Impacts of tourism on the ecosystem services in Vang Vieng, Lao People's Democratic Republic

Abstract

          Tourism contributes significantly to the country development. However, the excessively increasing number of tourists and tourism activities could harm the ecosystem services, and in turn could result in destruction of the tourism industry. This paper aims to investigate impacts of tourism in Vang Vieng Town on ecosystem services. The study adopted qualitative research methodology. In-depth interview was used to collect data from 30 key informants, who were community leaders, business owners, and state authorities of Vang Veing Town. Content analysis method was conducted to analyze the obtained data. This research found that tourism activities of Vang Veing relied very much on natural resources. Firstly, it is found that tourism caused negative impacts on ecosystem services related to water resources, i.e. the construction of tourist facilities, hotels and restaurants on the river bank, pollution from tourist activities and the growing demand of clean water. Secondly, tourism also increased urbanization of Vang Veing town, resulting in increasing demands of land use for commercialized purposes, however, the direct impacts of tourism on quality of soil has not yet been realized. Lastly, tourism of Vang Veing resulted in the development of natural caves and water falls to become tourist attractions, and an increase number of visitors into these sites will eventually degrade the surrounding forests.