Abstract：The impacts on environment can arise from the all form of tourist activity. The significant benefit to destinations is economic gains, and this leads to recreate and protect the environment. But the rapid growth of tourism influences put pressure on the environment as well.We must recognise that all forms of tourist activity have both positive and negative affects on the environment.
　　Key words:tourist activity, environment, ecotourism
　　
　　1. Introduction
　　As one of the world’s biggest industry, it also has to take on more responsibility for its impacts on economics, societies and environment. It is fundamental to consider the attitudes and behaviour of tourists when answer these questions, and they are related to the types of tourism。
　　2. Main problems caused by mass tourist activity
　　2.1 Pollution
　　Obviously, according to tourist behaviour, mass tourist activities have more impacts on natural environment; they can be both direct and indirect. Firstly pollution should be seen as an important issue, including water, air and noise problems. Pollution is caused by many sources; one of them is tourist activities, for example organic wastes or oil from tourist boats which carry tourists to attractions. They are not all caused directly by tourist activities, but all related to these activities, especially for mass tourism , the mass tourists need more different kinds of facilities to satisfy their travel expectations. On the other hand, alternative tourism seems more ‘green’. And most mass tourism should make noise pollution; the activities lead to the disturbance of wildlife. Litter is consequence of tourist activity, and seriously affects the quality of the environment. Most of mass tourism destinations have litter problems; especially more and more drink cans, plastic bags, cups, etc. And the impact of quality of the environment can cause further problem, like water pollution .Pollution has been a main consequence of mass tourism in the world.
　　2.2 Loss of natural resource
　　Secondly it is about natural resource. A recent article (Vitousek et al, 1997 in Gossling 2002, p.284) mentions that “Human land use and land cover change have transformed 30-50 percent of the Earth’s ice-free surface” and “the use and conversion of lands is central to tourism” From the attributes of mass tourism, generally the tourists are in large groups and demand high quality and quantity of service resources, for example built facilities and so on; land is converted for the establishments for the shopping areas, picnic areas, golf courses, ski areas as well as the grounds for burying solid wastes of tourists. Accommodation is most important for tourist activity, it comprises the building area, roads, parking sites and surroundings, like gardens. Energy use is serious as well, the use of energy for tourist activity can be divided into transport and destination and related purposes. Tourists usually go to the destination and go on a few excursions. Energy overused exists and it also related to the pollution .According to the report of Jackson (1986 in Newsome 2002), a few Caribbean islands have water and power shortages, which are directly related to tourist activity demand exceeding local capacity. Table 2 indicates Global tourism-related energy use and resulting CO2 emissions. It summarizes the energy use for ourist-related transport, accommodation, and activities in the world. According to the conclusion of the article (Gossling 2002), transport may be responsible for around 94 percent of the contribution of tourism to global warming. #p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
　　3 Effects of ecotourism
　　Besides the negative effects, there are positive ones. As alternative tourist activity has significant contributions to the environment. Typical alternative tourism is ecotourism, some of these tourist activities are combined the environmental education, conservation and recreation. The establishment of national parks in Africa is a good example; tourists can be educated to protect wildlife. The ecotourists have been informed about the characteristics of their behaviour, to reduce the impact of environment. On the other hand, ecotourist activities are just relative low-impact, http://www.ttc-switch.com/they have some direct and indirect impacts as those mentioned above, typically pollution. Hall (1998) concerns “the impacts of the foot print of an ecotorusit are the same as that of a ‘mass’ tourist”. Thus even though this form of tourist activity is logical for sustainability of tourism and environment, such as bird watching, whale watching etc, they still involve negative components.
　　4. Conclusion
　　The impacts of tourist activities can be directly or indirectly affect the environment. The negative affect on natural environment has been significant issues for society they also generate further consequences. Overall, planning and management of tourism environment is necessary, and it should be sustainable.