Importance of Tourism Paradox, Tourism Equinox and Tourism Detox for Urban Environments

When looking at the increase of tourism in a destination, it can be said that tourism is a valuable part of the economy. The proposal offered by today’s competitive paradigm: that higher the number of tourists visiting a city, the higher the income, sounds good at first. The increased number of tourist arrivals gives the appearance of increasing desirability of the city. Parallel with the increased tourism activities, new buildings, new lifestyles, foreign capital and new socio-economic relationships appear rapidly and replace the traditional ones. However, there will be a huge amount of social, cultural, economic and environmental problems faced by the local people as well as the tourists the city. Tourism paradox is the name given to the phenomenon where tourism industry destroys natural and cultural environment in a destination that is necessary for tourism activities. On the other hand the balance, which does not change and disturbs the social and economic relations at the destination is called “tourism equinox”. Therefore, spatial reorganization and urban regeneration play a crucial role for the marketing of cities and this transformation action affects all infrastructure facilities, restorations of old buildings, reorganization of historical zones, and revitalizing the architectural style of the cities. New projects and approaches to solve the problems caused by the growth of urban populations and to establish healthy sustainable tourism destinations are becoming more important than ever. Tourism detox is a treatment that is intended to remove harmful substances from these destinations. This paper investigates the influence of tourism paradox and tourism equinox on urban environments in relation to tourism activities and the protection of natural and cultural resources with the help of tourism detox. It primarily relies on qualitative research to understand the main futures of tourism paradox, equinox and detox taking the physical and environmental aspects of urban environments into consideration. As research methodology a literature review and the sources of secondary data were used.