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AThe market for tourism in remote areas is booming as never before. Countries all across the world are actively promoting their 'wilderness' regions - such as mountains, Arctic lands, deserts, small islands and wetlands - to high-spending tourists. The attraction of these areas is obvious: by definition, wilderness tourism requires little or no initial investment. But that does not mean that there is no cost. As the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development recognized, these regions are fragile (i.e. highly vulnerable to abnormal pressures) not just in terms of their ecology, but also in terms of the culture of their inhabitants. The three most significant types of fragile environment in these respects, and also in terms of the proportion of the Earth's surface they cover, are deserts, mountains and Arctic areas. An important characteristic is their marked seasonality, with harsh conditions prevailing for many months each year. Consequently, most human activities, including tourism, are limited to quite clearly defined parts of the year.

[p:a]偏远地区的旅游市场正以前所未有的速度蓬勃发展。世界各国正积极推广其“荒野”区域，如山区、北极地区、沙漠、小岛和湿地，吸引高消费游客。这些地区的吸引力显而易见：从定义上讲，荒野旅游几乎不需要或无需初始投资。但这并不意味着没有成本。正如1992年联合国环境与发展会议所指出的，这些地区不仅在生态方面脆弱（即极易受到异常压力），其居民的文化也十分敏感。在这些方面以及覆盖地球表面的比例上，最显著的三种脆弱环境类型是沙漠、山区和北极地区。一个重要的特征是它们具有明显的季节性，每年多数月份都处于严酷的自然条件之中。因此，大多数人类活动，包括旅游业，都仅限于一年中特定的时段。

Tourists are drawn to these regions by their natural landscape beauty and the unique cultures of their indigenous people. And poor governments in these isolated areas have welcomed the new breed of 'adventure tourist', grateful for the hard currency they bring. For several years now, tourism has been the prime source of foreign exchange in Nepal and Bhutan. Tourism is also a key element in the economies of Arctic zones such as Lapland and Alaska and in desert areas such as Ayers Rock in Australia and Arizona's Monument Valley.

游客被这些地区的自然景观之美以及原住民的独特文化所吸引。而这些偏远地区政府收入微薄，因此也欢迎这一新兴的“探险旅游者”，并感激他们带来的经济收益。多年来，旅游业一直是尼泊尔和不丹的主要外汇来源。此外，旅游业也是北极地区（如拉普兰和阿拉斯加）以及沙漠地区（如澳大利亚的艾尔斯岩和亚利桑那州的纪念碑谷）经济的重要组成部分。

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BOnce a location is established as a main tourist destination, the effects on the local community are profound. When hill-farmers, for example, can make more money in a few weeks working as porters for foreign trekkers than they can in a year working in their fields, it is not surprising that many of them give up their farm-work, which is thus left to other members of the family. In some hill-regions, this has led to a serious decline in farm output and a change in the local diet, because there is insufficient labour to maintain terraces and irrigation systems and tend to crops. The result has been that many people in these regions have turned to outside supplies of rice and other foods.

[p:b]一旦某个地区被确定为主要旅游目的地，对当地社区的影响就会十分深远。例如，当山区农民在几周内担任外国徒步旅行者的搬运工所赚的钱，远超他们在田间耕作一年的收入时，他们放弃农活也就不足为奇了，而农活则由家庭其他成员承担。在一些山区，这导致了农业产量严重下降，以及当地饮食结构的变化，因为缺乏足够劳动力来维护梯田和灌溉系统，也难以照料农作物。结果是，这些地区的许多居民转而依赖外部供应的稻米和其他食物。

In Arctic and desert societies, year-round survival has traditionally depended on hunting animals and fish and collecting fruit over a relatively short season. However, as some inhabitants become involved in tourism, they no longer have time to collect wild food; this has led to increasing dependence on bought food and stores. Tourism is not always the culprit behind such changes. All kinds of wage labour, or government handouts, tend to undermine traditional survival systems. Whatever the cause, the dilemma is always the same: what happens if these new, external sources of income dry up?

在北极和沙漠地区，人们长期以来的生存依赖于在较短的季节内狩猎动物、鱼类以及采集水果。然而，随着一些居民开始参与旅游业，他们不再有时间采集野生食物，这导致他们越来越依赖购买的食物和商店。但旅游并非导致这些变化的唯一原因。各种形式的工资劳动或政府补贴往往都会削弱传统的生存体系。无论原因如何，面临的困境始终如一：如果这些新的外部收入来源枯竭了，会发生什么？

The physical impact of visitors is another serious problem associated with the growth in adventure tourism. Much attention has focused on erosion along major trails, but perhaps more important are the deforestation and impacts on water supplies arising from the need to provide tourists with cooked food and hot showers. In both mountains and deserts, slow-growing trees are often the main sources of fuel and water supplies may be limited or vulnerable to degradation through heavy use.

游客带来的物理影响是冒险旅游发展所面临的一个严重问题。人们普遍关注主要步道沿线的侵蚀情况，但更值得关注的是为游客提供煮食和热水淋浴所带来的森林砍伐以及对水资源的影响。在山区和沙漠地区，生长缓慢的树木往往是主要的燃料来源，而水源可能有限，或因频繁使用而面临退化风险。

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CStories about the problems of tourism have become legion in the last few years. Yet it does not have to be a problem. Although tourism inevitably affects the region in which it takes place, the costs to these fragile environments and their local cultures can be minimized. Indeed, it can even be a vehicle for reinvigorating local cultures, as has happened with the Sherpas of Nepal's Khumbu Valley and in some Alpine villages. And a growing number of adventure tourism operators are trying to ensure that their activities benefit the local population and environment over the long term.

[p:c]近年来，有关旅游业问题的故事层出不穷。然而，这未必就是一种问题。尽管旅游业不可避免地会对所在地区产生影响，但对这些脆弱环境及其当地文化造成的损害是可以被最小化的。事实上，它甚至可以成为振兴本地文化的工具，例如尼泊尔昆布山谷的夏尔巴人以及一些阿尔卑斯山村庄的情况。越来越多的探险旅游运营商正努力确保其活动长期惠及当地居民和环境。

In the Swiss Alps, communities have decided that their future depends on integrating tourism more effectively with the local economy. Local concern about the rising number of second home developments in the Swiss Pays d'Enhaut resulted in limits being imposed on their growth. There has also been a renaissance in communal cheese production in the area, providing the locals with a reliable source of income that does not depend on outside visitors.

在瑞士阿尔卑斯山区，当地社区认为，他们的未来取决于更有效地将旅游业与本地经济融合。由于当地居民对瑞士上高地地区第二居所开发数量不断上升表示担忧，因此对该地区的增长实施了限制措施。此外，该地区也重新兴起了一种集体奶酪生产，为当地居民提供了可靠且不依赖外来游客的收入来源。

Many of the Arctic tourist destinations have been exploited by outside companies, who employ transient workers and repatriate most of the profits to their home base. But some Arctic communities are now operating tour businesses themselves, thereby ensuring that the benefits accrue locally. For instance, a native corporation in Alaska, employing local people, is running an air tour from Anchorage to Kotzebue, where tourists eat Arctic food, walk on the tundra and watch local musicians and dancers.

许多北极旅游目的地已被外部公司开发，这些公司雇佣临时工人，并将大部分利润带回其总部。但一些北极社区如今已自行运营旅游业务，从而确保收益留在当地。例如，阿拉斯加一家本土企业雇佣本地居民，运营从安克雷奇飞往科策布的空中观光项目，游客在那里品尝北极美食，漫步在苔原上，欣赏当地音乐家和舞者的表演。

Native people in the desert regions of the American Southwest have followed similar strategies, encouraging tourists to visit their pueblos and reservations to purchase high-quality handicrafts and artwork. The Acoma and San Ildefonso pueblos have established highly profitable pottery businesses, while the Navajo and Hopi groups have been similarly successful with jewellery.

美国西南部沙漠地区的原住民也采取了类似的策略，鼓励游客前往他们的村庄和保留地购买高品质的手工艺品和艺术品。阿科马人和圣伊尔德丰索人建立了利润丰厚的陶器生意，而纳瓦霍人和霍皮人则在珠宝制作方面取得了同样成功。

Too many people living in fragile environments have lost control over their economies, their culture and their environment when tourism has penetrated their homelands. Merely restricting tourism cannot be the solution to the imbalance, because people's desire to see new places will not just disappear. Instead, communities in fragile environments must achieve greater control over tourism ventures in their regions, in order to balance their needs and aspirations with the demands of tourism. A growing number of communities are demonstrating that, with firm communal decision-making, this is possible. The critical question now is whether this can become the norm, rather than the exception.

当旅游业侵入人们赖以生存的脆弱环境时，太多人失去了对自己经济、文化和环境的控制权。仅仅限制旅游并不能解决这种失衡问题，因为人们对探索新地方的渴望不会就此消失。相反，脆弱环境中的社区必须加强对本地区旅游项目的管控，以平衡自身需求与期望与旅游业带来的压力。越来越多的社区正在证明，只要实行强有力的集体决策，这是完全可行的。现在关键的问题在于，这能否成为常态，而非例外。