Linking Culture and the Environment

3 Ecotourism and Naturebased
Tourism: One End
of the Tourism Opportunity
Spectrum?
CHAD P. DAWSON
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, New York, USA
Introduction
Ecotourism and nature-based tourism can be defined as forms of sustainable
development when they are limited in scale and minimize environmental
and social impacts. While there is a lack of consensus on the exact meaning
of the terms ecotourism and nature-based tourism, they will be used here to
outline a more systematic approach to regional planning in and around
undeveloped environments. For example, consideration of the positive and
negative impacts of tourism development can be expressed in ecotourism
goals: (i) to benefit local communities without overwhelming their social and
economic systems; (ii) to protect the environmental, natural and cultural
resource base on which the tourism depends; and (iii) to require the ethical
behaviour of recreational users and tourists, as well as the supporting commercial
recreation and tourism operators.
Since the late 1990s, ecotourism and nature-based tourism has been the
subject of many conferences, professional journals, books and project reports
(e.g. Boo, 1990; Kusler, 1991; Whelan, 1991; Tabata et al., 1992; Crotts, 1994;
Hall and Johnston, 1995; McCool and Watson, 1995; Eagles and Nilsen, 1997;
Weaver, 2001). There are numerous definitions and varied frames of reference
as to what constitutes either ecotourism or nature-based tourism.
Generally, the concept of ecotourism or nature-based tourism has focused on
environmental considerations for tourism development and management
(Lindberg and Hawkins, 1993; Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific, 1995; Ceballos-Lascurian, 1996) and codes of conduct for
environmental responsibility among tourists, host communities and the tourism
industry (United Nations Environmental Programme, 1995). The tourism
literature suggests that ecotourism and nature-based tourism, like other
types of tourism, need to consider a wide array of social, environmental and
economic conditions along with the capacity to sustain those conditions and
©CAB International 2008. Tourism, Recreation and Sustainability:
38 Linking Culture and the Environment, 2nd edn (eds S.F. McCool and R.N. Moisey)