Contemporary Threats to the Development of Sustainable Urban Tourism
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• demographic (environmental pollution is advancing faster than the increasing of
number of inhabitants),
• geographical (disproportion between the possibilities of the natural environment
and development of production factors),
• technical (uncontrolleddevelopment of modern techniques and technologies, from
the point of view of ecological requirements),
• economic (producers do not care about the damage in nature).
The dynamic development of global tourism is conditioned by numerous
phenomena that are both positive in nature, while stimulating development, and
negative in nature, in the form of threats or crises. Threats are mainly exogenous,
periodic or permanent, affecting the state of tourism development, and above all the
levels of tourist offerings and satisfaction of tourists’ needs in urban destinations.
It should be noted that tourist traffic, both destination and transit, is accumulated in
cities, especially the largest ones. Therefore, the negative phenomena observed in
global tourism concern mainly cities and may have a more intense course there than
in the case of areas with developed tourist function in the periphery. Hence, interest
in threats to modern tourism should mainly concern urban destinations, especially
large tourist metropolises.
The most common threats from the viewpoint of the impact on the functioning
abilities of urban tourist destinations include:
1. Exogenous threats, i.e., independent of the functioning of urban tourism
(Panasiuk 2013):
• adverse and unexpected changes in the economic situation, with a mega-,
macro- and meso-economic range (e.g. tour operator market),
• natural disasters in cities and neighbouring areas,
• climate changes, especially for cities located near sea basins,
• prolonged adverse weather conditions, mainly in cities of leisure tourist
function,
• industrial disasters in cities and surrounding areas, including transport
disasters,
• social (internal) conflicts not related to overtourism,
• military and political conflicts (external—bilateral and multilateral),
• terrorist activities,
• migration crises,
• epidemics and pandemics,
• threats related to the use of information technologies (Zhiyang et al. 2012).
2. Mixed exogenous/endogenous, the processes taking place in urban tourist destinations are imposed by the processes depending on the intensity of tourist traffic
overlap:
• excessive transport congestion (Wilk and Pawlak 2014), causing difficulty
getting to and moving around the city’s tourist destination (Riganti and
Nijkamp 2008),
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• demographic (environmental pollution is advancing faster than the increasing of
number of inhabitants),
• geographical (disproportion between the possibilities of the natural environment
and development of production factors),
• technical (uncontrolleddevelopment of modern techniques and technologies, from
the point of view of ecological requirements),
• economic (producers do not care about the damage in nature).
The dynamic development of global tourism is conditioned by numerous
phenomena that are both positive in nature, while stimulating development, and
negative in nature, in the form of threats or crises. Threats are mainly exogenous,
periodic or permanent, affecting the state of tourism development, and above all the
levels of tourist offerings and satisfaction of tourists’ needs in urban destinations.
It should be noted that tourist traffic, both destination and transit, is accumulated in
cities, especially the largest ones. Therefore, the negative phenomena observed in
global tourism concern mainly cities and may have a more intense course there than
in the case of areas with developed tourist function in the periphery. Hence, interest
in threats to modern tourism should mainly concern urban destinations, especially
large tourist metropolises.
The most common threats from the viewpoint of the impact on the functioning
abilities of urban tourist destinations include:
1. Exogenous threats, i.e., independent of the functioning of urban tourism
(Panasiuk 2013):
• adverse and unexpected changes in the economic situation, with a mega-,
macro- and meso-economic range (e.g. tour operator market),
• natural disasters in cities and neighbouring areas,
• climate changes, especially for cities located near sea basins,
• prolonged adverse weather conditions, mainly in cities of leisure tourist
function,
• industrial disasters in cities and surrounding areas, including transport
disasters,
• social (internal) conflicts not related to overtourism,
• military and political conflicts (external—bilateral and multilateral),
• terrorist activities,
• migration crises,
• epidemics and pandemics,
• threats related to the use of information technologies (Zhiyang et al. 2012).
2. Mixed exogenous/endogenous, the processes taking place in urban tourist destinations are imposed by the processes depending on the intensity of tourist traffic
overlap:
• excessive transport congestion (Wilk and Pawlak 2014), causing difficulty
getting to and moving around the city’s tourist destination (Riganti and
Nijkamp 2008),