The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, a division of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), recently announced the results of a new survey of the impacts of sargassum on tourism and the tourist experience.
According to information released about the report, the center decided to conduct the survey in direct response to the increased levels of sargassum many tourist locations have struggled with over the past few years.
A total of 633 individuals were surveyed for the groundbreaking tourism survey, including nearly 40 provincial, territorial and national governments most impacted by sargassum across the Caribbean Sea region.
Sargassum Impacts on Tourism

The main concern among the participants in the survey was the tourism impacts from having to deal with the onslaught of sargassum washing up on beaches along the shores of their key tourist destinations.
What was already known by the respondents was that sargassum was a smelly problem for tourism as the unsightly clumps on beaches and coastlines was directly responsible for driving tourists away.
It also was responsible as a potential safety risk for travelers swimming, snorkeling and fishing in the water. This not only created a potential danger for travelers, but also a potential liability from an insurance standpoint for tourism businesses and local governments.
The report also noted that trying to clean up and reduce the impact of sargassum had a hard cost to tourism businesses as well. It resulted in lost tourism bookings, cleanup and disposal costs.
For example, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which includes the popular tourist travel destinations of Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and Tulum, sargassum costs the tourism businesses in the area an estimated $1.1 million dollars per kilometer per year to cleanup.
Overall, tourism agencies and businesses surveyed for this report had negative views of the current levels of efforts made to try to reduce and eliminate the sargassum risk to their organizations.
Tourist Heath Risk From Sargassum

Not only was sargassum a risk for tourist related business, but there is also a substantial health risk faced by tourists visiting areas where the sargassum is not cleaned up and allowed to rot on the beaches in the hot tropical sun.
Sargassum left on beaches to naturally decompose emits deadly ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gasses, according to the research in the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science report.
A survey cited in the report stated that people exposed to sargassum for a week, such as a traveler enjoying a vacation getaway to a Caribbean beach, reportedly can exhibit health risks such as adverse respiratory, dermatological, and neurological symptoms.
Tourism businesses were concerned about subjecting their visitors to the public health risks connected to sargassum. That’s why they made it a priority to make sure it was cleaned up and removed from the beaches in a timely fashion.
What Travelers Need to Know
Travelers should make sure that the area they are visiting actively works to remove the accumulated sargassum on the beaches and coastline to keep them safe from these hazards.
Sargassum on the shore can be quite a smelly and unsightly experience for tourists visiting a beach. However, it can also be dangerous to travelers trying to enjoy a dip in the ocean.
The good news is most hotels, resorts and governmental agencies across the Caribbean Sea are actively working to protect tourists from the unsightly and potentially dangerous impact of sargassum.
This year was definitely an unusual down year in the amount of sargassum impacting the tourist destinations in the Western Caribbean. However, next year may well be a different story and a plan needs to be in place.