So, I just wrote a treaty on eco-tourism. Then, I tried to find out exactly when the term was coined. Sure, the idea was found by a Mexican architect in the early 1980s, but when and how did the term really catch on?
In Australia, the first steps toward “eco-tourism” were really a re-hash of glamping. The earliest mention of Ecotourism in the Australian press seems to be in the Canberra Times, on Monday, 16 September, 1991. Lorann Downer wrote an article on the Carnarvon Gorge, in Queensland entitled, “Bush Holidays for those less eager to rough it.”
in that article, the head of Nature Australia, Stephen Comber, defined ecotourists as those who “like “nature-based holidays,” and would devote time to “experiencing the wild, but who also want a hot shower and good meal at the end of the day.”
According to that article, “tourists” as well as “the industry, are still defining what they want.”
Nature Australia Inc and others seem to try to reduce ecot-tourism to a “buzz word for holidays in relatively unspoilt or wilderness areas with low-key building and servicing, and no glitz.” In other words, they tried to turn eco-tourism into a euphamism for glamping.
Now, we know that the real meaning of ecotourism is not about just seeing relatively unspoilt nature, like glamping might be, but it is about supporting a natural ecosystem, a local economy, in its current shape. It is about making a positive impact with your visit.
We didn’t find the origin of the word eco-tourism. But we did find that since 1991 at least, ecotourism has been greenwashed to sell nothing more than glamping holidays.
Even worse than that, a lot of mediocre camp sites in undeveloped places are selling themselves as ecotourism, without really giving anything to the tourist or the location. Minimalism is cheap, and tourists might be paying way too much for poor service because it carries the greenwash label of “ecotourism.”
And what’s worse is a lot of this tourism just goes to big businesses. As much as 95% of the money spent on tourism does not go to the locations where the tourists go, but to international companies that found ways to skim money off tourist traps.
Ecotourism doesn’t mean just going to undeveloped places. Rather, it’s goal is to make tourism more accountable, more authentic, more responsible, and more durable. In other words, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the attitude, the process, the way of interacting with the economy, the culture and the destination.
In other words, buyers beware. Just because something sells itself as ecotourism doesn’t mean that it is. Worse still, the media and the tourist industry don’t always know what ecotourism really is, so you might have to research a bit deeper than a single article or review in your favorite newspaper.
What we need, perhaps, is an “organic” or “fair trade” type label for ecotourism. A third party organisation that can verify the quality of the experience.
Until them, you can participate in ecotourism simply by the way you approach your holidays. You can buy locally instead of through those international websites. Buy food through local sellers rather than international chains. (If you need an app, then Detrumpify yourself might help there.) You can choose to walk places or bike, to just treat the places with respect, as respectful tourists did in the old days.