Introduction
While some people travel to certain destinations in order to visit specific attractions, others pick areas to visit and then do research to discover the nearby attractions. Some prefer to find unusual or less popular attractions to visit.
Overview
The tourism industry saw a new trend called ecotourism develop in the late 20th and the early 21st century. Ecotourism is recreational travel to observe and experience natural environments. Unlike traditional tourism, ecotourism promotes environmentally responsible travel, with visitors leaving their surroundings undisturbed. Ecotourism also seeks to enable local people to protect their natural and cultural resources while also profiting from them. Many ecotourists emphasize the need for tours that strictly limit group size, coordinate with native guides, and donate a percentage of tour profits to community projects or research.
Varying interpretations and definitions of ecotourism exist. In general, ecotourism includes all kinds of outdoor travel-related experiences, including national park visits, guided bird-watching, or scientist-led Antarctic cruising. It also encompasses adventure expeditions, such as trekking and river rafting, as well as less rigorous trips to culturally exotic or archaeologically important locations.
In conclusion, The general concept of ecotourism arose when conservationists realized the potential benefits in combining people’s interest in nature with their concern for the environment. An early model for ecotourism came from East Africa in the 1970s, when Kenya began collecting fees from safari-bound tourists heading into its national parks. Those revenues were used to support conservation and park maintenance in its vast wildlife preserves.
References
Solway, Andrew. Sustainable Tourism (Arcturus, 2010).
Gmelch, Sharon Bohn. Tourists and Tourism: A Reader, 2nd edition (Waveland Press, 2010)
Article by Ngao Anthony
