The Concept Of Ecotourism And Its Effects On The Environment

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

Making tourism more sustainable is not just about controlling and managing the negative impacts of the industry. Tourism is in a very special position to benefit local communities, economically and socially, and to raise awareness and support for conservation of the environment.

Tourism plays a significant role in sustainable development and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) wish to encourage all countries to make sure that their policies and actions for its development and management fully embrace the principles of sustainability. Likewise, policies to promote sustainable development should take full account of the opportunities offered by tourism. Various international conventions and declarations have put forward principles and guidelines for sustainable tourism and the importance of tourism and its sustainability was underlined at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many countries declare that they are pursuing, or wish to pursue, policies for ‘sustainable tourism’. Despite this interest, there remains a degree of uncertainty over the scope and priorities for making tourism more sustainable and only partial appreciation of how to put this into practice (Making Tourism More Sustainable, 2005).

Indigenous communities, which have otherwise been left untouched by traditional tourism activities, have now been targeted for a new tourism venture, ecotourism. A relatively new variant, ecotourism is described as environment-friendly, sustainable and nature-based. It came about as a response to the world’s growing environmental awareness. This activity involves “visiting relatively undisturbed natural areas with the aim

Another key problem is that the economic benefit of ecotourism does not always reach the local community. One of ecotourisms main goals is to help the local community generate domestic employment and

Therefore tourism should be discouraged as it can cause great harm to the environment of that particular tourist spot with the influx followed by the tourism industry.

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 I was contemplating a topic for this paper on, I happened to be reading the chapter in Pastimes, our textbook, which talks about ecotourism and sustainable tourism. I frankly had never really considered the impact millions of visitors had on a state Park or national monument, and the idea of sustainable tourism as defined by Russell, “controlling visitation to tourist sites so that impacts are neither permanent or irreversible.” I found myself thinking more and more about leisure pursuits and how they do impact society as a whole. For example if I am a kayaker, what were the impacts of producing my kayak on the environment? What is the impact of me kayaking on fish and other wildlife in the river or lake ? Being a student, I don’t travel much and I am not a kayaker, but what about my own leisure activities? How does my primary hobby, gardening, either positively or negatively impact the environment and/or society as a

Ceballos-Lascurain (1993) defined ecotourism as, “Environmentally responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features - both past and present) that promotes conservation, has low negative visitor impact, and provides for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local populations”.

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.

Moreover, tourism and the environment are balancing sectors in terms of vision and goals. The environment is the right climate for sustainable tourism development, and sustainable tourism focuses on environmental planning. Perhaps the most important element on which eco-tourism is based is not to disturb the ecological balance resulting from human actions, which are represented by the behavior of tourists in the case of ecotourism and the pollution it may cause. In addition, natural areas form the basis for ecotourism from marine tourism and land tourism, and recent studies have shown that eco-tourism generates direct financial resources. What is more, the main objective of ecotourism is to promote and improve the standards of living of the local community (Kuhdairi, 2012)

Sustainable tourism is a very important element today because it not only meets the needs of the present but also protecting and increasing opportunities of destinations for the future. Uganda (M. Semakula M. Kiwanuka, 2017) is a country located in east-central Africa, which has diverse ecosystems such as rainforest jungles, high volcanic mountains on the border or the Albert Nile River swamps. However, for many years Uganda has stagnated progress and development due to political problems, environmental degradation and the spread of AIDS epidemic. By the beginning of the 21st century, Uganda has taken new steps in political stability and gradually resolved its remaining problems and became Africa's fastest growing economy. This paper is going to discuss about the key issues and challenges in managing Uganda in term of two principles of sustainable development (responsibility and responsible citizenship) in context to sustainable host communities and collaborative partnerships.

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

Tourism and the environment have a very complex and interdependent relationship. Today, tourism is one of the largest industries in today's

| he quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential to tourism. However, tourism's relationship with the environment is complex. It involves many activities that can have adverse environmental effects. Many of these impacts are linked with the construction of general infrastructure such as roads and airports, and of tourism facilities, including resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses and marinas. The negative impacts of tourism development can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which it depends.On the other hand, tourism has the potential to create beneficial effects on the environment by contributing to environmental protection and conservation. It is a