EcoTourism Is……..
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What is Ecotourism, and what does it mean today?
There are many interpretations of the word ‘ecotourism’ – even the spelling changes to eco-tourism or eco tourism! However, many consumers have a different impression of the word to the companies that are selling it.
For example, many companies seem to think that any holiday outdoors that may involve animals or wild areas is ecotourism.
Whereas consumers are hoping for something a bit more impactful and meaningful. And this includes real ethics, focus on the local communities and ‘treading lightly’ on the earth.
Below are a selection of areas that ecotourism should be focussed on and be able to prove!
Adding Value:
Ecotourism should be an efficient way to add economic value to threatened natural areas, endangered habitats and cultural sites.
As I have mentioned in previous articles – if you want something to be saved – you have to support it. By visiting areas that contain the animals or plants or people that you ‘love’ you are adding to their perceived value by that country and the community.
If you sit at home and talk about how ‘bad it is’ that Orangutans are being made homeless, dolphins in Mekong being poisoned or migrating birds being shot – you aren’t doing anything to save them!
Change your shopping habits to avoid illegally produced or badly managed palm oil and soya; join the WWF to support international projects; or travel to the Mediterranean and help volunteer projects to protect the birds yourself.
Offering Alternatives:
It should be seen as a way to provide simple job opportunities as well as alternative financial benefits for the local people. This way they don’t need to destroy their own natural environment to make a living!
For example offering alternative forms or agriculture – such as bee-keeping, or offering more fuel efficient stoves so families need to cut less wood to cook their food. It could also lead to more successful local businesses that helps make for a more stable lifestyle for all involved
Alternative Tourism:
Ecotourism allows for travel and holidays to take a different turn. It inspires a new kind of tourism that actually helps to improve natural conservation and cultural preservation with a much lower impact on the environment than ‘normal’ tourism.
This of course can make it more enjoyable for all those involved as it is more down-to-earth. The traveller gets to see the natural world as it should be, the tour operators get to make sure that the places we go to see are still there in 5 years time, the local inhabitants get to feel involved in their own future and communities, and of course the wildlife gets to carry on being wild!
Fasted Growing Travel Sector?
Ecotourism really is one of the fastest growing areas of tourism at the moment.
People want these types of holidays now – they want to support these environments, these people and these animals. They want to stop destroying every place they go, and they want to see travel companies doing their bit to change the face of world travel too.
Have you played your part? Got your friends and families to do the same?
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We are really in the middle of it. Great explanation of the real meaning of ecoturism. My husband and I run a farmhouse offering touristic facilities, in Tuscany – Italy. In Italy we call this kind of facility Agriturismo. Our house is in the middle of a natural reserve up in the appenino. we have respect for the land around us, the wildlife and the cultural tradition of the area. Nevertheless, this does’t have a marketing plus on the mass, so we have to reduce our cultural activities at the lowest.
We work hoping that new generation may appreciate our effort in trying to preserve nature as much as possible for the benefit of every humang beeing in the world.
Regards
Roberta and Stefano
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