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.

A 偏远地区的旅游市场从未曾像现在这么火爆。世界各国都积极地向高消费游客推广它们的“荒野”地区——如高山、极地、沙漠、小岛和湿地。这些地区的吸引力是显而易见的：从定义上看。荒野旅游只需要很少的或者完全不需要初始投入。但是，这并不意味着发展荒野旅游不需要付出任何代价。正如1992年联合国环境与发展大会指出的那样，这些地区是非常脆弱的(即：在异常压力下是极容易被破坏的)，而这种破坏不仅是就当地的生态学而言，而且还会影响到当地居民的文化。在以上方面以及就其所覆盖的地表面积的比例来说，最重要的三种脆弱环境是沙漠、高山和极地。这些地区的一个重要的特征就是显著的季节性，在每年的很多月份里都以恶劣的环境为主。因此，包括旅游在内的大多数人类活动都被清楚地限定在一年中的某些时候。

游客来到这些地方是因为他们被优美的自然风景和当地人独一无二的文化所吸引。这些地区与外界隔绝，当地贫穷的政府很欢迎“冒险游客”的到来，这让他们获得了一种新的财政收入来源，尤其是游客带来的硬通货。近几年来，旅游业已经成为尼泊尔和不丹的主要外汇收入来源。对于诸如拉普兰和阿拉斯加等北极地区和包括澳大利亚艾尔斯岩石地区和亚利桑那纪念碑山谷在内的沙漠地区而言，旅游业也是当地经济的主要来源。

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.

B 一个地区一旦被确定为主要的旅游目的地，其对当地社区的影响是意义深远的。比如，当农夫在几个星期内帮外国背包客搬运行李挣的钱多于在田里工作一年的收入时，很多农夫放弃种田也就不足为奇了。因此，种田的工作就被转移到家庭其他成员身上。在一些丘陵地区，这种变化导致了粮食产量的严重下降和当地饮食的改变，因为没有足够的势力去维持梯田和灌溉系统以及照管农作物。因此。这些地区的很多人已经依靠外部供给的米和其他食物为生。

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.

传统上，在北极和沙漠地区的社区，全年的生存都依靠打猎捕鱼和在相当短的收获季节采摘果实。然而，当一些居民开始参与旅游业之后，他们不再有时间去捕猎采摘野果，这让他们更加依赖于购买的食物和卖食物的商店。旅游业并不是隐藏于这些变化背后惟一的“罪魁祸首”：所有付薪资的劳动，或者政府的救济物都趋向破坏传统生存系统。不管原因是什么，困境却总是相同的：如果这些新的外来的收入来源枯竭了该怎么办?

旅游者对环境的影响是另一个与荒野旅游的发展有联系的严重问题。人们在主要的破坏问题上已经投入了很大的注意力，但也许更重要的是滥伐问题和旅游者由于做饭和洗澡对水资源产生的影响。不管是在高山还是沙漠地带，慢生型树木通常是燃料的主要来源，而水资源也有可能由于使用过量而严重紧缺。

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?

C 过去几年里，旅游业所带来的问题越来越多。但是这没有必要成为一个问题。虽然旅游业不可避免地影响着旅游地，这些脆弱的环境和当地文化所付出的代价可以降到最低。实际上，旅游业甚至可以成为加速当地文化复兴的快车，就像尼泊尔昆布山谷的雪帕族和一些阿尔卑斯山的村庄一样。越来越多的冒险旅游业的经营者正在为确保他们的活动从长期来看有益于当地人民和环境而努力。

在瑞士阿尔卑斯地区，社区决定他们未来将依靠旅游业与当地经济更有效的整合。瑞士贝伊东地区对于持续增加的别居开发采取了强制措施以限制其发展。这个地区的公共干酪产量也得到了大幅回升，给当地人提供了不依靠外来游客的更可靠的收入来源。

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.

很多北极地区的旅游目的地是被外来公司开发的。这些公司雇用短期工，将大部分利润转移到自己国家的公司总部。但是，现在一些北极社区正在自主运作旅游生意，因此能确保增加当地的收益。例如，阿拉斯加本地的公司雇用本地人开展从安克雷奇到扣赞伯的空中之旅，在那里游客可以吃到北极的食物，走在苔原上，并观看当地音乐家和舞蹈演员的表演。

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.

美国西南部沙漠地区的当地人也采取了相同的策略。他们鼓励游客到印第安村庄和保留地参观并购买质量上乘的手工艺品和艺术品。阿科马和珊以尔德凡索这两个印第安村庄发展了高利润的陶器生意，那瓦侯和侯皮这两个印第安地区在珠宝业方面也获得了类似的成功。

当旅游业进入自己的家乡时，居住在脆弱环境地区的很多人失去了对经济、文化和环境的控制。因为人们想见识新地方的强烈愿望并不会消失，所以仅仅限制旅游业并不能消除这种不平衡。处于脆弱环境的社区必须要取得对旅游业的更大的控制力，以便平衡旅游业的要求和当地人的需求和渴望。越来越多的社区表明，通过强有力的社区决策，实现这种平衡是完全可能的。现在最棘手的问题是这种平衡的实现能否成为规范，而不仅仅是特例。

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.

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.

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.

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.