Essay: The aim of tourism and ecotourism

Sample Essay

Both tourism and ecotourism aim towards sustainable development. There is usually a conflict between development and environmental conservation with both extremes bringing about inadequacies in adaptation owing to the current global situations of negative environmental impacts and effects of the global village. Ecotourism therefore attempts to meet the needs of the local people while tourism focuses on a much bigger population putting the country’s citizens in perspective (Morgan, 1999).

An eco- tour refers to a sightseeing excursion in physical nature. An ecotourist then refers to a tourist who joins an ecotour. With the above definition, it is worth noting that eco-tourists may fail to understand the difference between ecotourism and mainstream tourism (Dimitrios, 2008). This occurs in circumstances where they fail to understand the roles expected of them to distinguish them from other tourists. In addition, the sites chosen for excursion purposes may determine them as tourists. An eco-tourist who accesses a tourist site such as an aquarium or mausoleum located away from its original site would fail to understand the difference between him and a tourist.

In cases where tourists are given an opportunity to learn from the available environment with the help of tour guides or game rangers, they are awarded the same opportunity of acquiring knowledge just as those seeking such knowledge from ecotourism areas availed to them by local community members hence the difference between them is narrowed (Badan & Bhatt, 2005).

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