HALIFAX — Nova Scotians who dream of travelling to the world's best destinations need go no further than their own province.

Cape Breton Island was named the world's second best tourist destination in the National Geographic Traveler magazine's recent Destination Scorecard report. But praise for the island came with a warning about environmental problems and plans for oil exploration off its shores.

"If that goes forward you could certainly expect that score to fall in the future," said Jonathan Tourtellot, author of the survey that ranked 115 destinations around the world.

"A good way to sum it up would be: you have a lot to lose."

Environmentalists have long raised concerns about the drawn-out effort to clean up the notorious Sydney tar ponds.

Green groups and fishermen also protested seismic testing for oil and gas that was performed in the area last year.

The U.S.-based magazine's study looked at factors which threaten the preservation of top international travel spots, including the impact of mass tourism on the environment, development pressures and erosion of local culture.

The survey's 200 well-travelled, expert panelists awarded Cape Breton 78 points out of a possible 100, just four behind the blue-ribbon winning Norwegian Fjords.

However, Tourtellot placed a caveat on those results.

"Nobody was sent for this survey. This was done based on those among the panel who stepped forward and said, 'Yes, I'm familiar with Cape Breton,' meaning they had been there and they were familiar with its characteristics, but we did not do on-site inspections."

The island was lauded for its Cape Breton Highlands national park, ecosystem and sense of remoteness, with its relative isolation cited as a competitive advantage, said Tourtellot.

Two other Canadian sites finished among the survey's top 10 sites, the Rocky Mountain parks and Quebec City's historic centre.

Cape Breton's score was based on the recollections of between 20 and 40 travellers who, in retrospect, Tourtellot said, lacked important information on local issues.

"One of the six criteria was future outlook," he said. "That's where I'm a little worried that they might not have been up to speed on what some of the plans were for Cape Breton."

Mass tourism, said Tourtellot, can be a double-edged sword, ruining the environment while boosting the economy.

An estimated 5.7 million people thumb through the pages of the world's most widely read travel magazine, and those numbers could mean significant dollars for destinations that score well.

"You couldn't purchase this kind of advertising," said Sandra MacDonald, head of Destination Cape Breton, the local tourism association.

"From a marketing perspective, it's reached a whole different demographic of visitors, an upscale, sophisticated reader."

Tourism is Cape Breton's largest industry, bringing $400 million to the economy every year, but MacDonald said in addition to a fiscal incentive to keep the island's score high, there's also a matter of pride.

"It instills the fact that we are in competition with the world. It's nice to see we're being perceived in a positive light from a visitor's perspective."

MacDonald admitted the perception many Canadians have of Cape Breton is not always positive, due in part to media attention on environmental problems and the area's unemployment rate.

"Sometimes we tend to be down on ourselves," she said.

"But when you realize that people from the rest of the world are seeing us as this great tourism destination with untouched, unspoiled beauty, it really makes you proud."

She said it also makes her nervous to know that when the magazine conducts its follow-up study in about three years, the region could lose its bragging rights if its green issues aren't straightened out.

"From an industry perspective, there's definitely a push to get that cleaned up and to become the environmentally friendly place that we're being perceived as."

"One lesson Canada can take from this," said Tourtellot, "is that whatever problems may be besetting any of the Canadian locations, Canada is doing better than a lot of other places in the world."