Eco-tourism involves visiting natural areas to educate travelers, provide funds for conservation, and benefit local communities while respecting their cultures. Some key characteristics include traveling to natural destinations, building environmental awareness, providing financial benefits for conservation and local people, and respecting local culture. However, eco-tourism can negatively impact the environment, local economies, and cultures if not properly managed, such as through overtourism leading to environmental degradation or enclave tourism that does not financially benefit local communities.

1. Eco-Tourism

2. What is Eco-Tourism?
• Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving
visiting fragile, pristine, and relatively
undisturbed natural areas, intended as a low-
impact and often small scale alternative to
standard commercial (mass) tourism.

3. Its purpose maybe to:
• educate the traveler.
• provide funds for ecological conservation.
• benefit the economic development and
political empowerment of local communities.
• foster respect for different cultures and
for human rights.

4. Some characteristics of eco-tourism:
• Involves travel to natural destinations.
• Builds environmental awareness.
• Provides direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Provides financial benefits and empowerment for local
people.
• Respects local culture.
• Supports human rights and democratic movements
such as conservation of biological diversity and cultural
diversity through ecosystem protection.

5. Its negative impacts:
• Socio-cultural impact: There is a very high probability
of a culture clash. Outside influences can wreck havoc
with the ethnic way of living. Local culture and heritage
should be showcased but often it is ‘packaged’ to
conform to Western expectations. Bastardization of
customs into pop culture is an ever present danger.
Also, eco-tourism often forms the single source of
revenue for a community. Any cyclical changes in the
economy affect it as a whole. Today, corruption and
environmental degradation has left many regions in
shambles.

6. Continued….
• Economic impact: Two stumbling blocks directly emerge from
an ill managed eco-tourism plan. The first is ‘enclave tourism’.
This describes a situation wherein eco-tourism is sold as a
‘package’ most often in the country of the traveler. This
means that very little currency gets into the hands of the local
community. ‘Import Leakage’ is another difficulty. To meet the
luxury demands of particular tourists, locals must import
other goods from outside. For e.g. beverages and food. This
essentially means that wealth leaves the community to pay
for outside imports. Eco-tourism at the cost of the
environment puts a load on the local resources. Scarce
resources have to compete with volume of tourist traffic.

7. Continued…
• Environmental impact: Eco-tourism improperly
managed means a walkthrough by droves of
tourists through virgin lands. This invasion rapidly
spirals into an orgy of opportunism as everybody
attempts to cash in. Environmental degradation
follows. The popularity of an eco-tourism
destination could be directly proportional to its
rate of destruction. Local flora stand to
be harvested for economic gain thus eroding
their natural value

8. Thank you
• By ALINA ANGLE