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Essay / Negatives of Ecotourism - 911
When some people hear the word ecotourism, the first idea that comes to their mind is tourism without harming nature. This is certainly true, but it is not a clear and complete definition. Additionally, not everyone is aware of the real damage caused by tourism. So, for someone, an ecotourist is a person who travels without civilizational benefits, such as: good cars, comfortable accommodation, consumption of electricity and hot water; who spends the night in front of an open fire in the open air and harms nature less than a tourist who takes advantage of these advantages. The definition of ecotourism given in 1990 by the International Ecotourism Society reads as “responsible travel to natural areas that preserves the environment and improves the well-being of the local population” (TIES, 2012). According to Louise Osborne, who wrote the exclusive column for 4Hoteliers.com, travel harms the environment: boats, planes, buses and cars pollute the air with carbon dioxide, while tourists pick rare plants and “break pieces of coral while diving”. staying in hotels built on the site of a destroyed rainforest” (2014). Today, some tourists have revised their view of travel and have begun to recognize that travel can have negative impacts on the cultures, economies, environment and populations of other countries; and they wonder “how we can better protect the environment and travel in an eco-friendly way” (Osborne, 2014). This decision became ecotourism whose “idealistic goal” improves “the world through responsible travel” (Blue, nd). It is important to support the idea of ecotourism because it provides environmental education to travelers; helps maintain environmental purity and improves the lives of local people. When a handful of people go to middle of paper ...... conservation and at the same time do not cause even more damage to nature. The next aspect covered by ecotourism is the improvement of the communities involved in ecotourism like the host country and the country where the visitor comes from. There is no doubt that ecotourism plays an important and major role in solving the problems faced by local people. Firstly, those directly involved such as: guides, eco-lodge and restaurant owners and employees, drivers, park rangers, tour operators and local communities receive monetary benefits by providing services for eco-tourists. This is because this segment of tourism helps create new workplaces, which allows people to have jobs, get good income and support their families and their own lives. This also allows a portion of ecotourism profits to be collected and reinvested in local nature conservation efforts...