In many countries, tourism is a major part of the economy, but it also causes environmental damage and ruins the places it exploits. It is argued that tourists should pay an additional tax to compensate for this damage. Do you agree?

In the past two ,decades there has been an explosion in the number of people who are able to travel to places of interest and beauty. One of the results of

this

has been that the locations these

tourists

visit have been spoiled and even destroyed. I am partially in agreement with the view that

visitors

should pay a charge to repair the damage . I support those who are responsible for maintaining tourist attractions with a monetary payment. When a town,

city

or place of beauty receives thousands of

visitors

every year the cost of,

for instance

,cleaning, disposal of rubbish, an increased number of staff and provision of services can be high, which places a strain on budgets. Venice charges all

tourists

an entrance fee to the

city

, which mitigates to some extent the impact of its millions of

visitors

annually,but has so far failed to fully protect

this

city

from those who come to enjoy it.

This

is a good example of why other strategies need to be adopted. More can be done than just collecting fees from

visitors

. For any tourist destination to continue to be viable, not only for

visitors

but

also

for those who live there or nearby, there must be a clear policy set and funded by the central government in consultation with town or

city

councils as to how

this

rapidly increasing influx of

visitors

is going to be managed. In Germany,

for instance

, Berlin had the backing of the national government to control the letting of apartments through Airbnb so that owners of property in the

city

were only permitted to let out singLe apartments within their homes rather than their whole house. In conclusion, the growing number of

tourists

travelling the world is producing problems to which there are no easy answers. One welcome strategy has been to charge

tourists

a visitor fee, but I believe closer cooperation between the central government and those who are responsible for managing matters on the ground would prove productive.