Tourism in the Republic of Cyprus Research Paper

Tourism in the Republic of Cyprus - Research Paper Example This leads to one thing; sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism is defined to as the move towards making less impact on the environment and culture in a given country while at the same time benefiting economically from it. The main objective is to develop tourism to the point where can continually have a great experience from the sector (Trejos & Chiang, 2009). Different countries have varied policies towards sustainability in tourism. The height of the problems coming from tourism guides policy making in every country. In this paper, we take the case study of Cyprus and the policies that they have adopted towards sustainability in tourism. Cyprus continues to experience growth in the number of tourists visiting the region every year (Gunn & Var, 2002). Its impeccable sites and beauty has made it experience an exponential growth to the number of tourists visiting the region every year. For example in the year 1975, they had close to 47000 thousands of tourists visiting the region. This number is nothing comparable to the 2.25 million tourists visiting the region in the year 2000 (Gunn & Var, 2002). The number has continued to grow in the recent decade, raising environmental concerns. While one can not dispute the economic benefits of such a growth, mass tourism has taken a toll on the environment in Cyprus. For example, in the year 1988, the income from the tourism sector estimated at 880 dollars. Today, the sector accounts for 20% of the overall income in the country (Gunn & Var, 2002). Features such as resorts for various groups, water parks with dolphins gracing them and archeological sites attract millions of people all over the world. The enormous numbers of people have had an impact on both on the culture of the people and the environment as a whole. For one, the noise from the tourists has been unbearable