Ecotourism is more than just having fun in nature; it’s about understanding the surroundings and ensuring that your travel does not negatively impact them.
As an ecotourist, you enhance your mind, spirit, and local economy without harming the ecosystem. Ecotourism is more than anything else about traveling with care and awareness.
Importance of ecotourism
We often think of the delights that come with traveling as exciting trips to beautiful places that make for great pictures, authentic foods that can’t be found at home, and encounters with people who are very different from our own.
We can learn more about various places through tourism than just learning facts about them. We can immerse ourselves in the cultures and lifestyles of others, and it leaves lasting impressions we won’t soon forget.
Basic principles of ecotourism
People interested in ecotourism tend to interact with the environment, and they also enhance their knowledge, awareness, and appreciation of it. The Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism. Here are the details:
- Teach travelers to reduce their negative impact while visiting sensitive environments and cultures before they depart.
- Provide travelers with information on each local culture and animal and plant that they will encounter.
- Provide information, brief visitors, offer examples, and take corrective measures to minimize visitors’ impact on Earth’s environment.
- By offering brochures, briefings, leading by example, and taking corrective action, you can minimize the impact of travelers on cultures.
- Be sure to use appropriate leadership and keep groups small enough to minimize the impact of the group on the destination. It will help if you avoid areas that are poorly managed and overcrowded.
- Be sure that managers, staff, and contractors have proper awareness, and participate in every aspect of their company policies to prevent and reduce impacts on the environment and local cultures.
- Provide managers, staff, and contact employees with training to improve their ability to communicate and manage clients in sensitive cultural and natural settings.
- Contribute to the conservation of the region you are visiting.
- Ensure that all aspects of company operations are competitive and local.
- The accommodations should be site-sensitive and not wasteful of local resources or destructive to the environment and flexible to accommodate sensitive exchanges with the local community.
- Focuses on personal experiences with natural areas that result in a greater understanding and appreciation.
Ecotourism vs. Conventional (Mass) Tourism
There is a greater likelihood for ecotourists to travel to natural locations than mass tourists who are looking for plenty of distractions, cultural sites, and busy life in large cities;
When it comes to ecotourism, travelers make their own travel arrangements, while mass tourism relies on a greater number of travel agents;
Many services are expected with mass tourism, but ecotourism sites tend to have fewer services.
Activities associated with ecotourism are usually nature-related (such as hiking, birdwatching, or reef diving), so they tend to be more physically demanding. By contrast, typical tourism is more comfortable and less physical;
Travelers who are ecotourists are also likely to travel in small groups and stay for an extended period, whereas mass tourism is often dominated by large groups staying short-term.
Final thoughts
There is a dire need for more ecotourism in the world. Traveling helps travelers know more about the pristine areas of the world, it helps educate people, and it provides funds for conservation and local communities (often indigenous). Additionally, the quality of a tourist’s travels is greatly enhanced when respect and awareness are awakened.
