Reflection On The Hole Of Horcum

My first location was the Hole of Horcum where I measured the depth of the erosion on the footpath used by many tourists. The lowest measurement was 11cm at the start of the left of the footpath, the deepest measurement of erosion 24 cm at 0.75m whereas towards the right end of the path, the erosion wasn’t as deep, when compared to the left side of the path, at 20cm (see figure 1). I found that the footpath erosion was a negative impact of tourism in the North York Moors National Park. This is because due to many tourists visiting the Hole of Horcum, the footpath has eroded, which means the National Park Authority will have to ensure that the path is safe to walk on by eventually paying somebody to fix the footpath and to make sure no tourists

This could lead to tourists not wanting to visit the Hole of Horcum or Goathland due to there being lots of visual pollution, poor quality of certain landmarks and damaged footpaths. It could also lead to businesses not earning as much money as, if there aren’t many tourists visiting the National Park then companies won’t be able to sell as much products and earn the money that they need to keep their business running smoothly. The decrease of tourism could also put companies that supply businesses in the NYMNP out of pocket, which could also destroy their reputation, meaning other companies will not hire them in the future. This could mean that businesses become derelict and are left abandoned as nobody can afford to keep running their business, which introduces the idea that the business owners have a poor quality of life as well as the locals in the North York Moors National Park. Overall, tourists are a negative impact on the North York Moors National Park as they can cause footpaths to be eroded and become dangerous to themselves, the locals and the animals. Also, tourists can introduce a chain reaction as if tourists erode paths, it can lead to tourism in the National Park decreasing, which causes businesses to be out of pocket. This can also lead to a bigger problem of the entire region’s economy

This is because the litter that is dropped by tourists means that the National Park Authority have to use money to pay for the town to be cleaned more frequently than it is now and it could also mean that more bins would have to be placed. This would cost the National Park Authority more money than it would to empty the bins as they have to clean the towns/villages and put more bins around the areas. This suggests that the tourists that are visiting Goathland and the Hole of Horcum have no consideration of the people that live in those areas, the wild life and also do not consider the amount of money that is needed to clean those areas. It also suggests that the tourists don’t understand how dangerous the litter can be to the animals living in those areas. In addition to the idea of the biggest contributor of litter being cigarette tabs, it could mean that tourists that smoke and leave this type of litter, don't realise the damage they are doing to not only themselves but also their surrounding peers as they breathe in the smoke from the cigarettes. This links to the environmental impact assessment as the amount of litter was overall found at -1 on the environmental impact assessment