Tourism Trends, Industrial Sectors, and Acid Rain Effects
Benidorm: Tourism Evolution
Benidorm: It was once just packing people in; it was crowded and noisy. Because it was cheap, it attracted many "lager louts." Many of the hotels were shoddy and not what the brochures promised. There was little trace of Spanish culture.
Today, bad hotels have been improved. New posh ones have been built. A new theme park has been set up. It gets 4 million visitors a year.
Tourism Impact in Gambia
Gambia: Problems with begging. Money goes to other countries. Travel agents, hotels, planes, local works, low wages, jobs, food and drink...
- At a travel agent's, a family books a package holiday in Gambia.
- Money: Some goes to the travel agent, some goes to the airline that will carry them, and some goes to the company that owns the hotel where they'll stay.
- They travel from the airport to the hotel in a coach.
- The hotel furnishings and fittings were imported from Europe.
- Almost all the food and drink is imported from Europe too.
- Most of the salary of the hotel manager and top staff is paid into their banks back home.
- Gambians are employed and earn a number of pounds a month on average.
Industrial Sectors and Characteristics
Primary Industry: Heavy Industries
- Large-scale industries: Big plants covering large areas of land.
- Capital intensive: Big investment needed to set them up.
- Products: Make large products often bought by other manufacturing companies.
Secondary Industry: Light Industries
- Products: Make small products, mainly to be bought by individuals.
- Scale: Most are small-scale, suitable for factory units on industrial estates.
- Investment: Only a limited amount of investment capital is needed.
Tertiary and Quaternary Industry: High-Tech
- Products: Make high-value products using modern technology.
- Investment: Heavy capital investment in research and development.
- Location: Many are sufficiently small to be housed in units on business parks.
Environmental Impact of Acid Rain
Power stations, industrial boilers, and smelters release sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. These gases combine with water vapour in the atmosphere and fall as acid rain. Acid rain is a cocktail of water and acids.
Acid rain affects:
- Forests: Washes away nutrients from the soil in the root zones of trees. It has killed thousands of trees.
- Fish life: Many lakes are biologically dead. They look beautiful but are completely without fish.
- Agriculture: Minerals and trace elements are washed away from the soil. Soil loses its fertility. Farmers have to use higher amounts of fertiliser.
- Water quality: The concentration of metals in some lakes is raised. This can have undesirable effects on human health.
- Tourism: Some places may not survive more than a few generations of acid rain.