Ecotourism: Where We've Been; Where We're Going

Evolutionary Links How we view tourism in the year 2002 is indeed a far cry from how it was perceived in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In a period of approximately 20 years, conventional tourism has been joined by an alternative paradigm offering a different mode of thinking, promises for prosperity, new opportunities, and hope for local people, tourists and service providers alike. This alternative has spawned a proliferation of new tourism types, each seeking to carve a lasting niche in a market that continues to expect novelty and satisfaction. One of these types is ecotourism which, by many accounts, represents one of the fastest growing segments both in practice (e.g. Australia alone has over 400 ecotour operators) and in theory (e.g. many ecotourism databases containing over 1000 citations). It is likely that the principles, which form the basis of ecotourism, evolved, at least in part, from the environmentalist crusade of the 1960s, the ecodevelopment movement which emerged during the 1970s, and from sustainable development which took off during the 1980s. This point has been supported by Nelson (1994) who, in reference to ecodevelopment, suggests that during the 1970s certain groups in society (academics in particular, as well some policy makers and citizen groups) were dissatisfied with governments and industry who were decidedly excessive and exploitative in their development policies. This stimulated a slow but steady growth of publications on environmental issues and strategies as the 1970s wore on – all with the purpose of identifying the broad social and ecological dimensions of development and under-development, poverty, urbanisation, air and water quality, and pesticide use (see Irving & Priddle, 1971). At its root, environmentalism is hinged on the dichotomy between technocentrism and ecocentrism, and the structural and political relationships that create, for example, dependency, colonialism and dual economies. In reality, however, there exists a broad spectrum of different ideals each advocating distinctive characteristics along the lines of use and preservation (see Hunter, 1997; Mowforth & Munt, 1998). Technocentrism is said to be more values-free, scientific, control-oriented, arrogant,manipulative, and with a focus more on the means instead of ends (Hays, 1959). Conversely, ecocentrism espouses a perspective based on natural laws, harmony, humility, responsibility, and on ends and the proper kind of means (McConnell, cited in O’Riordan, 1976). More