ECOTOURISM – MYTH OR REALITY?

Prepared by: Carol ZHANG, Cecilia XIE, Des CONG

OBJECTIVES

Understanding ecotourism basic ideas

Understand and get insights to theoretical and pratical challenges for ecotourism

Able to answer the question that is ecotourism a reality?

OUTLINE

Definitions

Growth and popularity

Image & Impacts

Politics of ecotourism

Policy and strategy

Marketing

Conclusion

WHY ECOTOURISM?

Unsustinable practice of mass tourism

Inceasing attention of environemntal protection and pollution

Ecotourism

Alternative tourism

Sustainabile tourism

Special interest tourism ...

DEFINITIONS

Hard to define

New and the emerging field

Broad, umbrella term

People shape their definitions to meet their own needs (85 publised definitions)

Eco VS Tourism

DEFINITIONS

Demand side definition

traveling to relatively undistributed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific objective of studying , admiring and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural manifestation (both past and present) found in these areas. Ceballos-lascurain (1983)

Supply side definition

Undisturbed and under visited areas of immense beauty

Sirakaya et al (1999)

DEFINITIONS

Comprehensive definition with behavior guideline

A form of tourism inspired primarily by the natural history of an area, including its indigenous culture. The ecotourist visits relatively undeveloped areas in he spirit of appreciation, participation and sensitivity. The ecotourist practice a non-consumptive use of wildlife and natural resources and contributes to the visited area through labor or financial means aimed at directly benefiting the conservation of the site and the economic well-being of the local residents.

Ziffer (1989:6)

DEFINITIONS

Well-known definitions

Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people

TIES (1990)

Nature-based tourism that involves education and interpretation of the natural environment and is managed to be ecologically sustainable.

Australian Tourism Department(1994)

CONCEPTUALIZING

All definitions have strengths and weaknesses

All have common elements

What do you think the key elements of ecotourism would be?

2 mins for discussion

Feel free to talk with person next to you

CONCEPTUALIZING

CONCEPTUALIZING

Operational definition (Blamey, 1997)

Natured based

Environmentally educated

Sustainably managed

ECOTOURISM ?

Nature tourism

Nature tourism is travel for the purpose of enjoying undeveloped natural areas and wildlife Goodwin (1996)

ECOTOURISM ?

Adventure tourism

Cultural tourism

Wildlife tourism

POTENTIAL ECOTOURISTS?

WHAT IS ECOTOURIST?

High level of education and income

More environmentally aware and active than other types of travelers

IS CAROL A ECOTOURIST?

Carol visited West Samoa and she is not quite sure whether she was a ecotourist.

IS CAROL A ECOTOURIST?

IS CAROL A ECOTOURIST?

IS CAROL A ECOTOURISTS?

IS CAROL A ECOTORUIST?

But, before Carol arrived in Samoa......

Overall environment impacts always be ignored

IS CAROL A ECOTORUIST?

Even, during ...

Ecotourism experience may only part of one’s journey.

IS CAROL A ECOTOURIST?

IS CAROL A ECOTOURIST?

Adverse impact of feeding animals…

IS CAROL A ECOTOURIST?

Why people take photos of me???

IS CAROL A ECOTORUIST?

What is ecotourism?What is ecotourist?

MASS ECOTOURISM?

Same resource base

Ecotourists discover new, untouched area, but question may rise as normal tourists will soon follow.

Weaver (2001)

MASS ECOTOURISM?

Ecotourism as a mass tourism

Ecotourism is present whenever and enterprise makes every reasonable effort to enure that its operations are sustainable, in line with current best practices. (Weaver, 2001)

True?

MASS ECOTOURISM?

Ecotourism in small-scale

It is not working now but, if we convert more tourists and more of the tourist sector it suddenly will? Admirable intentions, misplaced logic.

(Wheeller, 2007)

Ecotourism initially is in small-scale (Bauer, 2001).

MASS ECOTOURISM?

In the first half year, 2010, Si Chuan get 9.8 billion income from Ecotourism, attracted 53,806,000 tourists. (SCLY,2010)

Jiu Zhai Gou

MASS ECOTOURISM?

MASS ECOTOURISM?

Do you believe?

GROWTH & POPULARITY

1980s-1990s: 60% tourists are nature based.

20-34% growth per year since 1980s.

3 times faster than whole tourism industry (WTO, 2004)

20% of the total tourism revenue globally with 10%-20% growth.

2010: $77 billion globally (Targeted News Service,2010).

8 million adult US travelers have taken an ecotour, and 35 million were likely to take an ecotour in the next three years.

BUT…FIGURES ARE BELIEVABLE?

No universal understanding of ecotourism & ecotourists.

Ecotourists or tourists who visited nature environment?

CASE IN CHINA

REALITIES

Estimation in Cusco, Peru showed that less than 10% of the local trekking companies really fit the “eco” bill (Mastny 2001).

Only about 4% of US outbound travel involves some element of nature based tourism (WTO 2002).

The ecotourism package products represent less than 1% of the German outbound market (WTO 2002).

IMAGES & IMPACTS- PROS

Green, eco-friendly, sustainable, responsible.

Achieve commercial profit, community development and environmental conservation (Buckley, 2003).

Positive impacts on climate change(Simpson et al, 2008).

CLIMATE CHANGE

Public concern

Global warming

CLIMATE CHANGE

In 2005, tourism’s contribution to GHG emissions was estimated to be approximately 5% (UNEP, 2008).

Produce less green house gases.

Educate people to live more eco-friendly.

Rapidly respond to climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef ecosystem

affected by climate change.

IMAGES & IMPACTS-CONS

Rely on protected areas, easy to destroy.

Off-site impacts, such as airplane fuel.

Result in a sharp drop in number of wild animals.

Negative local community impacts.

WHALE WATCHING

PATA Ecotourism Gold Award 2011---Whale Watch Kaikoura, New Zealand.

Video

WHALE WATCHING

One of the most approved ecotourism programs.

Whale watching is a non-consumptive use of wildlife.

Lectures help to save the whales.

WHALE WATCHING

Do you think it’s ‘eco’?

WHALE WATCHING

WHALE WATCHING

What if you see this after whale watching?

WHALE WATCHING

Do you still think it’s ‘eco’?

GREEN WASHING

Shen Zhen, China

GREEN WASHING

Yun Nan, China

GREEN WASHING

Guang Dong, China

GREEN WASHING

‘eco’ is becoming a new way to attract tourists and get revenue.

Some so called ‘eco’ are not eco at all and environmentally damaging.

Green washing is everywhere!

POLITICS OF ECOTOURISM

Who define sustainability (ecotourism)?

Who benefit?

POLITICS OF ECOTOURISM

Really benefit the local??

POLITICS OF ECOTOURISM

Source: UNWTO 2008

Uneven and unequal development, power and globalization

Leakage & dependency

KEY ELEMENTS FOR STRATEGY

Environmental Protection

Product

Infrastructure

Marketing

Industry Involvement

POLICY LEVEL

POLICY-INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

Merits:

Get more interest parties involved.

More NGO-Community, can be more objective.

Good providers of regulatory information.

Drawbacks:

Lack of enforceability

Member-driven mechanism leads to small scale influence.

POLICY-INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

International ecotourism organization

ECOTOURISM ORGANIZATION

What can they do? So what?

Regulatory policies to influence members?

Environmental knowledge for travelers?

Recommendation for responsible trip?

Certificate programs?

POLICY-NATIONAL & LOCAL LEVEL

Centralized policy-making following top-down process?

Is it good for ecotourism development?

Local government with little resources while more knowledgeable.

Central government would be efficient

CASE STUDY- AUSTRALIA

Indigenous ecotourism ventures

Wildlife ecotourism

PUBLIC POLICY-MAKING

High-level of participation in decision-making

(Various stakeholders, include Native Title holders,)

Policies are also developed by tourism industry and NGO

1. The Wilderness Society

2. The Australian Conservation Foundation

CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN AUSTRALIA

Nature and Ecotourism Accreditation Program (NEAP)

High criteria to obtain and maintain

Enabled industry, consumers to identify “ecolabel”.

What do you think of Ecolabel? Does it work ?

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Convention for the protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage.(1974)

Partnership with private sectors. Managed by states and territories, while working together with operators, agencies.

MARKETING

Are the nature of tourism changed by ecotourism development?

Or

Just, the way the marketing changed?

MARKETING

100% Pure New Zealand

Video

MARKETING

100% pure?

MARKETING

MARKETING

Segmentation

Geographical

Demographical

Beneficial

Psychographic

Which is more efficient to identify ecotourists?

MARKETING

Tools of marketing

Traditional marketing?

Direct mail

Internet

WOM

NEW ECOTOURISM PRODUCT?

MARKETING

Challenge of ecotourism marketing

Allow the goal of sustainability and profitability to be met simultaneously

Lack of knowledge and resources to provide effective marketing

Demarketing

PROBLEMATIC

A new form of tourism?

Phantom demand?

Assumptions about paticipants that cannot be justified

Who benefit?

Projected image of ecotourists contrasts with reality

Hijacking of concept

Differentiate from mass?

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- DEMAND

Major market: Europe & US

Asia market is increasing (East Aisa)

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China (culturally distinct form of ecotourism)

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY

Major destination: Africa , south America, Australia, NZ ...

East Asia – ‘Blossom and Waterfall’(Weaver,2002)

- Vegetation and geology attractions

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY(EXAMPLES)

India (15th Feb, 2011)

- Paithalmala ecotourism project

Dubai - Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY(EXAMPLES)

Malaysia (3rd Feb, 2011)

> 66 maritime ecotourism destinations to attract tourists on cruise ships.

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY(EXAMPLES)

Hong Kong

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY(EXAMPLES)

HK - Lau Fau Shan

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY(EXAMPLES)

HK - Lau Fau Shan

- Greening

- Former Police satiation – Museum ( Oyster farming history)

Lau Fau Shan's Cinderella makeover: Dirty bay to become eco-culture park ( 10 March, 2011)

The Planning Department will need to exercise some developmental wizardry to turn the polluted Lau Fau Shan area into a green leisure destination

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- SUPPLY(EXAMPLES)

Really ecotourism products?

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- MYTH OR REALITY?

Ecotourism is fine in theory but may be useless in reality mainly confront the realities of human behavior. (Wheeller,2005)

Eco-recreation ? Or just, people go travel to nature place?

Eco-friendly tourism will always exist, but sustainability will always be an issue (McKercher, 2010)

FUTURE OF ECOTOURISM- MYTH OR REALITY?

What do you think?

CONCLUSION

Face its reality

Ecotourism influence mass tourism practices

Minimize the negative impacts

Improve environmental legislation

Manage tourist – How ?

Tourist numbers will continue to rise. Currently what we have at best are small-scale, isolated examples of ‘success’- Micro solutions to what patently remains a macro problem. (Wheeller,1992)

CONCLUSION

If ecotourism can keep the trees standing, then it’s probably worth to try. ----------- Belisa (1999)

Q & A