Taming the tourists

Tourism and travel is the world's largest industry. It employs a tenth of the world's workforce and has an output of US $3.4 trillion. Mountains once visited only by climbers and pilgrims, have not escaped the tourist crowds. Today tourism forms the basis of the economy of many mountain regions, with uncertain consequences. The era of mass tourism in the mountains of industrialized countries began soon after World War II, the result of many factors including increases in urban populations, income, vacation time, and mobility. There were new perceptions of mountain environments as places to enjoy and vast improvements in transport systems. Today, in the era of cheap, global air travel, almost no mountain region is out of reach. Even the remote mountains of Asia are becoming easily accessible by helicopter. "Adventure tourists" and "ecotourists" are willing to pay well to visit new destinations, and their money is very welcome to poor governments and communities. For many years, tourism has been the largest source of foreign exchange in Nepal, Bhutan, and, until recently, Rwanda. Although tourism is restricted to only a few valleys in these countries, it has become a major force in their economies. Yet mountain people rarely receive a substantial proportion of the money spent by the tourists: most stays in countries where the tourists originated.