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.

“Good Tourism” supports the second World Heritage mini-conference

February 25, 2019

Lamington blue spiny crayfish encountered on the Coomera circuit walking track in the Binna Burra section Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia. Photo by Tatters (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr. "GT" cropped and enhanced the image. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgerus/12250342224/in/photostream/

UPDATE (May 16, 2019). The organ­isers have decided to post­pone the planned two-day mini-con­­fer­­ence at Binna Burra Lodge in Octo­ber 2019 and make it a three-day event in 2020 — from Tues­day, Octo­ber 13 to Thursday, Octo­ber 15. The first World Her­­it­age-themed mini-con­­fer­­ence took place over three days at the Binna Burra Lodge in Octo­ber 2018.  The top­ic was ‘Man­aging the growth of […]

Read More “Good Tourism” supports the second World Heritage mini-conference

Former FARC rebels turn ecotourism guides, but peace remains fragile

February 22, 2019
One Comment

Colombia has its ecotourism treasures such as the Caño Cristales waterfall. Image by Mario Carvajal (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CA%C3%91O_CRISTALES,_SECTOR_LOS_OCHOS_(COLOMBIA).jpg

About 30 of the estim­ated 12,000 FARC mem­bers demo­bil­ised under a peace accord with Colom­bi­a’s gov­ern­ment have chosen eco­tour­ism as a path to rein­teg­ra­tion. The travel & tour­ism industry would do well to sup­port them. Full story by Ana­stas­ia Molo­ney writ­ing for the Thom­son Reu­ters Found­a­tion. As a former rebel fight­er, Ximena Cruz used to […]

Read More Former FARC rebels turn ecotourism guides, but peace remains fragile

New conservation-led ecotourism project showcases sustainability in the Mergui

July 26, 2018

IMG 1481

A con­­ser­­va­­tion-led eco­tour­ism pro­ject in the remote Mer­gui archipelago aims to show that hab­it­at pro­tec­tion and small-scale sens­it­ive tour­ism is the way for­ward for the islands off the coast of Myan­mar and Thai­l­and. Words and pic­tures by Keith Lyons. The Wa Ale Island Resort, set to open later this year (2018), is loc­ated on a […]

Read More New conservation-led ecotourism project showcases sustainability in the Mergui

Going off track to find the right path for Himalayan tourism

October 31, 2017
2 Comments

ladakhi women

Vandana Vijay’s Off­beat Tracks launched in 2016 to spread the concept of exper­i­en­tial travel and sus­tain­able com­munity-based eco­tour­ism in India, espe­cially among rur­al com­munit­ies in the Him­alay­as. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ms Vijay offers examples of how she trans­lates her travel & tour­ism philo­sophy into action. UPDATE, June 2021: Promp­ted by “GT”, Ms Vijay […]

Read More Going off track to find the right path for Himalayan tourism

Australian shark tourism valuation method may be useful elsewhere

September 22, 2017

The economic value of shark tourism including white shark cage-diving in Australia

A socio-eco­­nom­ic sur­vey meth­od­o­logy that recently estim­ated the dir­ect eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tion of shark tour­ism in Aus­tralia may be a use­ful tool for estim­at­ing the value of wild­life tour­ism and eco­tour­ism in oth­er des­tin­a­tions. For des­tin­a­tions keen to under­stand more about the eco­nom­ic value of their own eco­tour­ism and wild­life tour­ism products, the meth­od­o­logy employed by […]

Read More Australian shark tourism valuation method may be useful elsewhere

Pantanal jaguar ecotourists willing to compensate ranchers for stock losses

September 14, 2017

Wildlife ecotourists willing to compensate ranchers

Most wild­life eco­tour­ists in the Pantanal region of South Amer­ica say they are will­ing to com­pensate cattle ranch­ers for live­stock taken by wild jag­uars. This is accord­ing to a new study, “The num­bers of the beast: Valu­ation of jag­uar (Pan­thera onca) tour­ism and cattle depred­a­tion in the Brazili­an Pantanal”, by Fernando R. Tor­tato, Thi­ago J. Izzo, […]

Read More Pantanal jaguar ecotourists willing to compensate ranchers for stock losses