Ecotourism: Where Business and the Environment Meet

Ecotourism has become a powerful economic segment of the wider tourism industry despite a lack of consensual definition and standards that define operating parameters. This paper explores ecotourism by reviewing, the statistics of the phenomenon, potential reasons for its unprecedented growth and attempts at definitional consistency. The pejorative impacts on host cultures and the environment, and positive steps that are rectifying earlier mismanagement in both demand and supply side sectors are also considered. A final section addresses questions that need to be answered by the principles involved in the promotion and supply of the ecotourism business