There was a time when the term eco-tourism conjured up images of sandal-wearing Swampy types who spent their holidays exploring recycling plants, staying in grass huts and eating wild roots in remote wilderness spots. Not any more. These days, almost every self-respecting travel company seems to have some sort of “eco” aspect to its programme: from promoting environmentally aware hotels and water-saving schemes, to encouraging the purchase of the produce and services of local communities.
The term “responsible tourism” is not limited to holidays in “natural areas”, however. Increasingly, it applies to all tourism that has tangible benefits for local people and the environment. Another frequently used term in this context is “sustainable tourism”. According to Sue Hurdle of The Travel Foundation charity, while it is hard to pinpoint precise differences between these terms, eco-tourism can be seen to represent a particular kind of product, while sustainable and responsible tourism describe ways of travelling. In the end, the aims are pretty similar.
how inured have we become to abject pollution that we consider it a treat to see anything close to a pristine environment; that we consider ecologically responsible behavior a such novelty that we travel to see it?
wistful cynicism aside, this is a good example of how the free market can lead to responsible behavior — people will pay a premium when they can to promote a clean environment in which to raise children, even if it’s simple stuff like buying electricity from windmills, and as such there is good money to be made being green
//ken
Ken – I don’t get the connection between responsible behavior and a free market. It always seemed to me that free markets have been more aligned with strip mining, waste dumping, offshore sweat shops and child labor. It seems to me that free markets, if truly free, would happily turn this planet into a barren rock.
#2…Ken…..when corps. find out the consumer wants less pollution, more *clean* technology…..and they respond, thats the connection.
You might want to update your old 1960’s anti-corproate rhectoric…….today, many companies produce products that are organic or low impact. Unfortunatly, not all…..but it’s a whole lot better than it used to be and it will continue to get better.
Have you been to a strip mine in the last 10 years? If you didn’t know beforehand it was a strip mine you wouldn’t know it after they have finished and restored the area. My Mom’s family is from an area of Ohio where strip mines were as common as strip malls are now. Those places left horrible scars, but nature has taken most of those places back and they are beautiful pockets of diversity. Not just plant life, but birds and animals and fish. Even the ones that left a swampy area have sprung back to life. I was amazed when I first saw them. Of course not all have been able to do that, some were polluted with chemicals or oil by products that have left them overgrown dead areas.
What bugs me is how the hotel employees are soo poorly paid and treated. Maybe not the chef and the guys at the front desk… but the army of workers who clean toilets, wash dishers and change sheets.
I just wonder how they can not LOATH the rich tourists throwing money around in such near vicinity.
This is everywhere I’ve travelled.
Front desk people are usually in the $10/hour range in the US.