Last-Chance Tourism Booming; Glaciers, Reefs, Primates, Predators Growing As Tourist Draws

[hatrack]

Shane Dallas has gotten up close and personal with a mountain gorilla. The Australian photographer was bushwhacking through thickets of bamboo in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park when — all of a sudden — one of the rare creatures brushed against his leg. "It appeared from the undergrowth, and I was on such a narrow path that I couldn't move to the side," Dallas recalled. "I just stood there, and the gorilla literally just brushed my leg. It was an incredible experience. It's one of my top travel experiences ever."

That was in 2008. Today, the gorillas' population continues to dwindle. As climate change leads to higher temperatures and more frequent droughts in Africa, humans are moving into the gorillas' habitat. There are now just 880 left in the wild, and they remain threatened by habitat loss, poaching and disease.

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The Florida Reef Tract is the third-largest barrier reef in the world. In recent years, warmer ocean temperatures have led to extensive coral bleaching, leaving the reef a white skeleton of its former self. Climate change has also contributed to more intense storms, including last year's Hurricane Irma, which caused severe structural damage to the reef. Kell Levendorf, an instructor at Rainbow Reef Dive Center in Key Largo, Fla., said he hadn't heard of the term "last-chance tourism" before speaking with E&E News. But he wonders whether it explains a recent increase in visitors.

"We have definitely seen an uptick in the business," Levendorf said. "We're more full than we have ever been. So is it a direct result of last-chance tourism? I don't know. And I would hate to even use that in one of our marketing meetings. But it's entirely possible that that's the underlying, unspoken reason for that." He added, "It's a double-edged sword. It's very bittersweet. It's an increase in tourism, but not for the reasons we want."

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https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060104131

[2naSalit]

1. I also think that

too much tourism is a problem as well. Just going to visit some place does not necessarily foster automatic concern and respect for such places and their environments... Yellowstone NP for example, tourism is destroying it and all those additional visitors aren't very respectful of the resources there and think that they have a right to be disrespectful. I hope that tourism slows down and people start giving a shit about where the already are.