An Enlightening Learning Experience - Essay Example

Tourism is intimately connected with that enjoyable F word – Fun – and that was my original idea at the beginning of this course.Upon taking the module, however, I was introduced to the many dimensions of sustainable tourism of which I, as the typical recreational tourist, had until now no conception. Going on vacation in a far-off place meant worry-free release and doing what one wanted. This module opened my eyes to the fact that “going to a far-off place” actually meant visiting someone else’s home, sharing their food and water, touching their lives.

There is the sudden realization that recreational tours cause disturbances, in terms of diminished resources, introduced pollutants, and altered social behavior and outlook, together with whatever economic infusion the tourist activity had conveyed to the locality. Being a tourist actually carries with it a major responsibility in ensuring that the visit does not damage the community that is visited.In this assignment, on the Galapagos Islands and the prospects of sustainable tourism development, the question is raised concerning the propriety of tourism, even sustainable tourism, conducted as a major commercial activity in certain exceptional places.

The value of the Galapagos Islands is not just as a natural resource attractive for its beauty, but as a one-of-a-kind microcosm of the world’s diverse life forms. It is the only home of at least 9,000 known species of animal and plants living in the Islands and the waters surrounding it (WWF, 2010), species that are unique and endemic to the islands and could be found nowhere else in the world. There is nothing otherwise different in the Galapagos that could not be found elsewhere, except its physical isolation early in the evolutionary process that locked in animal and plant forms that otherwise would have migrated or spread elsewhere, or from external elements from entering the ecosystem.