The Causes And Positive Effects Of Ecotourism

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.

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

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).

Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).

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).

The discussion on ecotourism and its essence has led to over eighty different definitions of the topic (Fennell, 2008). However, one of the most used and comprehensive definitions is reported by Weaver (ibidem). It describes ecotourism as “a form of tourism that fosters” awareness, education and enjoyment of the natural environment and the local values in a sustainable way (Weaver, 2001a:15). Hence, ecotourism, while thriving for profitability, aims to promote education and cultural awareness of destinations without compromising their ecosystems. Eco-tourists demand for more authentic and meaningful forms of travel and; according to Orams (1996) (in Weaver, 2001a), they can be classified in two different categories: hard and soft ones. The hard eco-tourists believe in “radical” self-commitment with their destination, in order to ameliorate the natural environment (give back something) through “not-mediated” (Weaver, 2001b:106), challenging physical activities immersed in the site’s nature (ibidem). However, the soft visitors have shallower levels of commitment to the environment than hard eco-tourists. Indeed, while hard eco-visitors tend to organise independently (where high competence and time availability are required and low level of services expected on-site), soft ones rely on eco-tour-operators to organise less physically demanding tours (tab. 1.1a) (ibidem).

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

The current research paper covers the main effects of global tourism, both positive and negative. International tourism is a significant sector of business. For some countries it is one of the main sources of national income. The most important positive economic effects of tourism are as follows: increase in budget revenues, production expansion, stimulation of investments, and improvement in the population’s welfare. Tourism influences social and cultural lives of people in a positive way by stimulating the development and revival of local cultures and encouraging intercultural exchange.

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.

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

It is also a significant contributor to the national integration process of the country & encourages preservation of natural as well as cultural environment. This work has attempted to highlight significant effects of Tourism & Hospitality on various dimensions of the country.

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.

Today, tourism has become a global phenomenon being widely recognized in both regional and national levels. In fact, tourism is considered as one of the fastest growing sectors in the world economy, thereby being viewed as a potential sector in raising tax revenues, providing employment opportunities as well as promoting economic diversity (Khizindar, 2012). Goeldner and Ritchie (2006) indicate that the significance of tourism has increased considerably through educational institutions such as universities as well as media, which are conduits of spreading the concept of tourism and hospitality .For instance, Saudi Arabia is one of those countries in the Middle East, which is determined to promote tourism for growth and sustainability despite belonging to those nations that have historically built their economies on oil and natural gas (Eid, 2012).

Adventure tourism is a type of tourism that involves the travelers to explore or travel to an exotic area for an activity. Adventure tourism has both consequences and benefits; however, the consequences are provided more evident because it affects the environment and culture. At the same time, it is directly related to the risk of the benefit of the economy. This essay will explain adventure tourism in a general way and prove the economy of it from around the world. Moreover, the essay will discuss the effect of the environment in adventure tourism from developed and developing countries. There is

Planning and development are both extremely important factors within the tourism industry and can have both positive and negative effects on the environment, local communities and tourist destinations. “Destination planning aims to limit the negative impacts of cultural tourism upon the history and lifestyles of the local community. An understanding of sustainable tourist development allows for the development of culture without loss of its authentic identity” (Maidment. T. 2012). This statement discusses the importance of planning to avoid having any negative impacts on environments and communities. Because the effects of tourism are so severe to destinations, many natural and cultural resources have been destroyed, therefore tourism planning is vital to preserve and maintain these places for future generations.