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Eco-Tourism & Sustainable Travel Research Center
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Ecotourism
Ecotourism is becoming a major sector in the Travel Industry experiencing an ever increasing rate of growth. It is the nature and culture based tourism that is ecologically sustainable and supports the well being of local communities. Ecotourism involves providing people with holidays or leisure activities in natural areas (e.g. mountains, forest and sea). Rapid growth in Ecotourism also means rapid growth in job opportunities, managing ecotourism facilities or planning and conducting ecotour activities. Ecology & Sustainable Tourism Ecotourism is defined as purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the culture and natural history of the environment, taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem while producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people. Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in ecotourism activities should adhere to the following ecotourism principles:
Research Areas
The ecotourism is focused on market segmentation, ecological impacts of wildlife viewing, and community-based ecotourism, but there has been minimal attention to critical areas such as quality control, the industry, external environments or institutions even as the components and parameters of ecotourism are being extended. This imbalance, combined with the fragmentation and lack of integration within the literature, suggest that ecotourism, as a field of academic inquiry, is still in a state of adolescence.
The ecotourism research involves the following areas:
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