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.

Elephants, otters return to Cardamom Tented Camp’s conservation area in Cambodia


Cardamom Tented Camp ecolodge in Cambodia reports success in nature conservation with otters and elephants coming back to its conservation area.

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp in Cam­bod­ia has wit­nessed the return of a small herd of ele­phants to its con­ser­va­tion area, after an absence of five years. A large group of smooth-coated otters are back too. Forest rangers dis­covered and pho­to­graphed ele­phant foot­prints and drop­pings inside the 18,000-hectare forest con­ces­sion, which the camp pro­tects, with help from Wildlife […]

Read More Elephants, otters return to Cardamom Tented Camp’s conservation area in Cambodia

Cardamom Tented Camp earns global accolade for its sustainability story


Cardamom Tented Camp staff team photo

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp eco­lodge in Cam­bod­ia is one of Green Des­tin­a­tions’ 2021 Top 100 Des­tin­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Stor­ies. The announce­ment was made Octo­ber 5 dur­ing the online annu­al con­fer­ence of Green Des­tin­a­tions, a non-profit organ­isa­tion for sus­tain­able tour­ism based in The Neth­er­lands. The annu­al pro­gramme has been in exist­ence since 2014. Car­damom Ten­ted Camp was chosen by the […]

Read More Cardamom Tented Camp earns global accolade for its sustainability story

Africa must put communities, conservation at the centre of travel & tourism recovery

October 5, 2021

Generations. In "Kargi, a remote nomadic settlement in Kenya". Image by Ian Macharia (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/7k91OUDYAQ0

Pick­ing up on the reports, find­ings, declar­a­tions, and state­ments of organ­isa­tions and opin­ion lead­ers in Africa and around the world, tour­ism schol­ar Edwin Magio calls upon Afric­an travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers to put words into action. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  As the Afric­an tour­ism sec­tor pre­pares to recov­er from the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, tour­ism experts […]

Read More Africa must put communities, conservation at the centre of travel & tourism recovery

How can tourism protect & promote mangroves?

July 27, 2021
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Mida Creek mangroves, Malindi, Kenya. By Timothy K (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/1CiE1x4dHIY

Kev­in Phun passes a sus­tain­ab­il­ity lens over con­cerns about man­grove forests to determ­ine what it would take for our travel & tour­ism industry to be a respons­ible con­trib­ut­or to pro­tect­ing and restor­ing them. It’s his third “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  Man­groves are import­ant to coastal com­munit­ies. They shield them from the worst effects of strong winds, […]

Read More How can tourism protect & promote mangroves?

Wild urban spaces: Rethinking ecotourism as a mass tourism product

July 15, 2021

'Urban Jungle' by Pelle Sten (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pellesten/5655438695

What if the ‘mass’ travel & tour­ism activ­it­ies of cit­ies and cit­izens were ‘sus­tain­able’? Could any of it be coun­ted as ‘eco­tour­ism’? Sudip­ta K Sarkar explores these ques­tions in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to Jim Butcher for invit­ing Dr Sarkar to write a “GT” Insight.] After more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, […]

Read More Wild urban spaces: Rethinking ecotourism as a mass tourism product

Where next for wildlife conservation, ecotourism, & community well-being?

July 6, 2021

Tim the tusker. (c) Beth Allgood

In many places, improved rela­tion­ships between tour­ism oper­a­tions, wild­life, and hab­it­ats were start­ing to deliv­er more sus­tain­able out­comes, includ­ing the par­ti­cip­a­tion of loc­al people. Then COVID-19 …  “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Plan­et Hap­pi­ness invited con­ser­va­tion and com­munity devel­op­ment expert Beth All­good to share her thoughts in this exclus­ive “GT” Insight. See­ing wild­life in their nat­ive habitat […]

Read More Where next for wildlife conservation, ecotourism, & community well-being?