Ecotourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Ecotourism - Essay Example uld be considered as culturally significant for the local people, it becomes necessary to take care that tourism does not in any way hurt the well being of such communities. Infact one way of improving the well being of the local communities would be to provide them with direct financial benefits to help them conserve the environment or purchasing goods and services directly from them and empowering them. As can be seen from the above discussion, the main difference, as Beeton (1998) points out, between other types of tourism and eco-tourism is that eco-tourism is more involved in conserving the ecological aspect of the environment; there is greater attention given to the ethical aspect of preserving the environment and improving the well being of the local communities involved. Ecotourism activities can include a whole range of activities from photography, wild life viewing, bird watching, mountaineering and even skiing. These activities can come under different categories of touris m but they become ecotourism activities solely when people become aware of the ethical responsibility they have in preserving and conserving the environment. It is therefore not hard to imagine why ecotourism is given precedence in the study of sociology. Sociology, put simply, is the study of the society. It provides deep insight about the social behavior and activities of humans within a society. Buckley (2004), states that the study of social norms is an inherent part of the discipline of sociology and social norms especially pertinent to outdoor creation, have drawn considerable attention in the past few years. Therefore, ecotourism in sociological terms simply seeks to define social norms which are used in evaluating outdoor behavior and environmental conditions. The growth of... Ecotourism Encouraging ecotourism in developing countries would firstly and fore mostly help the economy diversify. As a result of promoting ecotourism, more businesses will spring up and further business expansion in different fields would help spread the risk over a range of diverse economic activities. This is most important relevant to those developing countries who are highly dependent on a single sector in their economy (oil production or agricultural production). The diversification will also help bring in monetary benefits for the local economy. By bringing people into the area, new money will be injected into the economy. The most important strategy for a sustained ecotourism approach is to increase the participation and involvement of the local people. The whole essence of ecotourism lies in its ability to improve the well being of the local community. The new money circulating in the economy can be used in a variety of forms. It can be used on public expenditure and can be spent on building infrastructure for the country. It can also take the form of greater employment opportunities, and increased production which will attempt to increase the GDP of the country. Production induced phenomenon will work when businesses will buy goods and services from other business and consumption induced phenomenon will work when the final consumers would buy goods and services. However, the promotion of ecotourism must be done with caution because it can also put an additional burden on the financial and economic resources of the country.