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.)

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Inclusive ecotourism projects piloted in Uttarakhand, India

May 11, 2017

Migratory birds at Asan Conservation Reserve, which will be covered in India’s Swadesh Darshan scheme. (HT Photo)

The newly-con­­sti­­tuted Uttarakhand Eco­tour­ism Cor­por­a­tion will soon start work on devel­op­ing five inclus­ive eco­tour­ism cir­cuits in the Indi­an state, accord­ing to reports. This is the first step toward Swadesh Dar­shan, a cent­ral gov­ern­ment scheme to boost tour­ism through­out the coun­try by link­ing the sec­tor with vil­la­gers’ live­li­hoods. In the first stage the five cir­cuits would […]

Read More Inclusive ecotourism projects piloted in Uttarakhand, India

Kenya crocodile cages not ecotourism

May 11, 2017

Not ecotourism. Kenya crocodiles at Oldoiyo Lengai Hotel in Nyeri County, Kenya. Photo: Jospeph Kanyi | NMG

Due to a slow­down in Kenya’s tour­ism sec­tor, a hotel in Nyeri County, Cent­ral High­lands, is bank­ing on cro­codile cages to boost its income. Based on a Busi­ness Daily (Africa) report, “Hotel banks on eco-tour­ism to boost income”, The “Good Tour­ism” Blog is highly skep­tic­al of the pro­ject’s “eco­tour­ism” cre­den­tials. Indeed the pro­ject as described […]

Read More Kenya crocodile cages not ecotourism

Cuba seminar to focus on sustainable ecotourism

May 10, 2017

Cuba ecotourism

Cuba is increas­ingly focused on a viable and sus­tain­able eco­tour­ism mod­el based on envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion and con­ser­va­tion, accord­ing to Pren­sa Lat­ina. “Nature, adven­ture and rur­al tour­ism, are mod­al­it­ies that make a con­sid­er­able con­tri­bu­tion to the travel industry … “Cuba has a com­pre­hens­ive Nation­al Sys­tem of Pro­tec­ted Areas (SNAP) that con­trol tour­ism devel­op­ments in import­ant nation­al and […]

Read More Cuba seminar to focus on sustainable ecotourism