Ecotourism

"Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people."(TIES) This is one of the most accepted definitions of ecotourism by The International Ecotourism Society.

In the early 1970s, people in hidden away places of the world saw that tourism could be important for them. However, they did not want to destroy the exotic environment that surrounded them. That's how they came up with the idea that we can have profitable tourism and still have the environment in mind. Something, we today, call ecotourism.

Ecotourism is something that became very popular in the tourism industry a couple of years ago. It can be translated into adventure tourism, responsible tourism or sustainable tourism. It is the fastest growing kind of tourism in the industry (Walker 83). It is now very trendy to care about the environment and care about the culture when you travel.

English: Tourists riding a bactrian camel (Camelus...

English: tourists at Borobudur

English: Ecotourism in Svalbard. Français : Écot...

All the countries who have suffered from tourism before are very pleased with this evolution.

It is important for people to know about this concept for many reasons. For example, I'm sure all of us want to be able to see the same beautiful places we have today, in the future. Also, most likely we want to let our children and grandchildren be able to see the same thing.

The whole world needs to be aware of the negative effects of tourism, and learn how to travel and still have the environment in mind.

Ecotourism is a rather new term, but the concept has been around for a very long time. According to The International Ecotourism Society, the basic principles are to minimize the impact, build more awareness and respect of the culture and environment, make visitors have good experiences, provide financial benefits to the local people and...