Ecotourism is a vastly misused term in the tourism industry, thrown around for everything from white water rafting trips, which are about a thrill more than conserving the environment, to hotels that develop in a natural setting to offer you “an experience with nature” but often disturbing the ecology of said natural setting without appropriate management strategies or development policies. Having a bit more knowledge about ecotourism will help you make conscious choices as a consumer.

First, lets place ecotourism into the sphere of the tourism industry. There are many different types of tourism that categorize an activity or trip and that may overlap with ecotourism without necessarily defining it.

Nature-Based Tourism:

One of the broadest types of tourism is nature-based tourism, which basically involves anything related to nature. It can be educational, sustainable or neither. Ecotourism is a subset of nature-based tourism.

Adventure Tourism:

Adventure tourism is a subset of nature-based tourism in most cases, and often relates to experiences with nature that involve deep physical exertion, risk and specialized skills. An example of this would be a white water rafting excursion. Adventure tourism can overlap with ecotourism in some nature-based situations, but the focus is generally more towards the thrill of the trip and not necessarily the learning or sustainability.

3S Tourism:

3S tourism, standing for Sand, Sea and Sun, has often been regarded with negative consequences for the surrounding communities and environments. It is highly associated with resorts, which, while many are improving management strategies to incorporate more sustainable practices, have not proven themselves sustainable in past trends. In regulated circumstances, activities such as snorkeling or kayaking can actually fall under the ecotourism category. In other cases, this may not be true.

Cultural Tourism:

Cultural tourism is often regarded as a secondary element to ecotourism, as many indigenous populations coexist with nature in a symbiotic relationship and it is therefore equally important to preserve their culture as a part of the environment. Thus, it can also be related to nature-based tourism, it is learning based, and often sustainable. It can be separate from ecotourism, or they can overlap.

Now acknowledging where ecotourism overlaps and separates from different types of travel excursions, consider the concept of what ecotourism itself involves. There are three main principles of ecotourism widely recognized by academics:

1. Promote environmental conservation—this can occur on two levels: conserving what is already existing, or improving existing conditions. The former is referred to as passive or steady-state sustainability while the latter is considered active or enhancement sustainability.
2. Provide an interpretative educational experience—while visiting a natural site, tourists should also be motivated and educated by participatory activities which have the objective of stimulating their ecological conscience and transmitting knowledge about the regions visited.
3. Community Involvement—participation of local residents is absolutely fundamental to ecotourism. Their involvement should generate benefits that include:
   • Material benefits, such as employment, an increase in community/individual revenue, natural/cultural resource and economic gains.
   • Social benefits, such as improvements in medical, educational and communication institutions, as well as infrastructure.
   • Personal benefits, such as an increase in self-esteem, responsibility and sense of belonging.

A quick summary of the above information can be found in The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) definition of ecotourism:

Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.

The information page on their site also offers additional points about ecotourism. The key to understanding a definition is in being able to apply it—so the next step in being an ecotourist is to make informed decisions to support companies that maintain the above principles.

Creative Commons Attribution: “junin“, Flickr, jrubinic