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.

What to keep, change, do in a crisis (and why we should give a sh*t)

February 23, 2021

A Live Ningaloo tour group encounters humpback whales. Photo: Ningaloo Aviation & Jacob Hill supplied by Live Ningaloo.

Sonia Beck­with’s tiny Aus­trali­an eco­tour­ism oper­a­tion Live Nin­ga­loo faced an exist­en­tial crisis in 2020, like so many travel & tour­ism busi­nesses glob­ally did (and still do). In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, her second, Ms Beck­with shares the value of caring — a lot! — and how she har­nesses and sus­tains it. When my part­ner and I foun­ded our micro tourism […]

Read More What to keep, change, do in a crisis (and why we should give a sh*t)

When the odds are against you: How a small tour operator survived 2020

January 14, 2021
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Turtle, Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, Australia. Image by Chris Jansen supplied by Live Ningaloo.

From the excit­ing pro­spect of a break­out sea­son to the exist­en­tial threat of bank­ruptcy, 2020 was a tur­bu­lent year for small Aus­trali­an eco-tour oper­at­or Live Nin­ga­loo. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Sonia Beck­with shares how she and her part­ner fought to keep their eco­tour­ism dreams alive. In Decem­ber 2019 we pre­dicted that 2020 would be […]

Read More When the odds are against you: How a small tour operator survived 2020

The effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on wildlife and wildlife tourism

January 12, 2021
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A bold and curious kookaburra at a picnic area in Brisbane, Australia. Image by Ronda J Green.

COVID-19 lock­downs have not only impacted travel & tour­ism, includ­ing wild­life tour­ism, but also wild­life itself. As a research eco­lo­gist, con­ser­va­tion­ist, eco-tour pro­pri­et­or, and chair of Wild­life Tour­ism Aus­tralia, Ronda J Green is inter­ested in all aspects of that. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Dr Green sum­mar­ises the effects coronavir­us lock­downs have had on wildlife […]

Read More The effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on wildlife and wildlife tourism

Should it all be ecotourism? Reimagining travel & tourism in 2021

January 7, 2021
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Image from Edgewalkers' Boranup Walking Retreat in Margaret River, Western Australia. Source: https://edgewalkers.com.au/walking-creativity-retreat

While road-trip­ping across West­ern Aus­tralia in 2020, Erika Jac­ob­son of boutique eco-tour out­fit Edge­walk­ers “reima­gined” what travel & tour­ism might be like in 2021 if all stake­hold­ers were of like mind. Dr Jac­ob­son encour­ages us to reima­gine with her in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Cer­tain that we would not be tak­ing our guests over­seas in […]

Read More Should it all be ecotourism? Reimagining travel & tourism in 2021

A little luxury: What travellers want post-COVID & how to prepare your tour business

January 5, 2021

Abstract art by 8926 via Pixabay https://pixabay.com/illustrations/texture-abstract-structure-color-1909992/ used on the "Good Tourism" Insight post "A little luxury: What travellers want post-COVID & how to prepare your tour business"

When travel & tour­ism inev­it­ably opens up again in your part of the world (if it has­n’t already) for domest­ic and/or inter­na­tion­al trav­el­lers, are you pre­pared to give them what they want? Aus­trali­an tour oper­at­or entre­pren­eur Grant Char­les­worth shares his “Good Tour­ism” Insight into how he’s pre­par­ing his Aus­trali­an Lux­ury Escapes. A lot has changed […]

Read More A little luxury: What travellers want post-COVID & how to prepare your tour business

Regenerative ecotourism: Asking questions is the best place to start

December 3, 2020
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Overland track, Tasmania Wilderness. Image by pen_ash (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/overland-track-tasmania-wilderness-4111331/

“Ask­ing ques­tions is the best place to start,” Anna Pol­lock said dur­ing the after­noon of the third and final day of the 2020 Glob­al Eco Asia-Pacific Tour­ism Con­fer­ence. And she’s right, of course, yet no-one got the oppor­tun­ity to ask her any! Ms Pol­lock may be right about the bene­fit of ques­tions, but she’s obvi­ously not […]

Read More Regenerative ecotourism: Asking questions is the best place to start