Ecotourism: A New Revolution In The Making
Over the recent past couple of decades mankind has got to understand as well as appreciate the importance of a better and cleaner environment that has resulted in a greater impact on our lives today. Now, more and more tourists are becoming attracted to the new concept of ecotourism that is taking place as something of a new revolution in the way that we are thinking about taking our holidays.
A Welcome Departure From The Usual Tourism Hotspots
About twenty years ago, how we took our vacations used to follow a tried and tested path, which meant going to places based on interests and budgets. If we could find a place that was worth visiting and it did not cost more than what we could afford, then that was all there was to taking a holiday. But, with new concerns about our environment coming to the fore, there has been a gradual shift in position and rethinking has led to the beginning of ecotourism.
Basically, ecotourism is making a trip to locations that are environmentally significant as well as sensitive and though it is now gaining in popularity, has in fact been known to us in one form or another for quite some time. Excursions to watching birds is something we may all be familiar with and this is just one good example of what ecotourism is all about. We can even think of Charles Darwins trip to the Galapagos Islands as being the pioneering form of ecotourism.
Today, however this form of tourism is quite viable and it all really began in the early eighties though at that time its popularity was confined to small groups of people that showed their keenness in the environment. The popularity of ecotourism increased when in 2002 the United Nations declared it as being the Year of Ecotourism. There are many forms of ecotourism though generally it means visiting places that have one of a kind environment, and one can easily think of places such as rainforests, and also endangered animals habitats as good examples of such ecotourism destinations. It is also almost a custom to leave a tiny footprint when one visits such places.
Most ecotourism operators provide facilities, tours as well as allow you to interact with the habitat so that you come away better educated and also do not impact the habitat too adversely. Sustainability is another aspect to ecotourism and very often it has been seen that there are some places where there are people hell bent on exploiting these sensitive areas, which require giving jobs and putting money into the local economy to prevent such from happening.
Arizona Eco Tour Travel
A case in point is the case study of ecotourism that concerns the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Western Uganda, which is a good attempt at investigating how important and also how relevant is ecotourism and also to understand the awareness and understanding of ecotourism amongst local peoples of the area.
Ecotourism in general means traveling to localized areas that have very unique environments and places that are habitats for endangered animals is a good example of an ecotourism hotspot. The environment is precious to all forms of life, because without the environment, nothing would survive. (This has been dubbed by some as The children ecotourism gambit) Unfortunately, there will be those who remain forever skeptical of anything with the words personal growth attached to it. you have a variety of different options as to how you can get more information. Thus, in spite of our best efforts and lofty ideals there is a certain amount of ecotourism damage taking place and such damage has been the subject of debate at the Global Ecotourism Conference in Oslo in 2007. Some principals and also guidelines have been theories that are propounded by armchair geographers that point to what perfect ecotourism could be, and they have come up with certain principles about what ideal ecotourism must look and feel like, and which can be used as a definition of ecotourism.
Also, the internet and library sources along with governments documents were used to gather data for the study ecotourism.
Another example of what is needed to transform nature tourism into ecotourism is seen in the case of Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. Hopefully, they will understand that ecotourism is not all about leisure, but also about properly dealing with common threats to the environment. Why is ecotourism important? You can also see the benefits of ecotourism in the design and construction as well as maintenance of eco-resorts that use technologies and also principles adhering to eco-friendly methods that are throwing up a whole new industry in itself. Ecotourism or responsible tourism is something that came into the consciousness of us humans during the latter part of the eighties, and so the history of ecotourism can safely be said to have begun during this period. Thus, if there is accountability and transparency in ecotourism there should be a proper mechanism and a philosophy of long-term returns in place; instead of myopic means being used to get short-term gains.
Why is ecotourism important?
A part of the world that is most closely associated with nature tourism and ecotourism is the continent of Africa where such concepts are best exemplified with the amount of tourism taking place in game parks and reserves where one can take in the exciting wildlife and birds and also marvel at the wonders of nature that can be found in different parts of the continent. This, in spite of the fact that Costa Rica is the leader in the world as far as deforestation rates and ransacking of forest resources is concerned having lost approximately half its forest areas between the fifties and nineties to much cutting down of trees. It would also mean building capacity for the creation and also marketing of ecotourism environmental education products as also getting local people to participate in creating as well as developing new ecotourism environmental education products. To some, this may not sound impressive because the notion that one would travel somewhere to harm the environment sounds like pure fiction. Another good example of ecotourism is Belize, on which subject too there have been conducted many case studies of ecotourism, and this was among the pioneering countries to have embraced ecotourism which focused on attracting tourists to its own rich natural environment, which offered many attractions including diving for which divers came in great numbers regardless of any particular season of the year. |
