What is Ecotourism?

• Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas

that conserves the environment and sustains the
wellbeing of local people (The International
Ecotourism Society, 1991).
•The term “ecotourism” was coined in 1987 and is used
to describe a wide range of activities.
•The word itself is a blend of “ecology” and “tourism.”

- Differs from Adventure Travel because it targets

people who want to learn while they are on a trip.
 Ecotourism…
• “…is environmentally responsible travel and
• visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas,
• in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and any
cultural features)
• that promotes conservation,
• has low negative visitor impact,
• and provides for beneficially active socio-
economic involvement of local populations.”
(IUCN, 1996)
UNDERSTAND 4 CRITERIA OF ECOTOURISM IN
LOCAL CONTEXT
1) Nature-based:
Eco refers to ‘ecological’; with reference to
nature & the environment, mainly natural areas:
forest - flora & fauna; coral – marine & coast)
2) Educational
(enhancing understanding and appreciation
of natural features)
3) Environmentally friendly
(causes no or little nature damage)
4) Contributes to local communities
(socially and economically) as a form of tourism
business)
Ecotourism can be considered as a subset of
sustainable tourism and nature tourism
because it represents a sustainable way of
travelling in natural areas.
 “Greenwashing”
• A major problem for true ecotourism
businesses is a practice called greenwashing.
This term refers to a business that presents
itself as “sustainable”, ‘ecological’, ‘green’,
‘responsible’, ‘ecotourist’, etc., when it
doesn’t comply with generally accepted
standards, or worse, it is in contradiction
with them.
 Nature tourism vs Ecotourism
Nature tourism
• Often used as a synonym to
ecotourism
• Does not have to fulfill the
principles and criteria of
sustainability
• Does not necessarily have
to be ecologically oriented
Ecotourism
• Is considered as community
based tourism
– generates benefits for local
people
– contributes to the
conservation of natural and
cultural areas
• Includes voyages which are
ecologically, economically
and socially sustainable
 Sustainable tourism
• Includes all types of tourism
• Long-term perspective
• Follows the “concept of sustainable
development”
– Ethically/socially just and culturally appropriate
– Environmentally/ecologically sustainable
– Economically profitable and feasible
 Principles of Ecotourism
1. Avoids negative natural and cultural impacts that
can damage or destroy the integrity or character of
natural or cultural environments being visited.
2. Educates the traveler on the importance of
conservation.
3. Directs revenues to the conservation of natural
areas and the management of protected areas.
4. Brings economic benefits to local communities
and directs revenues to local peoples living
adjacent to protected areas.
Principles of Ecotourism
5. Emphasizes the need for planning and sustainable
growth of the tourism industry and seeks to ensure
that tourism development does not exceed the social
and environmental "carrying capacity."
6. Retains a higher percentage of revenues in the host
country by stressing the use of locally owned
facilities and services.
7. Increasingly relies on infrastructure that has been
developed sensitively in harmony with the
environment: minimizing use of fossil fuels,
conserving local plant and wildlife and blending with
nature.
 12 Aims for Making Tourism
Sustainable (UNEP-WTO, 2005)
1. Economic Viability: To ensure the viability and
competitiveness of tourism destinations and
enterprises, so that they are able to continue
to prosper and deliver benefits in the long
term.
2. Local Prosperity: To maximize the contribution
of tourism to the economic prosperity of the
host destination, including the proportion of
visitor spending that is retained locally.
 12 Aims for Making Tourism
Sustainable (UNEP-WTO, 2005)
3. Employment Quality: To strengthen the number and quality
of local jobs created and supported by tourism, including
the level of pay, conditions of service and availability to all
without discrimination by gender, race, disability or in
other ways.

4. Social Equity: To seek a widespread and fair distribution of

economic and social benefits from tourism throughout the
recipient community, including improving opportunities,
income and services available to the poor.

5. Visitor Fulfillment: To provide a safe, satisfying and fulfilling

experience for visitors, available to all without
discrimination by gender, race, disability, or in other ways.
 12 Aims for Making Tourism
Sustainable (UNEP-WTO, 2005)
6. Local Control: To engage and empower local
communities in planning and decision making about
the management and future development of tourism
in their area, in consultation with other stakeholders.
7. Community Wellbeing: To maintain and strengthen the
quality of life in local communities, including social
structures and access to resources, amenities and life
support systems, avoiding any form of social
degradation or exploitation.
8. Cultural Richness: To respect and enhance the historic
heritage, authentic culture, traditions, and
distinctiveness of host communities.
 12 Aims for Making Tourism
Sustainable (UNEP-WTO, 2005)
9. Physical Integrity: To maintain and enhance
the quality of landscapes, both urban and
rural, and avoid the physical and visual
degradation of the environment.

10. Biological Diversity: To support the

conservation of natural areas, habitats, and
wildlife, and minimize damage to them.
 12 Aims for Making Tourism
Sustainable (UNEP-WTO, 2005)
11. Resource Efficiency: To minimize the use of
scarce and non renewable resources in the
development and operation of tourism
facilities and services.

12. Environmental Purity: To minimize the

pollution of air, water, and land and the
generation of waste by tourism enterprises
and visitors.
 Benefits and Importance
of Ecotourism
• Provides jobs and income for local people
• Makes possible funds to purchase and improve
protected or natural areas to attract more
ecotourists in the future
• Provides environmental education for visitors
• Encourages heritage and environmental
preservation and enhancement
Who would be ecotourists: 3 market segments?
1）Socially Aware Segment
– aged between 35 and 49
– the most educated of all the groups
– employed as upmarket professionals earning over
AU$77,000
– taking a thoughtful and strategic approach to life
– being politically and socially active and environmentally
aware

2。 Visible Achiever Segment

– aged between 35 and 49
– working in upmarket professional positions and earning over
AU$77,000
– seeking recognition, status and evidence of success (e.g.
cars, houses, expensive and unusual holidays)
3. Young Optimists Segment
– aged between 18 and 24
– being the active, trendy, outgoing student
generation
– being trend setters, ambitious and career
oriented
– being interested in adventure based tours,
always collecting new experiences, ideas and
relationships
– being often the children of the Visible
Achievers or Socially Aware segments.
In general, some distinct characteristics of an Eco-tourist can be
identified as the following

• Age
– largest group: around age of 20-40
– a second large group: 55 years and older
• Education and Income
– more educated than other tourists, with an interest in
learning about the environment
– earning higher incomes
• Seasonality
– general tourists - favor definite seasons at most
destinations
– eco-tourists tend to travel all year round and are not as
seasonally biased
• Environmental Behaviour
– more likely to be involved in pro-environmental behavior at home
• recycling household waste
• purchasing green products
– many of them belong to conservation organizations, but are not
necessarily active in them
• having a more intellectual interest in the environment
• rather than hands-on experience

• Accommodation Preferences
– More interested in specialist accommodation in a natural setting than
traditional star-rated hotels
• farmstays
• bed and breakfasts
• private cottages
Generally, ecotourists demonstrate the following
eight psychographic characteristics:
1. Possession of an environmental ethic.
2. Willingness not to degrade the resource.
3. Focus on intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation.
4. Biocentric rather than anthropocentric in orientation.
5. Aiming to benefit wildlife and the environment.
6. Striving for first hand experience with the natural
environment.
7. Possessing an expectation of education and
appreciation.
8. High cognitive and affective dimensions (Ballantine
and Eagles, 1994).
 Other Information
• Ecotourists possess a preference for small groups and
personalized service (Duff, 1993) and tend to be
outdoor enthusiasts and frequently travel as couples or
individuals and are frequent and experienced travellers
(cf. Williams, 1990; Wight, 1996; see also Boo, 1991).
• They are ‘generally more accepting of conditions
different from home than are other types of tourists’
(Boo, 1991: 13). Luxury accommodation, food and
nightlife are far less important to this group than living
in local conditions, and sampling local customs and
food.
• Due to their ‘strong science orientation’ and focus on
study and learning, ecotourists are instead demanding
of information and instruction on the destinations they
visit (Eagles, 1992: 12).
• A study of Canadian ecotourists, for example,
found that they were interested in tropical
forests, birds, lakes and streams, trees and
wildflowers, mammals, mountains and
oceans. These physical features were highly
ranked by ecotourists when asked about their
motivations.
• The same group regarded gambling,
amusement parks, nightlife, big cities,
watching sport, doing nothing, indoor sports,
shopping and resort areas as the least
enjoyable activities and attractions to visit
while on holiday.
• The study also found that while ecotourists are
interested in nature in its own right they enjoy
personal development through physical activity,
experiencing new and simpler lifestyles, meeting
people of similar interests, seeing cultural
activities, and buying local crafts (Eagles, 1992).
• Ecotourists are expecting discovery and
enlightenment from their ecotourism experience.
• Personal growth in emotional, spiritual, as well as
intellectual terms appear to be expected
outcomes from ecotourism travel for the majority
of these travellers (Williams, 1990: 84).
Circumstances that resulted in the emergence of
ecotourism: 3 factors

• SOCIETAL CHANGES:
– media effect and shift in education => people’s social and
environmental awareness

• CHANGES IN TOURISTS’ INTERESTS:

– traveling more widely => becoming more adventurous =>
questioning about places of visit

• THE STRATEGY OF THE INDUSTRY:

– being informative and educative is integral to the product
 Trends Leading to Ecotourism
• Increases in the overall travel market.
• Growth in popularity of vacations to natural areas-
particularly dramatic growth rates to parks in developing
countries.
• Massive dissatisfaction with the simplistic travel packages
offered by travel firms and facilities.
• Urgent need to generate funding and human resources for
the management of protected areas in ways
that meet the needs of local rural
populations.
• Recognition of the importance of tourism
within the field of sustainable
development.
 ECOTOURISM
Features and Opportunities
• Ecotourism products and services are found across
tourism supply chain from flight and accommodation
providers to tour operators and restaurants
• Recreational activities such as nature-viewing,
hunting, fishing, scuba diving or snorkelling etc.
• A principal earner of foreign exchange among the
poorest nations
• “The fastest growing sector of the largest industry on
earth”, with annual exports up to US$100 billion and
growing three times faster than other segments of the
tourism sector (www.world-tourism.org,
www.ecotourism.org)
 Facts and figures
• Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing
industries
• WTO: receipts from international tourism grew
almost 10 % per year (1985-2000)
• Nature tourism:
50 % of all international tourism
Increases 10-30% per year
Global spendings on ecotourism increase by 20 % per
year
Increase of environmental consciousness worldwide
 Tourism’s Economic Impact
• In 2009, international tourism receipts
reached US $852 billion.
• In 2010, travel & tourism is projected to
account for 9.2%, US $5,751 billion, of world
GDP and provide a total of 235 million jobs.
• In 4 out of 5 countries (over 150) tourism is
one of five top export earners.
• In 60 countries tourism is the number one
export.
Consumer Demand for Ecotourism
• 96% of Condé Nast Traveler readers think hotels
and resorts should be responsible for protecting
the environment they operate in. With 74.5%
saying a hotels’ environmental policies influence
their decision to stay there.
• A 2005 analysis found that more than two-thirds
of U.S. and Australian travelers, and 90% of
British tourists, consider active protection of the
environment, including support of local
communities, to be part of a hotel’s
responsibility.
 Ecotourism’s Economic Impact
• Captures $77 billion of the global market and
experiencing double-digit gains that are likely to
accelerate as concern about global warming rises.
• The United Nations World Travel Organization
(UNWTO) estimates that in 2007 ecotourism
captured 7 percent of the international market.
• According to Travel Weekly, sustainable tourism
could grow to 25% of the world’s travel market by
2012, taking the value of the sector to
approximately $473 billion a year.
 Global Growth in Tourism
• 1950: 25 million tourist arrivals.
• 2004: 760 million tourism arrivals.
• 2007: 903 million tourist arrivals.
• 2020 Forecast: 1.6 billion intl. arrivals.
• International tourism in emerging & developing
markets has grown at an average rate of 6-8% over the
past decade – or twice the rate of growth in
industrialized countries.
• Between 1996 and 2006, international tourism in
developing countries expanded by 6% as a whole, by
9% for Least Developed Countries, and 8% for other
low and lower-middle income economies.
 Tourist motivations
• ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors are central in motivating
tourists. Push motives are internal to the individual
while pull motives are aroused by the destination.
• Push factors establish the desire for travel and pull
factors explain actual destination choice (Bello and
Etzel, 1985).
• Push factors are motives concerned with the social and
psychological status of the individual, while pull
factors, on the other hand, are ‘motives aroused by the
destination rather than emerging exclusively from the
traveller himself’ (Crompton, 1990: 410).
 7 primary push motives and
two pull motives:
Push motives Pull motives
• escape from perceived • novelty;
mundane environment;
• education
• exploration and evaluation of
self;
• relaxation;
• prestige;
• regression;
• enhancement of kinship
relationships;
• facilitation of social
interaction.
Environmental Factors Influencing Travel
Decisions
Factors Percentage

Beautiful Landscape 51%

Water Quality 27%
Unspoiled Nature 23%
Air Quality 22%
Old Customs 16%
Architecture 13%
Source: The Environment & Travel Perception, WTTC-WTO-Earth Council
Where is the Customer?
 Barriers to Travel
Ranking

1 Terrorism 1.89

2 Infectious diseases 1.91

3 Racial discrimination 2.10

4 Natural disaster 2.18

5 Airport delays & hassles 2.40

Source:
Visa+PATA 1 2 3
Travel Survey 2009 Deters me Consider Changing Does Not affect
From visiting Destination My decision
 ASIAN ECOTOURIST
• Will travel in larger groups

• Will demand higher degree of comfort than

the western ecotourists

• Will be more interested in ecotour day trips

while lodging and dining in comfortable
resorts