An Intro to Eco Tourism
The topic of Eco Travel is a hot one. Most of the world is waking up to how much energy and resources they are consuming on a daily basis. Many tourists are becoming more and more aware of their activities on the local ecosystems they are enjoying year after year. The whole idea of Ecotourism or Ecotravel is considered by some to be a bane on the ecology of the area. However on the flip side this same ecotourism is sponsoring conservation programs that would not get funding otherwise.
Some critics of ecotourism want to have the entire world cease world wide travel all together and everyone just stay home. While this may seem appealing to some it is just an impractical solution. We have are have gotten accustomed to our ways of travel and too many industries are dependent upon all the travelers that traverse the globe on a daily basis.
A better solution would be to try and make our impact less severe. You can do this by buying carbon offsets and staying in areas that contribute to the ecology of the area. A family does not necessarily have to give up all luxuries in order to feel responsible. Some of the best places to stay are very much environmentally safe and do not create a large footprint on the environment.
According to a recent study by the Natural Marketing Institute ecotourism represents a 24.2 billion dollar industry. Obviously this is a growing trend and we will see more and more eco friendly resorts and hotels popping up. Many of the existing hotels are slowly making a conversion from their bad ways in order to cater to this growing community. I see this as a great thing in our world as we do need to be more conscious as to how we are living on a daily basis including the way we vacation.
