ecotourism

Growing trend in tourism to visit sites that are of ecological interest, for example the Galapagos Islands, or Costa Rica. Ecotourism can bring about employment and income for local people, encouraging conservation, and is far less environmentally damaging than mass tourism.

One of the ideas behind ecotourism is that it is the practice of using money raised through tourism to pay for conservation and community projects, and putting this spending power in the hands of local people. However, if carried out unscrupulously it can lead to damage of environmentally-sensitive sites. In the late 1990s, ecotourism became increasingly popular, with many ‘green’ travel groups attempting to make entire holiday packages ecologically sound.