TO2000:03
Tourism and the Environment
Townsville, Cairns
Prerequisites: 18 units of level 1 subjects
Inadmissable Subject Combination: TO5002
26 lectures, 12 hours practicals. First semester. Also offered at Holmes College in Sydney and Melbourne, first and second semester and January/February intensive block mode.
Staff: Mr P Valentine, Mr A Birtles (Townsville campus); Dr H Zeppel (Cairns campus)
This subject examines the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the physical, economic and socio-cultural environment. It includes an extensive introduction to key ecological theories and to a wide range of Australian environments and the major biophysical processes which structure them. Current models of tourism development and its impacts are reviewed and aspects of the legislative framework governing the interaction between tourism and the environment are examined. Although the course has an Australian and Asia-Pacific emphasis, it takes an international perspective with examples from Africa, North America and Europe also reviewed.
Learning Objectives:
- to help develop a critical appreciation of environmental factors important to tourism development and the social and biophysical impacts of tourism;
- understanding of the natural processes in the environment and the conventions of environmental scientists in describing and analysing nature;
- practical and theoretical aspects of environmental description.
Assessment by examination, essay, seminar.