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342 jungle tourism
jungle tours in terms of hunting trophy animals, the
majority of nature-based tourists to the tropics
preferred to safari in savannah grasslands.
The emergence of the environmental movement
in Western countries in the 1950s and 1960s led to
dramatic shifts in the nature of tourist consumption
in jungle areas, with photography and nature
appreciation replacing game hunting as core
activities. Related to this shift was the rise of mass
television and the role that natural history
documentaries played in creating a more positive
image of the jungle. The portrayal of anthropologists
studying jungle primates served to turn such
activities into attractions in countries such as the
Congo, Indonesia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, thus
providing a financial base for primate preservation.
More broadly, the enormous biodiversity of
tropical rainforests served to attract tourism and
encourage the establishment of national parks.
Consequently, jungle tourism has emerged as an
economic alternative to rainforest destruction for
timber, dam-building and grazing in countries as
diverse as Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mozambique
and Thailand. One of the greatest difficulties
for jungle tours is the provision of access to upper
levels of the rainforest canopy where most birds
and primates are located. Therefore, accessibility
is being made available through the development
of canopy walkways, as in the Wet Tropics of
north Queensland, Australia.
Guided tours by indigenous inhabitants are
increasingly popular as ethno-botanical and educational
tourism become distinct speciality markets.
Jungle tourism is thus a significant tool for
providing an economic basis for the conservation
of ecological and cultural diversity in tropical
rainforest areas, and is receiving considerable
support from Western conservation and aid
agencies as part of sustainable development
programmes.
Further reading
Wallace, G.N. and Pierce, S.M. �1996) Àn evaluation
of ecotourism in Amazons, Brazil', Annals of
Tourism Research 23�4): 843±73.
C. MICHAEL HALL, NEW ZEALAND