands of mangroves in the southern RedSea. The Arabian and African coasts of the Red Sea are importantareas for dugong (Gladstone, 2006). The proximity of coastal tour-ism and significant sites for antiquities in the coastal zones andplains (e.g. Shackley, 1999; Al Haija, 2011) has been utilised tostimulate growth in both sectors of the tourism market.

The coastal and marine environments of the Gulf and the RedSea, and their relatively safe conditions, provide many opportuni-ties for tourism. Nations bordering the Gulf that are investing intheir tourism sectors as part of national development and to diver-sify their economies to reduce reliance on exports of petroleum in-clude Bahrain (Bahrain Vision 2030), Abu Dhabi (Plan Abu Dhabi2030), Dubai (Dubai Strategic Plan 2015), Iraq (National Develop-ment Plan for the Years 2010–2014), Oman (Oman 2020), Qatar(Qatar National Development Strategy 2011–2016) and Saudi Ara-bia (Ninth Development Plan 2010–2014). This development hasincluded investment in coastal tourism infrastructure in Abu Dha-bi, Dubai and Qatar (Nadim et al., 2008). There has been limiteddevelopment of commercial coastal tourism in Iran (Saydaie andMoghadam, 2010).

With a longer history of commercial tourism, some countriesaround the Red Sea have established coastal and marine tour-ism industries, and their continued development is a goal ofthe national development plans of Egypt (Sixth Five-Year Plan2007–2012) and Jordan (National Tourism Strategy 2011–2015). With some of the least developed countries in the worldsurrounding the Red Sea, coastal and marine tourism is seen asan opportunity for national development, education, and pov-erty reduction in countries such as Eritrea (National TourismDevelopment Plan), and Yemen (Third Five-Year Socio-EconomicDevelopment Plan for Poverty Reduction 2006–2010). Tourismin the Middle East (including the countries bordering the Gulfand Red Sea) is expected to grow by at least 5% per year upto 2020, with growth projections for other regions of 4.1%(UNWTO, 2010).

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Alongside national development plans that ambitiously pro-mote tourism development, numerous reviews of the state ofthe environment of the Gulf (Khan, 2007; Hamza and Munawar,2009; Sheppard et al., 2010; Sale et al., 2011) have raised gen-eral concerns about the environmental impacts of tourism.However, the environmental impacts of coastal and marinetourism in the Gulf countries have not been systematically doc-umented or reviewed. This review will highlight gaps in currentunderstanding of the environmental impacts of tourism andshould stimulate further research in this area and improve envi-ronmental decision-making. There is additional value in makinga comparison of the Gulf and the Red Sea. Similar to the Gulfsituation, regional reviews of the Red Sea have described theenvironmental issues associated with coastal and marine tour-ism (Gladstone et al., 1999; Shaalan, 2005; Kotb et al., 2008).The Gulf and the Red Sea are both semi-enclosed regional seasin extreme environments where species in many assemblagesoccur at the limits of their distribution and tolerance. Theproximity of nations in the Gulf and Red Sea means that envi-ronmental issues associated with tourism are potentially trans-boundary issues in both regions. The two regions have similarhistories of recent massive coastal development stemming frompetroleum-based economies. One country (Saudi Arabia) hascoastlines in both the Gulf and the Red Sea. Hence, there maybe models of tourism assessment and management in one thatcan be applied in the other.

Our aim is to document the research that has been undertakeninto the impacts of coastal and marine tourism on the environmentof the Gulf, review these impacts, and compare these with the RedSea. Our focus is commercial tourism activities that occur in thecoastal zone and national marine waters. We have adopted an eco-system-scale perspective of the coastal zone to include the wadisand coastal plain, in recognition of the ecological linkages betweenthese areas and coastal and offshore habitats. We review the im-pacts of the direct activities of tourists (e.g. diver damage to corals)and the impacts of the facilities (e.g. resorts, marinas, artificial bea-ches) and services (e.g. water supply) associated with coastal andmarine tourism. This review addresses ‘local’ impacts rather thanglobal-scale impacts e.g. we have not reviewed the impacts ofcoastal and marine tourism on greenhouse gases. The socio-cul-tural impacts of coastal and marine tourism are not considered,although we recognise that this is an area of special concern. Theapproaches taken involved: documenting the current coastal andmarine environmental tourism activities, searching for publishedscientific literature (i.e. journal articles, book chapters), reviewingthese sources, listing the environmental impacts purported to beassociated with tourism, and appraising the evidence for theseimpacts.

2. Methods and materials

International tourist arrivals in bordering countries were usedas a proxy to examine general trends in tourist activity in the Gulfand Red Sea between 1995 and 2010. Statistics were obtained fromUWTO tourism highlights 2000–2010 available at http://mkt.unwto.org/en/content/tourism-highlights and http://www.indexmundi.com/facts (accessed 1st June 2012). Coastal and mar-ine tourism activities in each region were investigated by search-ing official tourism websites of bordering countries in the RedSea (Egypt, Eritrea, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen)and the Gulf (Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Ara-bia, UAE).

A systematic search was conducted to capture literaturerelevant to tourism-related environmental issues in the Gulfand Red Sea. Two data-bases were searched: Web of Science


http://mkt.unwto.org/en/content/tourism-highlights

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http://www.indexmundi.com/facts

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W. Gladstone et al. / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2012) xxx–xxx 3

(1900–2012) via ISI Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar usingthe following search terms: Search 1: ‘Red Sea’ or ‘Persian Gulf’ or‘the Gulf’ or ‘Arabian Gulf’ and ‘impact’ and ‘touris�’; Search 2:‘bordering country name’ (e.g. Egypt, Iran) and ‘impact’ and‘touris�’; Search 3: ‘Red Sea’ or ‘Gulf’ and ‘individual keywordsidentified in search 1 and 20 (coral, pollution, desalination, diving,infrastructure, construction, dredging, reef, water quality, habitat,turtle, dugong, shark).

Results were limited to texts available in English in peer-reviewed journals, where at least abstracts were available online.Searches were cross-referenced to produce a single list for eachregion. The abstracts of all papers were read and included inthe meta-analysis if they referred to the impacts of tourism, orto services and/or activities related to the expansion of tourism(e.g. desalination) where tourism was mentioned specifically asthe origin of the activity, or where the study area was knownto be a tourism area. In abstracts where this was unclear the fulltext was read. Suitable articles were categorised under the fol-lowing topics: habitat loss, habitat damage, wildlife depletion,wildlife disturbance and management of the environmental as-pects of tourism. Publications were also classified as quantitative(contained empirical data on tourism and/or the potential im-pact), modelling studies, or papers that listed purported impactsbut had no supporting data (e.g. reviews). The citation lists ofthree representative papers from each category were also checkedfor relevant studies that were not picked up by the databasesearches.

3. Results

3.1. Trends in tourism

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of interna-tional tourist arrivals to countries of the Gulf and Red Sea since1995 (Table 1). Tourist arrivals in the Gulf increased from8.2 million to 22.9 million in 2010; while arrivals in the RedSea approximately tripled during the same period to reach in ex-cess of 32.9 million people. Average growth rates for individualcountries bordering these regions were 5–18% per annum. Atrend in both regions was the tendency for arrivals to be domi-nated by relatively few countries. In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia andUAE accounted, respectively, for 47% and 32% of total arrivalsin 2010, whereas in the Red Sea tourists primarily visited Egypt(43%), Saudi Arabia (33%) and Jordan (13.9%). Exceptions to aver-age growth rates included Sudan (33%) and Iraq (46%), with thelatter having no arrival data for several years; and Eritrea, whichexhibited slightly negative growth. It should be noted, that arri-val data for Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait were obtainedprimarily from http://www.indexmundi.com/fact as figures wereeither disparate or excluded from UWTO tourism highlights2000–2010. Assumedly this was due to unreliable or unavailablestatistics related to political conflicts, or lack of government co-ordination. Regardless, we included these statistics to illustratebroad trends.

3.2. Coastal and marine tourism in the Gulf and Red Sea

Coastal and marine tourism in the Gulf and Red Sea involvesdistinct land-based facilities/activities and sea-based facilities/activities (Table 2). Some activities are not mutually exclusive.For example, the promotion of SCUBA diving frequently high-lighted the possibilities of interactions with iconic species suchas dolphins, dugongs, sharks, and whale sharks, overlapping withthe impacts of boat-based observational activities. Almost allfacilities and activities were promoted in both the Gulf and theRed Sea.


3.3. Publication analysis

Twenty-five papers have been published in peer-reviewed jour-nals and conference proceedings on the impacts and managementof coastal and marine tourism in the Gulf (Table 3). Published pa-pers addressed different issues relating to: habitat loss (7 papers),habitat damage (11 papers), wildlife depletion (4 papers), wildlifedisturbance (10 papers), and tourism management (7 papers).Twenty-seven different impacts have been suggested, with landreclamation (6 papers) and the replacement of natural by artificialhabitats (5 papers) being most reported. Seventeen papers (68%)included quantitative data, with remaining papers being solely re-views of potential direct and indirect environmental impacts. Pub-lished papers involved studies from Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar,Saudi Arabia, and UAE (Fig. 1a). Most papers focused on issues inUAE (10 papers) and Iran (6 papers), while nine papers incorpo-rated a Gulf-wide approach.

Seventy-five papers about the environmental issues associatedwith coastal and marine tourism and their management in theRed Sea have been published. Research has addressed: habitat loss(8 papers), habitat damage (44 papers), depletion of physical re-sources (1 paper), wildlife depletion (4 papers), and wildlife distur-bance (4 papers) (Table 3). Forty-five distinct impacts have beensuggested, and the greatest number of studies has addressed coralbreakage by divers, snorkelers and reef walkers (28 papers). Fiftypapers have addressed aspects of the environmental managementof coastal and marine tourism. Published papers reported on re-search in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia (Fig. 1b), withthe largest numbers of papers involving studies in Egypt (70% pub-lished papers). Sixty-one papers (81%) reported on the results offield studies (by including data, photographs of impacts, etc.), 2 pa-pers were modelling studies, 3 papers were a form of managementplan, and 8 papers were reviews of existing information and issues.

3.4. Environmental impacts in the Gulf

In the Gulf, land reclamation for coastal infrastructure has di-rectly led to the loss of fringing coral reefs, sandy embayments,seagrass meadows, wetlands and mangrove forests. Impacts inthe source habitat from dredging to provide fill materials includedirect habitat loss, persistent sediment plumes, and degraded sed-iment quality (Sheppard et al., 2010). Publications which quantifythe amount of different habitat types lost were limited to Abu Dha-bi, UAE (4 papers) (Fig. 2a). In most cases, knowledge of habitattypes lost was based on previous known habitat distributions ver-sus observations of current status. For example, in Dubai historicalstudies indicate that much of the coastline was originally fringedby relatively dense coral growth thought to be lost prior to 2007during rapid constructions (Sheppard et al., 2010). However, wefound no peer-reviewed publications which documented the ex-tent of this loss. In addition, most areas studied were multi-use(i.e. residential, recreational, and commercial) making it difficultto determine the contribution of tourism infrastructure alone. Thisis most notable in UAE region with the construction of artificialarchipelagos (e.g. Palm Islands) where tourism-related infrastruc-ture (resorts, hotels, water parks) has been built alongside residen-tial apartments, restaurants and retail outlets. Construction ofartificial waterways, marinas, lagoons, and breakwaters has alsoindirectly caused the loss of intertidal and shallow subtidal habi-tats by altering local circulation leading to inadequate flushing,sedimentation and smothering. Four studies have investigatedthe habitat value of these artificial structures (Table 3).

Tourist activities in the Gulf have been reported to cause habitatdamage, particularly in Iran and UAE (Fig. 2a). This damage in-cludes: breakage of corals by divers and snorkelers, trampling ofintertidal areas, anchor damage to corals, and litter (land and


http://www.indexmundi.com/fact



Table 1Annual number of international tourist arrivalsa to countries bordering the Gulf and Red Sea, 1995–2010. SA, Saudi Arabia; UAE, United Arab Emirates. No data available forSudan.

Year Bahrain Iran Iraq Kuwait Oman Qatar UAE Totalb

(a) The Gulf International tourist arrivals (�1000)1995 1396 489 61 72 279 309 2315 82461996 1201 573 51 76 349 327 2572 51491997 1611 764 15 79 376 333 2476 56541998 1640 1008 45 77 424 320 2991 65051999 2019 1321 30 84 503 357 3393 77072000 2420 1342 78 78 571 378 3907 15,3592001 2789 1402 127 73 647 376 4134 16,2752002 3167 1585 96 643 587 5445 19,0342003 2955 1546 94 630 557 5871 18,9852004 3514 1659 91 908 732 6195 21,6982005 3914 1889 104 1114 913 7126 23,0972006 4519 2735 185 1336 946 18,3412007 4935 2219 293 1182 964 21,1242008 2034 864 259 1378 1405 20,6972009 1262 297 1280 1659 15,3952010 1518 207 1048 1866 7432 22,921

Egypt Eritrea Israel Jordan Sudan SA Yemen Total

(b) Red Sea1995 2871 315 2215 1075 29 3325 61 98911996 3528 417 2100 1106 38 74 72631997 3656 410 2010 1132 30 80 73181998 3213 188 1942 1772 38 88 72411999 4490 57 2312 1790 39 58 87462000 5116 70 2417 1580 38 6585 73 15,8792001 4357 113 1196 1672 50 6727 76 14,1912002 4906 101 862 2384 52 7511 98 15,9142003 5746 80 1063 2353 52 7332 155 16,7812004 7795 87 1506 2853 61 8599 274 21,1752005 8244 83 1903 2987 246 8037 336 21,8362006 8646 78 1825 3225 328 8620 382 23,1042007 10,610 81 2067 3431 436 11,531 379 28,5352008 12,296 70 2572 3729 440 14,757 404 34,2682009 11,914 79 2321 3789 420 10,897 434 29,8542010 14,051 84 2803 4557 10,850 536 32,881

a Definition: International inbound tourists (overnight visitors) are the number of tourists who travel to a country other than that in which they usually reside, and outsidetheir usual environment, for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose in visiting is other than an activity remunerated from within the country visited.When data on number of tourists are not available, the number of visitors, which includes tourists, same-day visitors, cruise passengers, and crew members, is shown instead.Source: World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files.’ (http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/bahrain/inter-national-tourism#ST.INT.ARVL accessed

b Total includes arrivals to Saudi Arabia.

Table 2Summary of the facilities and activities associated with coastal and marine tourism in countries bordering the Gulf and the Red Sea. Activitiespromoted in only the Gulf1 and Red Sea2 are indicated.

Land-based Sea-based

Facilities and infrastructure Facilities and infrastructure– Coastal resorts, apartments, villas, restaurants, cafes,

shopping centres– Artificial islands

– Artificial beaches – Artificial reefs– Artificial lagoons and channels – Moorings– Marinas – Glass-bottom boats– Wharves – Semi-submersibles– Causeways, walkways– Aqua/water parks– Aquaria, museums

Activities Activities– Sunbathing – Swimming– Swimming – Water sports (e.g. kite and windsurfing, parasailing, water skiing, jet skiing)– Snorkelling and SCUBA diving from shore– Coastal/island camping – Snorkelling and SCUBA diving, involving day-trips or live-aboard boats– Dune driving/‘bashing’– Wildlife watching: shorebirds, turtle nesting – Glass bottom boating, yachting, boating, cruising

– Fishing: line, spear, deep sea, fish safaris, game fishing, trolling, multi-hooklines1

– Wildlife watching (boat-based): dolphins, seabirds, turtles

– Wildlife watching (associated with snorkelling and/or diving): dugong,sharks2, whale sharks


Please cite this article in press as: Gladstone, W., et al. Environmental impacts of tourism in the Gulf and the Red Sea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.09.017

http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/bahrain/international-tourism#ST.INT.ARVL

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Table 3Environmental impacts attributed to coastal and marine tourism in the Gulf and the Red Sea. Also shown is the location of the impact, its tourism-related cause, and the source ofthe information. Sources of information have been classified into: 1impact quantified by field study, 2modelling approaches, and 3potential for impact identified but not quantified(e.g. review papers).

Issue Cause The Gulf Red Sea

Habitat loss Land reclamation Althausen et al. (2003), Al-Jamali et al.(2005), Yagoub and Kolan (2006) and Aleet al. (2011)1 Hamza and Munawar (2009),Sheppard et al. (2010) and Sale et al.(2011)3

El-Gamily et al. (2001), Hanafy et al.(2006)1 and Gladstone et al. (1999)3

Installation of protruding structures e.g. jetties,walkways

Frihy et al. (2006)1

Conversion of rocky shores to artificial beaches Riegl and Piller (2000)1

Conversion of shorelines to buildings Sheppard et al. (2010) and Sale et al.(2011)3

El Sherbiny et al. (2006)1

Erosion, due to altered current regimes followinginstallation of protruding structures


Smothering by sediment eroded from artificialbeaches

Riegl and Piller (2000)1

Smothering by sediment transported during/afterconstruction of artificial islands

Burt et al. (2008), Sale et al. (2011)1

Smothering by sediment transported from wadifloodways, disturbed due to flood mitigation


Digging to create artificial lagoons and canals Al-Jamali et al. (2005)1,2,3 Frihy et al. (2006)1

Quarrying to supply construction materials Moufaddal (2005)1

Habitatdamage

Construction of artificial islands, leading to dredgingof adjacent areas to provide construction material,causing trench-like ‘borrow pits’

Sale et al. (2011)1

Long-lasting sediment plumes, arising from dredgeand fill procedures associated with creation ofartificial islands

Sale et al. (2011)1

Dumping of waste from digging artificial lagoons andcanals in fringing reefs

Dar and El-Wahab (2005)1

Smothering by dust and particulates fromconstruction sites


Artificial islands, modifying coastal water movementand flushing rates, and leading to sediment transport

Sale et al. (2011)1

Nutrient pollution, from seepage of garden irrigationwater

Frihy et al. (1996), Riegl and Piller (2000),Moufaddal (2005)1

Oil pollution, from tourist boats Frihy et al. (1996), Saleh (2007)1

Chemical and physical pollution from inadequatetreatment/disposal of human waste

Sheppard et al. (2010)3 Moufaddal(2005), Ammar (2009)1,Gladstone et al. (1999)3

Chemical pollution from desalination effluent Sheppard et al. (2010) and Sale et al.(2011)3

Mabrook (1994), Dweiri and Badran(2003), Hoepner and Lattemann (2003)and Lamei et al. (2009)3

Thermal pollution from desalination effluent Sheppard et al. (2010) and Sale et al.(2011)3


Pollution: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons frompetroleum, air pollution, effluent from industries andsewage treatment plants and storm water runoff,causing degraded sediment quality

Eghtesadi et al. (2002)1

Pollution: from coastal development includingindustrial effluent, municipal sewage andsedimentation affecting % live coral cover and relativeabundance of coral species

Burt et al. (2008) and Jami et al. (2010)1

Degraded coastal water quality resulting from run-offfrom marina

Badran et al. (2006)1

Degraded water quality in artificial lagoons resultingfrom poor circulation, leading to changes in benthos

Dar and El-Wahab (2005)1

Elevated trace elements in corals, causing reducedgrowth

Al-Rousan et al. (2007)1

Pollution from inadequately treated sewage causingcoral diseases

Abdel-Salam et al. (2010)1

Pollution: petroleum hydrocarbons andorganochlorinated contaminants from industrial,urban, recreational and agricultural developmentscausing elevated levels in sediments

de Mora et al. (2010)1

Litter Khordagui and Abu-Hilal (1994)1 Riegl and Piller (2000), Abu-Hilal and Al-Najjar (2004), Saleh (2007), Abu-Hilal andAl-Najjar (2009) and Ammar (2009)1

Inadequate disposal of solid wastes Saleh (2007)1, Gladstone et al. (1999)3

Coral breakage by divers Jami et al. (2010), Kavousi et al. (2011)1,Price (1993) and Eghtesadi- Araghi(2011)3

Riegl and Velimirov (1991), Hawkins andRoberts (1992), Hawkins and Roberts(1993b), Hawkins and Roberts (1994)M,Fishelson (1995), Prior et al. (1995),Hawkins and Roberts (1997), Medio et al.(1997), Epstein et al. (1999), Jameson et al.

(continued on next page)


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Table 3 (continued)

Issue Cause The Gulf Red Sea

(1999), Zakai and Chadwick-Furman(2002), Wielgus et al. (2004), Moufaddal(2005), Rinkevich (2005), Jameson et al.(2007), Hasler and Ott (2008), Tilot et al.(2008), Ammar (2009), Guzner et al.(2010) and Polak and Shashar (2012)1

Coral disease, caused by diver damage to corals Antonius and Riegl (1997), Winkler et al.(2004), Abdel-Salam et al. (2010), Guzneret al. (2010)1

Reduced coral growth due to diver damage Guzner et al. (2010)1

Coral bleaching, caused by diver damage Guzner et al. (2010)1

Coral predators, facilitated by diver damage to corals Guzner et al. (2010)1

Coral breakage by snorkelers Kavousi et al. (2011)1 Hannak et al. (2011)1

Coral disease, caused by snorkeler damage to corals Winkler et al. (2004), Abdel-Salam et al.(2010)1

Coral breakage by reef walkers Hawkins and Roberts (1993b), Leujak andOrmond (2007, 2008a), Leujak andOrmond (2008b) and Hannak et al.(2011)1

Sediment smothering of corals, attributed to reefwalking

(Leujak and Ormond, 2008b)1

Damage to intertidal rocky shore assemblages by reefwalking

Pour et al. Online May (2012)1

Coral breakage by anchors Jami et al. (2010), Kavousi et al. (2011)1,Price (1993) and Eghtesadi- Araghi(2011)3

Frihy et al. (1996), Riegl and Piller (2000),Winkler et al. (2004), Jameson et al.(2007)1 and Gladstone et al. (1999)3

Seagrass damage by anchors Moufaddal (2005)1

Coral breakage by dynamite fishing Riegl and Luke (1999), Riegl and Piller(2000), Riegl (2001) and Moufaddal(2005)1

Coral breakage by boat grounding Riegl and Piller (2000), Riegl (2001) andWinkler et al. (2004))1

Coral disease, due to sedimentation induced byshipping

Winkler et al. (2004)1

Off-road vehicle damage to beaches and dunes Gladstone et al. (1999)3

Wildlifedepletion

Over-fishing, from increased demand for seafood Galal et al. (2002) and Tilot et al. (2008)1,Gladstone et al. (1999)3

Over-fishing, from large numbers of touristconstruction workers

Riegl and Piller (2000)1

Over-collecting of curios and bait for fishing Pour et al. (2012)1 and Price (1993)3 Riegl and Piller (2000)1 and Gladstoneet al. (1999)3

Potential decrease in abundance of fish and shrimpstocks due to loss of nursery habitats

Al-Maslamani et al. (2007) and Hamza andMunawar (2009)3

Wildlifedisturbance

Changes in shark behaviour from feeding by divers Clarke et al. (2011)1

Changes in dugong behaviour from acousticdisturbance and boat traffic

Hanafy et al. (2006)1

Changes in dugong behaviour from habitatfragmentation

Sheppard et al. (2010)3

Changes in dolphin behaviour due to snorkelers Notarbartolo-Di-Sciarai et al. (2009)1

Disturbance to nesting seabirds Hoath et al. (1997)1

Disturbance to fishes and invertebrates by divers Valavi et al. (2009)1

Dolphins: coastal and offshore development (e.g.,land reclamation, dredging, port and harborconstruction), pollution, boat traffic

Baldwin et al. (2004)3

Pollution: petroleum hydrocarbons,organochlorinated contaminants, and heavy metalsfrom industrial, urban, recreational and agriculturaldevelopments causing elevated levels in marine biota

de Mora et al. (2010) and Alyahya et al.(2011)1

Artificial islands, causing localised physical andchemical changes that degrade habitat and favourundesirable species or prevent colonisation of desiredspecies

Sale et al. (2011)1

Artificial islands, causing changes in planktoncommunity composition

Sale et al. (2011)1

Replacement of natural habitats with artificialhabitats, leading to replacement of animalassemblages

Burt et al. (2009), Burt et al. (2010), Burtet al. (2011), Sale et al. (2011)1 and Fearyet al. (2011)3

Depletion ofphysicalresources

Excessive exploitation of surface and groundwater Gladstone et al. (1999)3


ship-based) (Table 3). Depletion of wildlife, particularly intertidalorganisms, has been linked to over-collecting of curios and baitfor fishing and trampling by tourists. However, quantitative data


is limited to Qeshm Island, Iran (Pour et al., 2012). Declines inabundances of fishes and penaeid shrimps have been attributedto the loss of nursery grounds due to coastal developments




Fig. 1. Number of peer reviewed publications on tourism-related environmentalissues in bordering countries.

Fig. 2. Number of peer reviewed publications on habitat loss, habitat damage,wildlife depletion, wildlife disturbance and tourism management in borderingcountries.


(Table 3). There are few studies on wildlife disturbance associatedwith tourism in the Gulf (Fig. 2a and Table 3).

No publications dealt solely with management of tourism in theGulf. Those studies which referred to tourism-related management


issues focused on: the use of remote sensing and satellite imageryto quantify habitat loss, the use of bio-indicators to detect impacts,the design of coastal infrastructure (e.g. breakwaters) to maximisetheir utility as ‘novel’ habitats, the use of modelling techniques tominimise the impacts of coastal infrastructure, and the transplan-tation of seagrass to replace lost habitat (Table 4).

3.5. Environmental impacts in the Red Sea

In the Red Sea, most notably in Egypt, the earliest developmentof tourism infrastructure such as resorts, jetties, walkways, artifi-cial lagoons, artificial beaches, and groynes led to habitat throughinfilling, dredging, digging, siltation, and replacement with build-ings (Table 3). Habitats were also lost indirectly, for example,through altered hydrodynamics leading to sedimentation, updriftaccretion, downdrift erosion, and alteration of natural wadifloodways.

Habitat damage caused by the direct activities of tourists in-cludes coral breakage by divers (22 studies from Egypt (n = 13), Is-rael (n = 8), Jordan (n = 1)), and by snorkelers and reef walkers(n = 9) (Table 3). Purported secondary effects of the breakages ofcoral include reduced coral growth, increased populations of coralpredators, and increased incidences of coral diseases and bleach-ing. The impacts of tourists have been cited as the major cause(Rinkevich, 2005) or a contributing factor (Loya, 2007) to the de-cline of Eilat’s coral reefs.

Tourism-related sources of pollution include shipping, inappro-priate tourist behaviour, tourist facilities, desalination facilities,human waste, run-off and percolating water (Table 3). Thesesources have been postulated to cause chemical changes to seawa-ter, physical damage to habitats, elevated pollutant levels in habi-tats and organisms, marine snow, coral diseases, reduced coralgrowth, over-growth of macroalgae, loss of seagrass, and reducedcoral recruitment.

Declines in abundance of marine wildlife (mostly fishes) in thevicinity of tourist areas have been attributed to tourist fishing,commercial fishing to supply restaurant and hotels, and collectionof marine curios for the souvenir trade (Table 3). Wildlife distur-bance attributed to tourist activities includes changes in sharkmovements, collisions, and displacement of dolphins and nestingseabirds (Table 3).

Forty-nine papers have documented management approaches,management issues, methods of impact assessment or haveincluded management recommendations arising from a scientificstudy of tourism impacts (Table 4). Studies focussed on Egypt(n = 36 papers), Israel (n = 7), Jordan (n = 2), Saudi Arabia (n = 1),and the entire Red Sea region (n = 3). Management of the impactsof divers on coral reefs (n = 16 papers) and rehabilitation of coralsdamaged by divers (n = 4) is the largest group of management-related studies. The potential for active rehabilitation of reef areasdegraded by divers and dynamite fishing through installation ofartificial reefs and coral transplants has been tested. For example,experiments conducted near Aqaba (Red Sea) showed that livingcoral fragments can be successfully transplanted onto artificialsubstrates (Van Treeck and Schuhmacher, 1999). Other significantcategories of management-related studies include research intomethods of monitoring the impacts of tourism and minimisingthe environmental impacts arising from supplying fresh drinkingwater to growing numbers of coastal tourists (Table 4).

4. Discussion

This paper is a summary of findings from the available pub-lished literature on the environmental impacts of coastal and mar-ine tourism in the Gulf and the Red Sea. There are differences in the




Table 4Summary of the literature relating to management of the environmental impacts of coastal and marine tourism in the Gulf and Red Sea. Superscripts have the same meaning asTable 3, with the addition of PLAN = a management plan.

Topic The Gulf Red Sea

Regional approaches Nadim et al. (2008)3

Tourism management as a part ofnational integrated coastal zonemanagement

Hilmi et al. (2012)1 Gladstone et al. (1999), Ibrahim and Shaw (2012)3 and Eid andFawzi (1991)PLAN

Minimising impacts from construction oftourism facilities

Al-Jamali et al. (2005)1,2,3 Frihy et al. (1996), Dar and El-Wahab (2005), Frihy et al. (2006)1 El Sherbiny et al.(2006)2

Marine protected areas (MPAs) tomanage tourism and its impacts

Epstein et al. (1999), Gladstone (2000), Galal et al. (2002), Epstein et al. (2005),Hannak et al. (2011), Samy et al. (2011)1, Shackley (1999), Gladstone et al. (2003)3

Carrying capacity to limit diver impactson corals

Hawkins and Roberts (1993a, 1997), Zakai and Chadwick-Furman (2002), Leujakand Ormond (2007) and Ammar (2009)1

Limits of acceptable change to manageimpacts on corals

Leujak and Ormond (2008a)1

Artificial marine habitats: current use,benefits and managementimplications.

Feary et al. (2011)3

Artificial reefs to minimise diver impactson corals

Wilhelmsson et al. (1998), Hasler and Ott (2008), Ammar (2009), Shani et al.(2011), and Polak and Shashar (2012)1

Access management to limit impacts ofdivers, snorkelers, reef walkers

Ormond et al. (1997), Hasler and Ott (2008), Leujak and Ormond (2008b) andHannak et al. (2011)1

Education to minimise impacts of divers,snorkelers, reef walkers

Medio et al. (1997), Hasler and Ott (2008), Leujak and Ormond (2008b) and Hannaket al. (2011)1

Diver management: industry-basedactivities

Hasler and Ott (2008) and Hilmi et al. (2012)1

Limiting anchor damage Frihy et al. (1996)1

Rehabilitation of habitats damaged bytourist activities

Rilov and Benayahu (1998), Riegl and Luke (1999), Van Treeck and Schuhmacher(1999) and Dar and El-Wahab (2005)1

Managing tourist interactions withwildlife

Notarbartolo-Di-Sciarai et al. (2009)1

Sensitivity mapping/habitat mapping Loughland et al. (2007)1 Abdel-Kader et al. (1998) and Riegl and Piller (2000)1

Monitoring of tourist activities andimpacts

Althausen et al. (2003), Yagoub andKolan (2006) and Valavi et al. (2009)1

Jameson et al. (1999), El-Gamily et al. (2001), Moufaddal (2005), Nasr et al. (2007),Saleh (2007) and Arnous and Green (2011)1

Limiting impacts of supplyingfreshwater for tourism

Abdel-Rahman et al. (2003), El-Sadek (2010)1, Purnama et al. (2005)2, Elsadek andMabrouk (1992), Dweiri and Badran (2003) and Lamei et al. (2008)3

Economic valuation of coral reefs fortourism

Hilmi et al. (2012)1

Constraints to tourism management Riegl and Piller (2000), Ammar (2009), Samy et al. (2011)1 and Rouphael andHanafy (2007)2

Lack of enforcement of regulations fortourism projects

Frihy et al. (1996), Moufaddal (2005) and El Sherbiny et al. (2006)1

The role of ecotourism Yu (1994)3

Industry-based initiatives Dief and Font (2012)1


publication profiles of tourism-related research from the two re-gions. Predictions of the impacts of tourism from studies in otherparts of the world are unlikely to be highly applicable in theseareas because of their extreme environmental conditions, and thepotentially lower resilience of biotic assemblages to anthropogenicdisturbance. Understanding the pressure from coastal and marinetourism is constrained by lack of accurate, up-to-date, and relevantinformation on the numbers and activities of these tourists. It isalso complicated by the fact that some of the tourist activities thatmay have negative impacts (e.g. scuba diving, snorkelling, fishing,anchoring) are also recreational activities, and the stress associatedwith these users is not captured in tourist statistics. In the absenceof detailed information on numbers of recreational users we be-lieve that the pressure from these users in the areas where touristdevelopments occur is relatively small by comparison. A detailedaccounting of tourism’s impacts on the marine environments ofthe Gulf and Red Sea is constrained by the lack of a conceptualmodel that includes all of the possible direct and indirect impacts.Attributing ecological and environmental changes to tourism isdifficult because of uncertainty in distinguishing the impacts oftourism from other coastal developments and environmentalvariation, a lack of baseline information, and shifting baselines.Data on the environmental impacts of tourists’ activities and fromthe provision of the facilities and services is fragmented acrossseveral disciplines. There is also likely to be valuable information


in the unpublished grey literature, however, difficulties in access-ing this limits a complete understanding of the current impactsof tourism.

4.1. Comparisons of the Gulf and the Red Sea

This review has found both similarities and differences in theenvironmental impacts of coastal and marine tourism in the Gulfand the Red Sea, and the reporting of these in the published liter-ature. Although the lifespans of research literature relating to tour-ism impacts in the Gulf (1993–2012) and Red Sea (1991–2012) aresimilar, the total numbers of publications from the Red Sea far ex-ceeds the Gulf. While publications about the Gulf and Red Sea ad-dressed the main issues of habitat loss, habitat damage, wildlifedepletion, wildlife disturbance, and management, the greatest%of papers from the Gulf addressed issues of large-scale habitat lossand from the Red Sea addressed issues related to small-scale hab-itat damage (principally damage to corals due to divers). There areseveral reasons for these differences. The greater total number ofpublications from the Red Sea reflects the earlier development ofnational tourism expansion plans in countries of the northernRed Sea especially Egypt, with periods of rapid tourism growthbeginning in the late 1980s in Hurghada and South Sinai (Hilmiet al., 2012). Large coastal developments related to tourism inthe Gulf countries, principally in the UAE, began in the early





2000s (Burt et al., 2012). In the Red Sea the proximity of coral reefsto the shoreline, and hence to coastal tourism activities and facili-ties, provided a clear focus for studies of impact assessment. Tour-ism developments in the Gulf have been difficult to distinguishfrom coastal developments and the coastline lacks the extensivetracts of fringing coral reefs that focused both tourism and scien-tific studies in the Red Sea. Hence there are fewer opportunitiesfor mass dive, snorkeler and reef walker tourism in the Gulf, andfor its associated impacts. The presence of communities of nationaland international marine research scientists and marine researchstations in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), Eilat (Israel), and Aqaba(Jordan) before the expansion of coastal tourism is likely to havesupported a scientific approach to the investigation of its impacts,including the publication of research in peer-reviewed literature.

The tourism literature from the Gulf consists of a substantialproportion of reviews (32% papers) with a lack of quantitativeand baseline data on the coastal environment to assess potentialimpacts (Al-Jamali et al., 2005; Pour et al., 2012). The phenomenonof shifting baselines is an issue for the assessment of tourism-re-lated impacts in the Gulf (Sheppard et al., 2012). The literature fromthe Red Sea is distinguished by being largely comprised of data/information-based studies (81% papers), although data providedfor evidence of tourism-related impacts varies from photographsto quantitative before–after studies. The difficulties associated withattributing environmental impacts to tourism activities when theyoccur in a setting of complex coastal developments and a dynamicnatural environment are exemplified by the varied interpretationsof the causes of decline of Eilat’s (Rinkevich 2005; Loya 2007).

Distinct areas of the Red Sea coastline have been targeted fordevelopment of tourist activities and infrastructure, includingHurghada and the Gulf of Aqaba coastline from Sharm el Sheikhto Nuweiba (Egypt), Eilat (Israel), and Aqaba (Jordan). These arethe locations of some of the best developed coral reefs in the RedSea and the study areas of most of the publications about RedSea tourism. Large sections of the Red Sea coastline with fringingcoral reefs and well developed coral reefs close to shore have notbeen developed for commercial mass tourism, although there isno estimate available of the spatial extent of this development.In contrast, the extensive modification of coastal habitats (dredg-ing and converting shallow, productive marine areas into land forhomes, recreational and industrial facilities) is a key threat to Gulfecosystems (Hamza and Munawar, 2009; Sheppard et al., 2010). Bythe early 1990s over 40% of the coast of most Gulf states had beenmodified resulting in significant loss of biodiversity and productiv-ity (Al-Ghadban and Price, 2002). The artificial islands being devel-oped off the UAE coastline, in part for tourism, are globally unique(Sale et al., 2011). The role of ‘novel’ artificial habitats is an impor-tant issue for the Gulf given the large scales of coastal modificationinvolved. Although sometimes advocated as ‘replacement’ habitats,recent empirical studies suggest that assemblages on artificialstructures are structurally and functionally distinct from naturalreefs (Burt et al., 2009, 2011; Feary et al., 2011).

Biotic assemblages and habitats in both the Gulf and Red Sea arelikely to have a lower natural resilience to changes in the ambientenvironment and stressors arising from tourism, compared withcoral reef systems in less stressful environments. Concerns raisedin the literature reviewed here include lower resilience of: coralsto stress from nutrient enrichment due to the lower mean nutrientconcentrations of Gulf and Red Sea waters and the semi-enclosednature of water bodies limiting exchange (Wielgus et al., 2003);coastal biotic assemblages to chemical loads in desalination efflu-ent due to low ambient chemical input from terrestrial sources(Hoepner and Lattemann, 2003); corals to sedimentation inducedby divers (Hasler and Ott, 2008); and corals to contact with diversdue to their greater fragility from growing in low wave energyenvironments (Hawkins and Roberts, 1994).


4.2. Quantifying the pressure

International tourist arrivals to the Gulf and Red Sea regionsapproximately tripled during the period 1995–2010, reaching22.9 and 32.9 million people respectively. The Middle East, how-ever, still remains one of the least developed tourism regions inthe world and above average annual growth rates (>7%) are pre-dicted to continue until 2020 (Sharpley, 2002; UNWTO, 2005).While overall growth rates have been significant, tourism growthwithin individual countries has been sporadic, with periods of ra-pid development often followed by minimal or negative growth.This pattern is characteristic of the Middle East, and is primarilyattributed to regular periods of terrorism and political instability(e.g. the Iran–Iraq war in the 1980s, the Gulf war of 1990, the civilwar in Yemen 1994, the Luxor massacre in Egypt in 1997, the IraqWar 2003) (Ritter, 1986; Henderson, 2006; Morakabati, 2012).

Rapid growth of tourism in the Gulf and Red Sea reflects in-creased diversification of economic strategies (Henderson, 2006;Morakabati, 2012). Numbers of local and international touristshave increased in parts of Gulf and Red Sea following the establish-ment of free trade zones e.g. Kish Free Trade Zone and Pars SpecialEconomic Energy Zone (Iran) and Aqaba Special Economic Zone(Jordan). In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and UAE accounted for 47%and 32% of total arrivals in 2010, whereas in the Red Sea touristsprimarily visited Egypt (43%), Saudi Arabia (33%) and Jordan(14%). Visitors to Saudi Arabia are predominantly Hajjis (Hender-son, 2006) and numbers of actual marine and coastal tourists willbe a very small proportion of these arrivals. Countries in whichtourism numbers have grown strongly have: a more liberal ap-proach to attracting non-Muslim tourists (e.g. Dubai, Bahrain andQatar) (Morakabati, 2012), a long history of tourism founded onwell-known cultural heritage (e.g. Egypt) (Henderson, 2006), anda significant investment in travel and tourism development (e.g.UAE and Egypt) (Ritter, 1986; Morakabati, 2012).

Tourism growth in the Middle East has been accompanied by achange in focus from antiquities to sun, sand and sea-based tour-ism (Richter and Steiner, 2008; Morakabati, 2012). For example,in 1998 almost 75% of tourism activity in Egypt was concentratedon the Sinai and Red Sea (Hilmi et al., 2012). A consequence of thegrowth in coastal tourist activity in the Sinai region and the asso-ciated degradation of reefs has been a shift in tourist demographics(as tourists preferring more undisturbed areas move elsewhere)and a mismatch between social and ecological carrying capacities(Leujak and Ormond, 2007). While the Gulf’s tourism industry isrelatively young compared to the Red Sea, recent and rapid tourismdevelopment is also focused on development and promotion ofcoastal resorts and activities. This type of tourism is, however,somewhat limited to the tropical lower regions of the Gulf wheresea and air temperatures remain warm during winter (Ritter,1986). In contrast to the Red Sea, tourism in the Gulf is often basedaround significantly modified, rather than ‘natural’ coastal features(e.g. artificial lagoons, artificial islands), particularly as primebeach locations have already been built over for other uses (Ritter,1986). Although we have obtained data on the numbers of touristsvisiting each nation, the % engaging in coastal and marine tourismactivities is unknown. Surrogate measures such as numbers of ho-tels, hotel rooms, dive boats, and divers provide some measure ofactivity (Kotb et al., 2008; Hilmi et al., 2012) but their relationshipto tourist activities that directly affect the environment is unclear.

4.3. Attributing environmental impacts to tourism

A complete accounting from the published literature of theenvironmental impacts of coastal and marine tourism in the Gulfand Red Sea is difficult. The terms ‘coastal development’ and ‘tour-ism’ are often used synonymously, making it difficult to identify





the specific issues related to tourism (Gladstone et al., 1999;PERSGA, 2006; Sheppard et al., 2010; Sale et al., 2011). ‘Tourism’is used to refer to the direct activities of tourists (e.g. coral break-age by divers) and is also listed as one of the pressures affecting thecoastal zone alongside sedimentation, nutrient enrichment, anddredging (PERSGA, 2006). A 2008 report of the status of coral reefsin the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (Kotb et al., 2008) identified themain issues as being damage from tourism (i.e. from anchors anddivers) and damage related to dredging, land filling, sewage, andpollution. In reality, tourism is a much broader issue than simplydirect impacts of the activities of tourists, and is a partial or majorcause of dredging, land filling, sewage, and pollution.

The environmental impacts of tourism arise from both the di-rect activities of tourists and from the provision of the facilitiesand services that support tourism. The latter can include activitiesthat cause impacts away from the site of tourist activities (e.g.dredging of sand for land reclamation) and at the site of touristactivities (e.g. habitat loss due to conversion to a tourist facility,such as the conversion of a coastal rock shelf to an artificial beach).The unclear manner in which tourism is identified as an issuepotentially constrains a complete understanding of the impactsand therefore their management. This difficulty is not unique tothe environmental issues of coastal and marine tourism, it also oc-curs in assessing the environmental impacts of all tourism activi-ties (Buckley, 2011).

Uncertainties arise in attributing environmental impacts totourism when several human activities are potentially involved,and when studies cannot distinguish impacts from underlyingenvironmental variation. For example: disentangling the effectsof tourist fishing from other forms of fishing in the absence of reli-able fisheries statistics (Hoolihan, 2003); confounding the activi-ties of tourists hypothesised to increase susceptibility of corals todisease with environmental differences between tourist and non-tourist areas (Winkler et al., 2004); distinguishing impacts of rec-reational diving on corals in Eilat from other long term pressuressuch as storm damage, nutrient enrichment, industrial pollution,oil spills, and low tide events (Wielgus et al., 2006); attributingtourism as the source of solid waste and marine litter (Saleh,2007; Abu-Hilal and Al-Najjar, 2009); attributing declines in fishcatches to loss of nursery habitats due to tourism developmentsat the same time as the fishery had been subjected to greater effort(Grandcourt et al., 2005); and differentiating between coastaldevelopments and temperature anomalies as the cause of coral lossin the Gulf (Sheppard et al., 2012).

A particular issue with assessing the literature from the Gulf isseparating the impacts of tourism-related coastal developmentsfrom other forms of coastal development. Major infrastructuredevelopments such as artificial islands in the UAE that require landreclamation have multiple uses, including recreation, commercial,and residential and tourist accommodation (Sale et al., 2011).There are also omissions in the literature in the descriptions ofcoastal developments. For example, Zainal et al. (2012) used his-torical maps to quantify habitat loss due to the cumulative impactof reclamation and dredging in Bahrain. This quantified approachwas rare throughout the Gulf but was not included in our analysesof publications due to the large scale of the study including multi-ple land-uses and the absence of a mention of tourism facilities. Asanother example, desalination is the primary source of potablewater throughout the Gulf and in some Red Sea countries. Growthin the desalination capacity of Gulf and Red Sea countries in thelast decade resulted from growth in coastal populations, includingtourism (Purnama et al., 2005; Lamei et al., 2009). However, therelative contribution of tourism to this growth and therefore tothe environmental impacts of desalination are unknown.

The research we reviewed from both the Gulf and Red Sea re-gions was published in English-language journals from multiple


disciplines. Journals represented biology/ecology, conservation,development studies, economics, engineering, environmental sci-ence and management, geography, physical sciences, remote sens-ing, tourism studies and trans-disciplinary studies. Singlediscipline-based assessments are therefore likely to under-estimatethe full extent of the impacts of tourism. Combined with theamount of information likely to have been published in the grey lit-erature and in languages other than English which were not acces-sible to us, this represents a substantial challenge to appreciatingthe issues we have considered. This difficulty is endemic to thestudy of the environmental aspects of tourism (Buckley, 2011).

4.4. Purported versus documented issues

The need to manage multiple ecological stressors which oftentranscend national boundaries has been recognised in both theGulf and the Red Sea through the establishment of intergovern-mental bodies (Khan, 2007; AFED, 2009). ROPME (Regional Organi-sation for Protection of the Marine Environment) was formed in1978 to manage marine and coastal areas of the Gulf adjacent toBahrain, IR Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and theUnited Emirates. Despite the evidence presented here about its im-pacts, ‘tourism’ is not explicitly listed as a threat to the Gulf in ma-jor ROPME reports (Nadim et al., 2008).

PERSGA (the Regional Organisation for the Conservation of theEnvironment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden) was formally estab-lished in 1995 with country members including Djibouti, Egypt,Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Tourism has beenidentified as a key threat by PERSGA in status reports, protocolsand action plans concerning corals, habitats, biodiversity, turtles,seabirds, land-based activities and marine protected areas (PERS-GA, 2010a). The State of the Marine Environment Report for theRed Sea and Gulf of Aden listed ‘rapid development of coastal tour-ism’ as one of the five major threats (PERSGA, 2006).

Issues purported to be associated with tourism in the Red Seabut not quantified in the peer reviewed published literature in-clude: cruise ship tourism (Jobbins, 2006), declines in fisheries pro-ductivity caused by degradation of essential habitats (PERSGA,2010b), mortality and reduced fecundity in seabirds (PERSGA,2010b) and turtles (Gladstone et al., 1999; PERSGA, 2010b) andoutbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (Gladstone et al., 1999).Growth in tourism, the need to supply potable water, and the envi-ronmental impacts of desalination have been linked in the litera-ture (Table 3). We could not, however, find any controlledecological studies that demonstrated negative impacts of desalina-tion effluent on habitats. The noting of these issues is often basedon expert opinion and, while potentially being true, confirmingtheir existence via controlled quantitative studies is an importantarea for further research. Evidence supporting the recognition ofthese issues as impacts of coastal and marine tourism may be pres-ent in the grey literature (i.e. reports to government, consultancyreports, university theses, management plans), however we didnot assess this body of work because of difficulties accessing it.For example, we found no published studies in the peer-reviewedpublished literature on the impacts of coastal and marine tourismin Sudan. However, research in official reports has documented de-clines in coral cover due to divers at a popular tourist site and oilpollution from dive boats (PERSGA, 2006). Reviews of the nationalgrey literature in both the Gulf and Red Sea relating to tourismimpacts are likely to be productive areas for further research.

4.5. Managing the environmental impacts of coastal and marinetourism

The literature relating to the management of the environmentalimpacts of coastal and marine tourism in the Gulf was a small





subset of the much larger literature for the Red Sea, and addressedmostly issues relating to the assessment and management of largeartificial structures. It is surprising that, considering the massiveimpacts arising from coastal shoreline modifications in bothregions, there is only one study from the Gulf (Al-Jamali et al.,2005) and the Red Sea (Frihy et al., 2006) on alternative lessdestructive methods of coastal infrastructure construction.Management-related literature from the Red Sea was concernedwith alternative approaches to management, the failures ofmanagement, and novel approaches to assessment, managementand environmental rehabilitation. A large number of ecologicaland other studies concluded with recommendations for manage-ment (Epstein et al., 1999; Zakai and Chadwick-Furman, 2002;Frihy et al., 2006; Jameson et al., 2007; Leujak and Ormond,2008a; Hannak et al., 2011); however, there has been no analysisof the uptake of these suggestions in management practices. Aparticular gap is the failure to implement quotas on carryingcapacity of reefs for divers that were formulated from detailedecological research (Hawkins and Roberts, 1993a; Hasler and Ott,2008), although we recognise that these may be implemented viamanagement plans not captured in this review of publishedliterature.

None of the management-related papers we reviewed from theGulf literature involved controlled studies of the effectiveness ofmanagement actions implemented to reduce tourism impacts.Studies of management effectiveness in the Red Sea assessed theeffectiveness of: walkways to limit coral breakage (Ormond et al.,1997), diver exclusion zones (Epstein et al., 1999; Epstein et al.,2005), diver education (Medio et al., 1997), artificial reefs forreducing diver pressures on already stressed natural reefs (Polakand Shashar, 2012), and MPAs for managing impacts of tourism-related fishing (Galal et al., 2002). An emerging trend in tourismresearch in the Red Sea, that has not occurred so far in the Gulfliterature, is the integration of social and ecological sciences inthe formulation of actions for tourism management (Leujak andOrmond, 2007; Leujak and Ormond, 2008b; Hannak et al., 2011;Shani et al., 2011). Partnerships between ecological and socialsciences are likely to provide more effective solutions to limit theimpacts of tourism activities (Buckley, 2011). Other than these,consideration of the effectiveness of management is limited to dis-cussions of potential and/or real reasons for management failures(Gladstone et al., 1999; Riegl and Piller, 2000; Nadim et al.,2008). The small research base that investigates the effectivenessof tourism management in the Gulf and Red Sea is a limitationfor effective management, particularly the evaluation of alternativemanagement approaches. This situation also contrasts with marinetourism research elsewhere, where controlled studies have evalu-ated effectiveness of a range of management interventions (Orams,1997; Dinsdale and Harriott, 2004; Davenport and Davenport,2006; McClanahan et al., 2006; Lamb and Willis, 2011).

5. Conclusion

Efforts by nations around the Gulf and Red Sea to diversify theirnational economies and foster development through tourism areproducing major increases in tourist numbers. Research in bothregions is providing a better understanding of the environmentalimpacts of coastal and marine tourism, although uncertainty re-mains about numbers of these tourists. We have listed the rangeof environmental impacts that have been attributed to tourism,and in doing so have shown that the evidence for several of theseimpacts is either lacking or confounded. A detailed accounting ofthe direct and indirect impacts is constrained by the lack of aconceptual framework of the full extent of this sector’s potentialimpacts that allows for tourism’s impacts to be disentangled from


the impacts of other human activities occurring in the coastal zone.Only then will the consequences of national tourism developmentaspirations be known. An elaboration of the model proposed by ElSherbiny et al. (2006) that incorporates activities, stressors ema-nating from activities, and pathways to ecological receptors is auseful starting point. Information from other parts of the worldabout linkages between activities, stressors and ecological recep-tors will be of some but limited value because of the extreme envi-ronmental conditions in the Gulf and Red Sea and the differentresiliences of biological assemblages to human activities. Poorunderstanding of baseline conditions, and shifting baselines espe-cially in the rapidly developing Gulf coastal regions seriously jeop-ardise the likelihood of understanding tourism’s impacts andassessing management effectiveness.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the organisers of this special edition of Mar-ine Pollution Bulletin for inviting us to contribute, and the review-ers for their very helpful suggestions. We also thank the SydneyInstitute of Marine Science (SIMS) for support during the prepara-tion of this paper.

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