The Pros And Cons Of Ecotourism

Tourism is the world’s largest industry with nature-based ecotourism seeing rapid growth since its initial arrival in the 1980s. It is estimated by the World Tourism Organisation that nature tourism generates 7% of all international travel expenditure (Lindberg, 1997) and this figure will have increased rapidly over recent years. It’s increase in popularity is due to a number of factors; tourists becoming increasingly bored of the typical sun, sea and sand holiday’s, the increase in global awareness or environmental issues such as global

Eco-tourism is when you travel to a natural space and appreciate nature and protect the environment. You also learn the past and present of the destination.

Ecotourism plays a vital role in a nations economy. Many factors entail whether a country can be successful economically. Ecotourism has thrived and failed, depending on how it was operated. Once a country accepts money from their government to begin ecotourism, they will be forever in debt. When the governments fronts the money, the government is in control.

For example, Jeffrey Flocken, works to protect animal rights, and he states, “Animals are worth more alive in the wild than as dead trophies mounted and hung on a wall.” (Potenza) Tourists travel all over the world to see the amazing creatures that roam the earth. No one is going to travel thousands of miles to see a dead animal. Safaris rides to see animals living in their natural habitat alive bring is much more money than a dead animal’s head on a wall. Another significant reason, is a report in 2013 found that only three percent of trophy hunting funds went to the locals (Onushi). Thousands of dollars are spent to be able to trophy hunt, but the money is supposed to go back to the community and sadly it does not. The money that is gained by the hunters should go to the funding of national parks to protect the animals. Lastly, in 2013 over 33.8 million tourists have visited Africa, bringing in over 36 billion dollars (“Africa”). Tourists have brought in so much money and will continue to bring more money into Africa each year. All of this money boosts the economy and helps produce living conditions and make more jobs. Such a small amount of money was gained from trophy hunting it could not help same any animals; conservationists were lucky tourism brought in such a large

George Wallace’s first Ecotourism Principle requires minimizing negative impacts to locals and the environment (Wallace, 1999). New Belgium directly reflects this principle through their core value of being environmental stewards by, “minimizing resource consumption, maximizing energy efficiency and recycling,” (New Belgium Brewery, 2017b). As stated previously, New Belgium has their own wastewater treatment plant that promotes to reduce, reuse, and recycle water and eventually return to the city for residential use. Furthermore, their core value of constantly innovating quality and enhancing improvements enforces minimal negative impacts to locals and the environment (New Belgium Brewery, 2017b).

When it comes to the topic of ecotourism, most of us will readily agree that it is a less harmful alternative to mass-tourism and that it promotes responsible and low-impact travel to areas where flora, fauna and cultural heritage are the primary drawing power. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what the impact of ecotourism actually is and what its long-term consequences are. Whereas some are convinced that ecotourism provides the basis for sustainable development, particularly in places that suffer from exploitation and excessive resources’ usage, and that could only improve the general conditions of the local people, others maintain that we are still far from true ecotourism, for many are those in the

As mentioned by Rimmington & Morrison (2009), the assistance from different parts of the world presents a new and diverse outlook for future research including theoretical innovations and revelations, cultural and environmental aspects, tourist destination and other ecotourism and recreational aspects of tourism and hospitality industry (Brotherton,

Most people hear the word ecotourism and immediately tune out because they assume it does not apply to them. Well you know what happens when someone assumes. The facts are that at a point in someone's life their parents dragged them to go on a tour of a some sort of nature. The parents probably told them not to hurt it and in doing so they have been an ecotourist! Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas or nature-based areas that conserves the environment and preserves the well-being of local people. Some ecotourists mess up sometimes and others do not. Although many people think Ecotourism is butchering the environment, it actually can be beneficial for the environment and the people involved.

From an environmental perspective, it is apparent that the world is starting to realise that increases in tourism are having a negative impact on the environment. This is due to increases in energy consumption, which in turn heightens the effects of global warming (Neto, 2002). There are many controls that governments are trying to put into place, such as flight rationing (Liverpool Business School, 2009). However, it can be argued that these have not really begun to have a significant effect on tourism, as they are still insufficient to dampen demand. It may become a problem in future years, as the number of controls is likely to increase. Perhaps the largest environmental factor would be natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina (Cashell, 2005) and the tsunami that hit Asia in December 2004 (Birkland, 2006). These will impact negatively on people’s confidence in visiting places that have been hit severely by such disasters.

Humans are negatively effecting numerous ecosystems including the Rocky Shores, Sand Dunes and Mangrove communities. If human activities continue as they do now, there will be troubling future implications to nature, and to humans. Tourism, for example, is one of the major human influences that is destroying many valuable ecosystems. Tourism is commercial holidaying where people visit places of interest. (www.directtourismservices.co.uk, 2017) It requires an abundance of associated infrastructure and resources and increased populations have negative effects on the surrounding ecosystems (Brambly, 2017). For example, increased foot traffic, runoff water quality and infrastructural development are all having drastic impacts to ecosystems and are caused by tourism. While it may be greatly beneficial for economic growth, which is why humans are so interested in it, tourism is a major strain on many vital ecosystems and courses of action should be taken to monitor its impacts to the environment.

“Tourism can be a blessing to a country but it is by no means an unmixed blessing.” Discuss

1. Need to keep the margin between serious environmentalists concern and an ecotourism company which has both the motive of profit and ecological

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Allows government to have money to do road works, school construction and all other governmental works.

Currently, the earth has some profitable ways to earn more money and investing it to other infrastructures which are required the attention from governments. Tourism is one of the developing industries in the world. In addition, revenues which come from tourism most of countries utilizing it to develop of the medicine or building the skyscrapers. However, tourism itself can be divided into several types and one of the types that develops in fast pace, is ecotourism which amount of people increases by 30% annually(Mozgovaya, 2003). Ecotourism focused on strengthening and sustenance of natural system by tourism(Kiper,2013). It means that the main role