Courtesy : www.american.edu
Eco-tour education
Tourism is an ever growing industry around the world with many countries now
dependent on the tourism industry within their country to continue to grow and develop. As a
report put out by the World Economic Forum states, there was an increase in the number of
international tourism receipts from US$2.1 billion to US$622.7 billion between 1950 and 2004.
By 2006, the tourism sector accounted for 10.3 percent of world GDP. Furthermore, in 2006
there were 234 million jobs in the industry, making up 8.2 percent of total employment
worldwide. (World Tourism Analysis 2007) The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has
estimated that the industry has grown from 25 million international travelers in 1950 to over 800
million today. They expect that number to jump to 1.2 billion travelers by 2020. The question
now for the industry is how to minimize the impact of all these travelers. Since the 1980s one
solution has been offered: ecotourism. With its promises to not only preserve the environment
but also offer opportunities that are unique both culturally but also within nature, it has become
an avenue for much of the industry to look towards for the future of tourism.
Therefore, this paper will concentrate on ecotourism in the following three chapters. The
first chapter will concentrate on the development of ecotourism as well as the ongoing discussion
on various aspects within the ecotourism field. The second chapter will take a closer look at the
emerging emphasis on the role of education within the ecotourism field. The third chapter will
focus on a case study from Costa Rica at the Rara Avis ecolodge showcasing how education and
ecotourism can work together to form a more environmentally conscious and better educated
society. Finally, a call for more research to be done on the importance of education and also an
emphasis that as the field continues to develop education must be included as a requirement for
ecotourism ventures.
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Chapter One: The Development of Ecotourism
Introduction
Since the writing of the Brundtland Report in 1987, sustainable development has become
a goal that practitioners of development strive to meet. The difficulty is preserving the
environment of today for future generations while also allowing for economic development to
occur. One solution came about in late 1980s, ecotourism, which was based on traveling and
learning about other environments and cultures while also helping with that area’s economic
development through the money paid for those experiences. In recent years ecotourism has come
under fire, especially because of its lack of definition and guidelines about what opportunities are
included as ecotourism and which are not.
Definition
The creation of the term ecotourism has been credited to the Mexican Consultant, Hector
Ceballos-Lascuráin, in July of 1983. He stated that ecotourism “involves travelling to relatively
undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring, and
enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural aspects.”
(Weaver 2005a: 19) David Weaver, a professor of sustainable tourism, has said that Ceballos
went even further to say that ecotourism should be undertaken in remote areas with modest
accommodations. This initial interpretation has led many to put mass tourism and ecotourism on
opposite ends of the tourism spectrum.
The problem is that since 1988, while many people have presented definitions no
definition can be agreed upon. For example one leader in the industry, Martha Honey, has
defined ecotourism as: “travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be
low impact and (often) small scale. It helps educate the traveler, provides funds for conservation,
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directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities,
and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.” (Honey 2008: 33) Another
definition has been offered by David Fennell, a professor of ecotourism, “Ecotourism is a
sustainable, non-invasive form of nature-based tourism that focuses primarily on learning about
nature first-hand, and which is ethically managed to be low-impact, non-consumptive, and
locally oriented (control, benefits, and scale). It typically occurs in natural areas, and should
contribute to the conservation of such areas.” (Fennell 2007: 24) Both are good definitions and
there is commonality in that they both believe that ecotourism should involve natural areas, a
local focus, learning on the part of the tourist, and conservation. The two differences are that
Honey believes a focus should also be given to the improvement of the locals while Fennell
focuses on low impact and doesn’t mention the improvement of locals. So finally The
International Ecotourism Society (TIES) offered a very simple but encompassing definition that
ecotourism is, “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves
the well being of people.” (Honey 2008: 6) In the end it seems that much of the industry may run
on the definition offered by TIES but scholars continue to debate what components should be
included.
Ecotourism Catches On
Until the last 50 years tourism was a small industry done on foot, horse, or by boat. Then
the inventions of trains, cars, and planes made travel accessible to almost anyone, and mass
tourism began. According to two authors, Fritsch and Johannsen, mass tourism grew even further
because of backpackers, “where backpackers go, the masses almost inevitably follow.” They also
quote Arthur Frommer who noted, “The vacation choices of penniless backpackers tend to
become mainstream favorites in later years.” (Fritsch 2004: 85) Since ecotourism as mentioned
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above focuses on those natural areas that are remote and often inaccessible, backpackers were
the first tourists to showcase the industry to mainstream tourists. Combined with the growing
demand, beginning in the 1980s, of field scientists doing more work on these remote areas,
ecotourism became an industry. This is because small local operators sprang up to cater to these
field scientists and backpackers. (Fritsch 2004: 86) The industry really took off when “affluent,
sedentary (information workers) [began] searching for new vacation worlds to conquer.” (Fritsch
2004: 87) Many of these more affluent travelers started to discover animal viewing safaris,
which became more accessible to more people through the cheaper airfare to many African
locations. The two authors go on to say that two main motivations attract more affluent travelers
to ecotourism: thrill of new experiences and curiosity. (Fritsch 2004: 92)
One of the best examples of the combination of field work, backpackers, and affluence
leading to more ecotourists is the gorilla project in Uganda. The work of Diane Fossey on gorilla
observation, led many backpackers to come see the gorillas or help with the observation, such as
Amy Vedder and Bill Weber. As their work became published in magazines such as National
Geographic more affluent travelers saw their chance to fulfill their desire of curiosity while also
doing something quite thrilling. Therefore the World Wildlife Fund, African Wildlife
Foundation, and other NGOs came together to create an ecotourism project that allowed 12
tourists at a time to visit groups of gorillas in their natural surroundings. This project has created
over $400,000 annually for the region.
The above project also shows that ecotourism has led to many NGOs being created,
especially locally, or the creation of departments and projects within existing NGOs. Also, many
international agencies have pushed for ecotourism to grow as a way for countries to develop
economically, faster than they otherwise would. Honey quotes a study done in 2005,
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“approximately $9.4 billion currently is invested by some dozen major international donor
agencies in tourism and tourism-related projects.” (Honey 2008: 19) These agencies include
United Nations Development Project, Global Environmental Facility, World Bank, USAID, and
the Inter-American Development Bank. “The international politics of debt and the international
pursuit of pleasure have become tightly knotted together.” (Honey 2008: 18)
One reason there has been so much investment in the industry is because there has been
sustainable growth in the tourism industry. This growth in the tourism sector has been showcased
by the World Travel Organization (WTO). In 1950 there were only 25 million travelers who
stayed over at a destination internationally. By 1987 that number had increased to 367 million
travelers. In 2004, the number doubled to over 750 million travelers. The study goes on to state
that the tourism industry contributes nearly $3.5 trillion or 10 percent of global GDP. (Weaver
2005b: 2) Of this tourist traffic nearly 25% occurs from developed to developing countries due
largely to the creation of ecotourism. Ceballos supports this global North to South travel, “tourist
travel is still very much the privilege of people of the industrialized world…nevertheless, the
shift in favored tourism destinations, indicates that international tourism could become a means
of redistributing wealth from north to south.” (Honey 2008: 87)
All of this growth of tourism, NGOs, and donor agencies has led to a few major
international conventions. In 1992, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) created a small Ecotourism Consultancy Program. In addition, the IUCN also issued a
policy recommendation: “in developing greater cooperation between the tourism industry and
protected areas the primary consideration must be the conservation of the natural environment
and the quality of life of local communities.” (Honey 2008: 16) The consultancy program created
in 1992 was expanded in 1996 to become the Task Force on Tourism and Protected Areas with a
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stated goal of collecting more data on tourism within protected areas. In 2002, the United
Nations proclaimed the Year of Ecotourism with a stated goal to: “generate greater awareness
among public authorities, the private sector, the civil society, and consumers regarding
ecotourism’s capacity to contribute to the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage in
natural and rural areas, and the improvement of standards of living in those areas” (Gossling
2007: 87) Finally, in 2003 IUCN’s meeting featured many speakers and events on tourism even
though it was not the theme of the meeting. Once such event featured Nelson Mandela who
described ecotourism: “as part of the solution for both sustainable management of protected
areas and poverty reduction for surrounding rural communities.” (Honey 2008: 16)
The bottom line is that the international tourism market has moved toward a need for
travel that offers opportunities within nature, protection of nature, but also helps local
populations at the same time. This has been seen in surveys conducted of international tourists.
One survey done by Condé Nast Traveler showed that more than 75 percent of readers deemed it
important for hotels near impoverished areas to help local people obtain education, clean water,
food, and health care. (Honey 2008: 97) A recent study done by Won Lee found that for the most
part ecotourists did prefer to do business with environmentally responsible accommodations.
Furthermore, a majority of ecotourists were willing to pay 10-20 Australian dollars a day more
for environmentally sensitive accommodation. (Lee 2005: 554) This type of shift in the tourism
industry has led to about 13% of tourists from the United States to be included under the
umbrella of ecotourism. (Honey 2008: 76) All of this attention to ecotourism has put pressure on
the industry to grow rapidly creating many problems which will be covered in the next section.