Ecotourism and nature-based tourism

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “eco­tour­ism and nature-based tourism”.

Eco­tour­ism is respons­ible travel to nat­ur­al areas that con­serves the envir­on­ment, sus­tains the well-being of the loc­al people, and cre­ates know­ledge and under­stand­ing through inter­pret­a­tion and edu­ca­tion of all involved (vis­it­ors, staff and the vis­ited)” ― Glob­al Eco­tour­ism Net­work, 2016; What is (and what isn’t) eco­tour­ism.

Eco­tour­ism is a type of tour­ism that has a very low impact on the nat­ur­al sur­round­ings. It aims to pro­mote con­ser­va­tion and edu­ca­tion, while provid­ing vis­it­ors with an oppor­tun­ity to exper­i­ence unique nat­ur­al land­scapes and wildlife.

Eco­tour­ism could be though of as a sub-cat­egory of nature-based tour­ism, which the Travel Industry Dic­tion­ary defines as: “Leis­ure travel under­taken largely or solely for the pur­pose of enjoy­ing nat­ur­al attrac­tions and enga­ging in a vari­ety of out­door activ­it­ies.” Nature-based tour­ism includes a wide range of out­door activ­it­ies, such as hik­ing, camp­ing, bird­watch­ing, and wild­life safar­is, that are very much embed­ded with­in nat­ur­al environments.

Both forms of tour­ism focus on explor­ing nat­ur­al envir­on­ments in a sus­tain­able and respons­ible way, with the goal of pre­serving them for future generations.

Eco­tour­ism and nature-based tour­ism are gain­ing pop­ular­ity around the world. They provide oppor­tun­it­ies for trav­el­lers to learn about loc­al eco­sys­tems and appre­ci­ate nat­ur­al beauty. By enga­ging in respons­ible and sus­tain­able tour­ism prac­tices through eco­tour­ism and nature-based activ­it­ies, trav­el­lers can feel that they are pro­tect­ing the envir­on­ment (and sup­port­ing loc­al com­munit­ies). (Both types of tour­ism have the poten­tial to offer sig­ni­fic­ant bene­fits to loc­al com­munit­ies, as they offer incent­ives and oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­als to con­serve their nat­ur­al resources for a sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic benefit.)

Tags are inform­al; an after­thought to con­tent cre­ation. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog nev­er gets bogged down with tag­ging accur­acy or con­sist­ency. Feel free to com­ment on any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and dis­cus­sion and appre­ci­ates help­ful feedback.

10th annual Rwandan cultural festival to coincide with gorilla naming ceremony


Rwandan mountain gorilla

The 10th Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al comes to Musan­ze dis­trict, Rwanda, August 26-Septem­ber 2, 2022, coin­cid­ing with the Kwita Izina gor­illa nam­ing cere­mony on the slopes of Vir­unga Moun­tain. Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Cen­ter will host the event at its premises in Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage, Musan­ze dis­trict, Rwanda with addi­tion­al cel­eb­ra­tions in nearby Mukung­wa town and Kinigi, […]

Read More 10th annual Rwandan cultural festival to coincide with gorilla naming ceremony

Award-winning Anurak ecotourism experience reopens in southern Thailand


Bamboo rafting is an activity available at Anurak Community Lodge in southern Thailand

Anurak Com­munity Lodge, an award-win­n­ing eco­tour­ism exper­i­ence in south­ern Thai­l­and, has fully reopened fol­low­ing two years of COV­­ID-related uncer­tainty.  The 19-unit nature retreat, which won the PATA Grand Award for Sus­tain­ab­il­ity in 2020, and is Trav­elife Gold cer­ti­fied, offi­cially reopens 1 August with room enhance­ments, a refreshed food and bever­age menu – includ­ing south­ern ‘jungle’ […]

Read More Award-winning Anurak ecotourism experience reopens in southern Thailand

Bali is back, and so is the rest of wild Indonesia


Orangutans, Kalimantan, Indonesia

Since the long-awaited — but then very sud­den — eas­ing of travel restric­tions for travel into Indone­sia last March, Bali has seen a very quick return of trav­el­lers.  Along Bali’s south­w­est coast one will once again find the typ­ic­al beach- and Bintang-attrac­ted vis­it­or.  Beach­front hotels and beach clubs are exper­i­en­cing a book­ings rush from both domest­ic and for­eign travellers […]

Read More Bali is back, and so is the rest of wild Indonesia

What do non-fungible tokens, natural habitats, & tourism experiences have in common?

and May 10, 2022

What do non-fungible tokens, natural habitats, & tourism experiences have in common? Image by Ifatahmad (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/fantasy-lake-sunset-sky-7022197/

A rel­at­ively new form of digit­al own­er­ship, non-fun­­­gible tokens (NFTs) have not only been attract­ing head­lines, but also the ima­gin­a­tions of those who would advance envir­on­ment­al causes that are close to their hearts. There are oppor­tun­it­ies for travel & tour­ism too, accord­ing to Lauren Uğur and Richard Powazyn­ski. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too […]

Read More What do non-fungible tokens, natural habitats, & tourism experiences have in common?

A gorilla-sized opportunity to join Rwanda’s Red Rocks Cultural Festival


Red Rocks Cultural Festival Rwanda red sarong man dancing

Cul­min­at­ing in Kwita Izina — the Gor­illa Nam­ing Cere­mony — and a night of music and dan­cing, the Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al is an annu­al event in Rwanda.  In 2022 the 10th instal­ment of the vibrant Fest­iv­al will take place August 26 to Septem­ber 2 at Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage in Rwanda’s Musan­ze dis­trict. I invite you to join and/or sponsor […]

Read More A gorilla-sized opportunity to join Rwanda’s Red Rocks Cultural Festival

Lessons in resilience: Binna Burra’s rise from the ashes

February 15, 2022

Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia is easily accessible from BInna Burra Mountain Lodge

Des­pite a dev­ast­at­ing wild­fire in Septem­ber 2019 and the glob­al pan­dem­ic that fol­lowed, Aus­trali­a’s Binna Burra Lodge is open for busi­ness. Draw­ing from that recov­ery story, Jona­thon Day shares five les­sons in resi­li­ence that any tour­ism busi­ness can apply. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] On Septem­ber 8, 2019, a bushfire […]

Read More Lessons in resilience: Binna Burra’s rise from the ashes