Eco-tourism
Responsible tourism means every tourism that relies directly on the use of natural life such as wildlife and landscapes. Nature-based tourism includes ecotourism and mass tourism. Uncontrolled mass tourism continues to contribute to the decline of natural and cultural significance (commercialization of culture) leading to or causing the loss of biological and cultural biodiversity, important sources of income. Nature-based tourism offers a way to fund the preservation of unique ecosystems. This provides the opportunity for the community living near protected areas to benefit economically, such as employment opportunities. But tourism and travel based on nature while preserving the ecosystem is also degrading it. Much nature-based tourism falls short of social responsibility to the local community.
Sustainable tourism is developed and managed in such a way that all tourism activities focus on an imminently sustainable heritage, natural and cultural resource and every effort is made to preserve the resource in perpetuity.
According to Hector Ceballos Laskorian (1983), ecotourism means “tourism that involves traveling to a relatively undisturbed natural area with the aim of admiring, studying and enjoying its landscapes and wild flora and fauna as well as the cultural features found there”.
Ecotourism includes four basic elements:-
• The natural environment as the primary attraction and the cultural environment playing a secondary role
• Sustainable use of the ecological and cultural environment.
• Focus on education and interpretation of the resource
• Providing benefit to the host community
Tourism is about the people and places one group of people leaves, visits and passes through, the people who make the trip possible and the people encountered on the tour, and it includes travellers, host communities and governments.
In the tourism industry, the destination is probably one of the most important elements. The destination area represents the drive behind tourism and it is the tourist attraction in the destination that generates the visit. The tourism product is consumed at the place of its production (the destination). Hence the destination is under significant pressure from high levels of demand concentrated in time and in specific locations for example warm East Africa and coastal Indian Ocean beaches during Northern Hemisphere winter.
Tourism pressures can change the tourism resource and as a tourism resource, and as the demand for tourists continues, many destinations around the world have undergone environmental degradation. The impact of a form of tourism development on the environment has caused concern among environmentalists and other constituents. Therefore, professional management and planning of a destination is crucial if tourism is to contribute to its preservation and to be seen as an acceptable industry in a world whose survival is under threat.
Tourism requires an unpolluted environment in which to operate. It is necessary to develop and manage tourism trips in a way that protects natural assets. We stand for the fact that the extent to which tourism is developed, planned and controlled in an organized and coordinated manner will affect the long-term quality of the tourism product and thus the success of the hospitality industry. While tourism can be a catalyst for development, it is important for government agencies to plan and develop tourism carefully so that the benefits can be maximized without creating social and environmental problems.
Low impact forms of tourism contrast with the effects of mass tourism which poses a number of challenges to the resource base, i.e. environment, society and economy. Low-impact forms of tourism create a balance between environmental quality and resource use. This mainly aims to empower local communities in the management of their natural resources creating an incentive to conserve biological resources in the environment by allowing the beneficial effects from tourism to filter down to individual families and households.
Alternative tourism is seen as forms of tourism that are compatible with natural social and community values and that allow both host and guest to enjoy positive and worthwhile interaction and shared experience, also known variously as ecotourism, nature tourism, eco-friendly sustainable tourism, environmentally sensitive, eco-friendly or green environment such as walking tours, bird safaris, youth safaris, nature safaris, nature safaris, nature safaris.
Many destinations that are marketed as responsible tourism do not take into account the development of the local community, economy, social welfare and human rights. In fact, the majority of them couldn’t care less about the supplier as long as it brings the “green bill”. There should be concern for staff and tourist education i.e. expected behavior for visitors. And so in this, nature-based tourism is formulated as sustainable development. The concept of a set of principles, defined by Ties 1991 as responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and preserve the well-being of local people.
It is now fashionable to look at tourism development in the context of ‘sustainability’ ‘alternative tourism’ ‘green tourism’ all of which have special meaning to different people but the majority are environmental posters or marketing and PR shows. Sustainable tourism is one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
