Adventure Leisure and Ecotourism: country Sweden
Activities site attractions in Sweden
According to recent researches, this country is among the top eco-tourism destination country. Tourists are motivated to visit Sweden for tourism activities but also participate in environmental conservation. Ecotourism has been playing a pivotal role in contributing to Sweden tourism industry and economic growth. Skiing and bathing, among other ecotourism activities, are named among the top GDP generators in Sweden. Everyone would feel motivated to visit this country from it has many tourist attractions destinations incorporated with positive protection of the ecology.
- National parks
Sweden is a unique country. It has fascinating rolling hills and virgin mountainous terrain. In the efforts of preserving the habitats for wildlife, it comes up with the first park called Sarek in 1909. Famous by then, the government of Sweden has allocated over 731, 589hectares of the land to the preservation of wildlife. It looks like a big park by itself. Visitors from all over the world visit to tour and preserve wildlife and nature (Wall-Reinius,et al ,2019). The history of Sweden and its environment of fighting to protect animal habitats have attracted many people out there. It is through this way it ends up getting thousands of tourists visiting to see wildlife and the unspoiled land. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
- Arctic circle adventure
People out there wishing to have an experience of adventures in the Arctic circle get the opportunity to do that in Sweden. Ecotourists visit Swedish Lapland national parks get chances of enjoying a unique environment. Ecotourists mostly visit this region as they come to learn about an indigenous group of people. Sami, who are herders, they display a culture that is unique and exotic (Larm et al,2018).
In Swedish Lapland, visitors will get the opportunity to observe waterfalls, glacial lavers, and also mountain hiking. These activities are done with a lot of observation from the tour guides to ensure that the environmental conservation concept is integrated into the tour.
- Hiking trails
We have many hiking mountainous landscapes in Sweden. Exciting many of the tourists with a passion for ecotourism.King’s trail covers over 400 kilometers, has plateaus, land spaces, and bubbling brooks that boast trailing activities. This attraction suite stretches from Abisko national part all the way to Hemavan. We also have Vasalopp trail in Dalarna province, Sweden. A tourist attraction site, it has attracted much ecotourism. In this nation, everyne has granted the right to access all parts of the ecosystem provided that the tourists protect the environment.
- Timber rafting
Since this country has a tranquil environment, ecotourists enjoy the rating on rope and timber, then drifting through fascinating villages, nature is beautiful, and the environment offers better moods to the visitors. In varmaland, many visitors have been practicing this enjoyable activity. Klaralven River is named as the fascinating site to have this delightful experience. People from America, China, and the United Kingdom visit this place to have such moments. Tourists enjoy floating downstream of the ume river in timber rafting at the Ume river. Additionally Trout fishing in Morrumsan Sweden is top tourist attraction. Many Eco tourists enjoy this activity where they mostly visit during the sporting to participate in fishing and also riding bikes on dirt roads and forest tracks like in Gotland.
Negative impacts
The ecotourism has led to clearing of lands, and vegetation covers to make the roads across the Swedens national parks have contributed to climate change in the following ways.
The is a reduction of the landscape since the ecosystem is destroyed by clearing the land resource during the construction of infrastructure or other amenities near the national parks or tourist attraction sites.
Loss of biodiversity is also common if the part of the forest is cleared to build big hotels for accommodation purposes of the Eco-tourists this is a negative impact.Increment of natural hazards like some of the tourists can be ignorant or careless and cause fires in natural resources like forest covers. This will destroy the land and wildlife resulting in loss of its values
There have been government policies seeking the reduction of GHGS, now setting such a system might affect the tourists due to the higher cost of transport. Consequently, the Eco tourists will move to other regions or change their intention of visiting Sweden .this affects the mobility of the tourists.
Indirect societal change impacts there could be possibility of indirectly affecting the society. Due to climate change, the community tended to believe that there is increased in population and human activities meaning that there will be a risk at the economy of the county in future. Political instability or social unrest can affect the tourists’ intension and quit their plans of visiting a country. Due to industrialization and GHG emissions, Sweden is at risk of having an increase in temperature in the mountains landscape. This will affect the tourism sector since there will be a reduction of snow cover.
Direct impacts
In Sweden there are increased chances of coastal erosion due to many activities by tourists such as over trailing. These affects the soil living organisms indirectly thus harming nature.
Damage of the infrastructure, since tourists could misuse the countries roads, mostly making them impassable and leaving the roads in poor condition meaning there can be destruction of environment when trying to find alternative paths to the game parks.
Increase of vector born infections to the local people, mostly from the tourists, meaning that the community might be at risk of having hill health condition.
Water availability changes which affect the natural resources, and thus course drying of the beauty lakes and rivers where better tourist attraction like timber rafting takes place (Margaryan & Fredman, 2017).
Environmental hazards
Heavy logging –although there are policies governing timber harvesting in Sweden, illegal logging is a problem in Sweden. This destroys the life of some Eco-tourists attracting species like Moss, fungi white-backed woodpecker, and destroy the habitat of the wildlife.
Pollution – mostly coming from agriculture and waste treatment facilities.Thsui districts water resources killing the fish and other sea animal and tourist attraction sites(Koninx, 2018).
GHGS emission –Urbanization and industrialization in Sweden has resulted in a threat of natural resources such as water and plants and animal resources.In most lakes, the quality of water is acidic, risking the life of the fish, this result from industrial wastes dumped in water or next to natural resources and get washed to the water bodies killing fish and water habitat gets destroyed..
Local people
The local Swedish people are rich in their culture. They protect it and are sources of ecotourism attraction, the local villages are fascinating, and their social life is incorporating their indigenous and traditional practices.For instance, the Sami reindeer herding culture (Leu, (2019).
And also, their traditional cooking, they serve conventional foods as per the ancient culture.
For instance, a community in some parts of Sweden is harder ad tourists visit their areas to learn about the cultural values and ways of life.
Job opportunities in the tourism industry, many local people get employed in the hotel industries or ecotourism sector as tour guides. Generally improving the living standards of the local people and the country’s economy at large.
Intercultural exchange can affect the local people, since some can adopt, different cultures and ways of life, like start dressing and cooking like the ways they learned from foreigners.
The challenges come in that when, tourists come to Sweden, mostly when adapting foreign culture which could make people ignore their culture fully .It is important to consider and respect the Swedish culture of being forest cover managers. But some of tourist motivate the locals towards poaching and illegal logging .This affects the quality of the natural resources impacting the Sweden’s tourism.
References
Koninx, F. (2018). Ecotourism and rewilding: the case of Swedish Lapland. Journal of Ecotourism, 1-16.
Larm, M., Elmhagen, B., Granquist, S. M., Brundin, E., & Angerbjörn, A. (2018). The role of wildlife tourism in conservation of endangered species: Implications of safari tourism for conservation of the Arctic fox in Sweden. Human dimensions of wildlife, 23(3), 257-272.
Leu, T. C. (2019). Tourism as a livelihood diversification strategy among Sámi indigenous people in northern Sweden. Acta Borealia, 36(1), 75-92.
Margaryan, L., & Fredman, P. (2017). Natural amenities and the regional distribution of nature-based tourism supply in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 17(2), 145-159.
Wall-Reinius, S., Prince, S., & Dahlberg, A. (2019). Everyday life in a magnificent landscape: Making sense of the nature/culture dichotomy in the mountains of Jämtland, Sweden. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2(1), 3-22.