Taking a Look at Ecoturism

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.

Williams Powers, an ecotourist activist wrote in his book, Whispering in the Giants Ear, “That which we allow to exist, to flourish freely according to its own rhythms, is superior to anything our little hands create.” Ecotourism is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people."

Eco-tours are original ideas designed to highlight the agriculture of the area through painting classes in combination with tours of the local farms for visitors, corporate retreats and schools. Consequently, harmonious partnership between the farming culture and the artistic talents brought economic growth and regional awareness in the community at large.

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

Environmentalism and the impact of environmental issues on the domestic and foreign policy of the United States

Ecotourism can be defined as trip responsible to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local residents. It should describe the journey in fragile areas where fauna, flora and cultural heritage are the main reasons to travel.

Deforestation has been a prevalent problem throughout time, but especially with the exponential increase in technology over the past 50 years, it has become a more concerning issue. Then, the ethical question, apart from the impact it has on species, is whether or not ecosystems have more standing. Is it just the individuals that are sentient and have a use to humanity that have moral standing, or is there something beyond individual organisms such as their interrelatedness and contribution to the good of the whole ecosystem? Using Thoreau’s ecocentric philosophical viewpoint acquired through his time at Walden and the contemporary environmental issue of deforestation as an example will provide justification for the argument that

Travelling can sometimes have a bad reputation, but there are responsible travel companies out there and eco-friendly travel is possible. In fact, if you are smart at picking your destinations, using guides like The Outbound Collective, you can put money into local communities and help people in the remote and poor parts of the world prosper. By visiting these destinations, you can help preserve them and grow the local economies.

Eco-tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. It is a form of natural resources based tourism focused on experiencing and learning about nature. The term ecotourism can be well described with the following five criteria: nature conservation, low impact, sustainability, meaningful community involvement, and environmental education. Environmental education must be fulfilled to perform ecotourism and is the step towards the process of understanding the natural ecosystems.

Brown (2008) states that volunteer tourism includes different aspects and environmental protection is a kind of volunteer tourism. According to Brown (2008), volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, refers to the tours which provide travelers opportunities to participate in voluntary activities and enable them to communicate with local people. The participants have different mindsets on voluntourism (Brown, 2008), some of them is volunteer-minded while the others are vacation-minded. The main reasons for the participants to participate in this type of tourism are cultural immersion, to help the less privileged and seeking friendship and educational opportunity for children. It is generally accepted that voluntourism brings some benefits to the participants

National parks provide a highlight for the travel. These lands are set aside as natural beauties, wonders, and even phenomenons. In 2015, more than 307 million people visited the national parks of the United States, a five percent increase from 2014 (Errick). With such an increase in tourism, it becomes ever more important to implement sustainable tourism practices and make travel good for the visitors and the destination. According to the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture, “sustainable tourism is defined as ‘tourism that respects both local people and the traveller, cultural heritage and the environment.’” The purposes of national parks are to protect the heritage of the park, protect the environment found within the park, and educate the public. These purposes work hand-in-hand with sustainable tourism, and it only makes sense that these two ideals are combined together. Unsustainable travel does not have just one, foul-proof solution. Rather, several small actions combined together will have profound effect in the evolution of the system. With the help of park services and the individual tourist, we can move to a future in which we have no need to specify some tourism as “sustainable”.

In the wake of nuclear threats, and ever-industrializing world, environmentalism was conceived. People began to finally consider how the actions and needs of humanity were negatively impacting the physical world around us, and began to become a voice in opposition to environmental degradation on many different levels. While environmentalism in the past has often been pure in intent, many of the goals involve governmental change, and forgo focus on the individual. While regulations and laws in favor of the environment are obviously positive, they are worthless if they are not implemented on an individual level. Individual and local efforts, in terms of environmentalism, are often the most impactful and effective, eventually leading to change on a larger scale. With this idea in mind, environmentalism cannot just be something that occurs in wake of a threat or focuses on large-scale rules and regulations; it must work on shifting the perspective of individuals on a personal level.

In the third word, tourism is one of the main economic activity for countries with less natural resources such as timber, oil, and mineral. Britton (1982) indicates that these countries lack structural economic due to poverty. Today, countries with more money, from the third world, seek to diversify their economy that has been based on natural resources exploitation. This diversification is based on ecotourism due to scenic and unique natural biodiversity. This could be part of “tourism gaze” that Urry (1990) presents as “something distinctive to be gazed upon, that the signs collected by tourists have to be visually extraordinary. This offering should be “visually different and distinguished from otherwise mundane activities. This visual consumption is attached to the aesthetic appropriation of the environment” that could be characterized by unique flowers, landscapes, or wildlife. As new third world countries are entering in the market define and control by western people, they have to propose extraordinary and unique landscape to be gaze, have intense tourism promotion in tourism markets, and all the infrastructure able to attract tourism to them.

Toursim and recrearion are the benefits we can get from biodeversity. Biodiversity is a wellspring of conservative riches for some territories, for example, many stops and woodlands, where wild nature and creatures are a wellspring of excellence and euphoria for some individuals. Ecotourism specifically, is a developing outside recreational action.