Identifying Tourists’ Attitudes On Environmental Issues

In the desire to survive and thrive, in its "battle with the environment," today's world has been under continuous and deep change. Technological revolutions are taking place, priorities are changing, and old ideas have been abandoned. All these occur against a background of natural disasters, among which is the environmental crisis. It is a well-known fact that the most costefficient way to protect the environment is to prevent pollution and take preventive measures at the initial stage. Tourism is one of the factors that negatively affect the environment since activities such as inappropriate waste disposal, excessive consumption of natural resources, and destruction of biodiversity have a direct impact on nature. The aim of this study is to identify the attitudes of tourists towards environmental issues, reflected in their behaviour towards the environment. In this respect, we designed a questionnaire containing several questions on how tourists perceive the degree of environmental pollution by tourist activities. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of 30 respondents who have been involved in tourist activities in the last 6 months. The main results indicate that tourist activities are responsible for the depletion of natural resources and the growth of waste. Also, respondents believe that school and society should be more involved in educating tourists in what regards the reduction of environmental degradation.