Posted on May, 08 2002

Tourism is big business. As the world's largest industry, it currently accounts for more than ten per cent of global employment and eleven per cent of global GDP — and the annual number of tourist trips world wide is predicted to double to 1.6 billion by 2020. The sheer number of people travelling around the world has a major, and ever-increasing, impact on both people and nature. Mass tourism clearly is not sustainable. Inappropriate tourism developments and practises degrade habitats and landscapes, deplete natural resources, and generate waste and pollution. Ecotourism — defined by the International Tourism Society as responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people — is often touted as the solution, as well as a panacea for sustainable development in communities that have few other resources. But are current ecotourism developments always a responsible alternative? The building of roads, car parks, and accommodation in national parks is just one example of dubious ecotourism development. Lack of regulation has also led to ecotourism being used as a profitable marketing label for adventure holidays instead of an indication that tour operators are practising responsible tourism. In addition, some local communities have complained that they were never consulted about ecotourism development plans, or that the benefits fall short of what they were led to believe. A deeper question is whether ecotourism is even desirable in some areas. A few ecotourists in a fragile environment may have a greater impact than hundreds of tourists in an existing resort — and may open the way for mass tourism to follow. In a similar vein, critics of ecotourism, such as the Third World Network, fear that if all holiday-makers become ecotourists, then hordes of travellers will invade villages and protected areas instead of staying in existing tourist centres — a development that could increase the undesirable impact of tourism rather than alleviate existing problems. Recognizing the impact of ecotourism — both good and bad — the United Nations declared 2002 the International Year of Ecotourism, offering all stakeholders the chance to review the effect of ecotourism on the environment and communities. In the run up to the culminating event, the World Ecotourism Summit, there have been a series of preparatory meetings around the world to discuss tourism in the context of conservation, communities, and marketing. The goals of the summit, which will be held in Quebec, Canada from 19–22 May 2002, include coming to a better understanding of the impact of ecotourism; improving its planning, management, marketing, and regulation; and ensuring equitable distribution of benefits to all stakeholders. These are ambitious goals, especially since ecotourism involves a broad range of interest groups, from local communities and indigenous peoples to global corporations, national governments, and development agencies. However, given that what's at stake is further degradation of the environment as well as damage to local communities, an ambitious plan is undoubtedly required. Despite the critics, WWF, the conservation organization, believes that responsible ecotourism does have the potential to support conservation and communities. But the organization warns that ecotourism is no panacea. While it can provide an alternative to damaging economic activities such as logging and mining, there will be few instances where ecotourism alone can provide sufficient income to support conservation and people. The organization believes that ecotourism should always be a part of a wider sustainable development strategy, and its growth carefully monitored. WWF also warns that the existence of a wilderness area does not automatically mean that an ecotourism initiative will be successful. Success requires, amongst other things, good access, training, comfortable accommodation, visible wildlife, appropriate marketing, impact monitoring, and proper regulation. Many small-scale, community-based ecotourism initiatives have been set up only to fail due to lack of consideration of these factors. The organization believes that all tourism should maintain or enhance biological and cultural diversity, use resources in a sustainable way, and reduce over-consumption and waste, and is working on developing such responsible tourism practises at a number of different levels. One is to support community-based ecotourism enterprises where local communities have control over how ecotourism develops and gain an equitable share of benefits. Another is to push for certification programmes for tour operators. For example, the LINKS programme — initially a joint initiative of the WWF, the State of Alaska, and the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association and now an official project of the Arctic Council — aims to certify arctic tourism businesses that operate in a socially and environmentally responsible way, and will assist in marketing these businesses to travellers. A major, but often ignored, impact of all tourism is CO2 emissions from air travel, which make a significant contribution to global warming and climate change. Realizing that, in reality, few people will stop travelling in order to reduce their impact on the environment, WWF is promoting a new business tool that evaluates the environmental impact, or "ecological footprint" of a holiday. The Holiday Footprinting tool estimates the environmental impact of a particular holiday by examining individual components — such as flights, waste, and food consumption — and then suggests "scenarios" for impact reduction. In a similar vein, WWF is collaborating with the UK ecotour operator Discovery Initiatives, which pays a fee to a climate care scheme that invests in alternative technologies and renewable energy products designed to counter the impact of air travel. Although certification, better regulation, and appropriate involvement of local communities will go a long way towards ensuring that ecotourism is responsible tourism, its future will ultimately depend upon travellers who support responsible tourism. The outlook here is promising — in a recent survey in the UK, for example, 85 per cent of respondents said they would like their holidays not to harm the environment. The growth of the ecotourism sector over the last two decades also appears to indicate a general interest in not damaging the environment while on holidays. The outcomes of the World Ecotourism Summit together with the work of organizations committed to responsible ecotourism will hopefully help raise awareness of the issues surrounding ecotourism as well as ensure that ecotourists are not inadvertently destroying the landscapes they come to visit. (1016 words) *Justin Woolford was formerly Tourism Policy Officer at WWF-UK. He is now Toxics Campaign Leader at WWF-UK. Further information: WWF's mission WWF's mission is to conserve nature and ecological processes, to seek the sustainable use of natural resources, and to promote the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption whilst recognizing and respecting human needs and livelihoods. Our aim is to slow down, and eventually reverse, the accelerating degradation of our planet's natural environment; and to help build the future in which people live in harmony with nature. WWF's position on tourism WWF work on tourism is part of its wider work on sustainable development. WWF believes that all tourism must be planned, managed, and undertaken in a way that avoids damage to biodiversity, and is environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially equitable. WWF engages with tourism-related activity where it threatens WWF's mission or can help deliver solutions. WWF's work on ecotourism WWF has published guidelines for community-based ecotourism development, and is currently supporting several community-based ecotourism enterprises. The guidelines also describe some of WWF's ecotourism initiatives. WWF's contribution to the World Ecotourism Summit WWF, in cooperation with Swedish Ecotourism Association, the County Administration of Västerbotten, the International Ecotourism Society, and the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association, organized the Arctic Ecotourism Conference, one of the official preparatory conferences in the run up to the World Ecotourism Summit. The conference, held in Hemavan, Sweden, from 25–28 April, addressed arctic ecotourism in the context of conservation, communities, certification, and marketing. The LINKS Programme LINKS, short for Linking Tourism and Conservation in the Arctic, is an official project of the Arctic Council — the high level inter-governmental forum consisting of all eight arctic countries and indigenous people's organizations. The certification programme would mean businesses who adhere to WWF’s Principles and Codes of Conduct for Arctic Tourism would be able to carry a special logo to market their tours. The programme would be marketed to travellers through an interactive website that will help them choose more sustainable businesses and provide further information about the Arctic, its environment, and cultures. Certification A variety of certification schemes already exist and some are more comprehensive than others. WWF supports and recommends the use of certification schemes where these are judged to be supportive of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Standards should include performance criteria and should be underpinned by complementary processes such as benchmarking.