Ecotourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ecotourism - Essay Example In addition, it will present two case studies of ecotourism. Ecotourism denotes a responsible form of tourism that promotes both environmental projects and the welfare of the people in the regions of interest (Baromey, 2008). It offers the tourism a great deal of pleasure and a connection with nature and people of different cultural diversities. Ecotourism seeks to create a unification front of environmental conservation, sustainable travel, and communities. Ecotourism operates within a variety of principles that act as guidelines in the venture. It seeks to minimize the impacts that come because of mass and uncontrolled tourism. It also focuses on creating an environmental and cultural awareness as well as respect. Ecotourism has the interests of the tourists as well and emphasizes strives to ensure that tourism derive a measure of satisfaction and have memories of good experiences. Moreover, ecotourism strives to provide the hosts with positive experiences. For ecotourism to prove effective, it must yield financial benefits towards all forms of conservation. The communities that surround tourist destination must derive benefits financially and a form of social empowerment. Ecotourism also focuses on highlighting the necessary sensitivity concerning a country’s social, political, and environmental climate (Buckley, 2004). According to Buckley (2009), ecotourism emerged in the 1980’s after a realization that majority of tourists preferred natural areas. Tourism trends were changing with increased visits to places that tourists interact and connect with nature. The debate and concerns about the environment gave ecotourism an enormous popularity enabling it to penetrate completely into the tourism industry. The term became very popular among tourism promoters. The growth of ecotourism progressed to maturity as many initial theories underwent the test of time and more realistic concepts adopted. The realistic concepts and definitions have come into p lace after evidence based on empirical data became available. Ecotourism has slowly become the most preferable form of tourism because of its sustainability. Sustainability in this context is in reference to its different aspects of promoting the environment, tourist experience, economic benefits and socio-cultural dimensions because of its sustainability, most tourist organizations on the national and international front advocate for ecotourism (Singh, 2010). Community-based approach is one of the strategies emphasize by some organizations. In this approach, the local communities inhabiting the natural areas considered a tourist destination often exercise a measure of control in the ecotourism project. They participate actively in the designing projects as well as the management. In addition, they receive a portion of the economic benefits. The level of contribution of different communities depends on the institutions in place. This implies that planning of a community-based ecotou rism requires an inclusion of initiatives within the community. Community-based have the potential of achieving several targets of ecotourism. From this approach, a community shifts to sustainable livelihood forms. In addition, the approach presents a community with the opportunity of direct contribution in conservation. Direct involvement of a community increases the benefits a community can derive from ecotourism and motivates the community to contribute more to conservation projects.