Ecotourism as an Economic Regenerat

Ecotourism as an Economic Regeneration Activity
One of the most commonly cited reasons for engaging with ecotourism is the
economic benefit it may afford local areas. The OECD recently reported the NORA
region (coastal Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland) as prime territory that
could benefit economically from ecotourism. The NORA region is characterised by its
isolated geography. This has marginalised it economically, but it is this remoteness
itself that is a marketable commodity in ecotourism terms (OECD, 2011). The World
Bank cites three aims of ecotourism: economic growth; poverty reduction; and
conservation and biodiversity funding. It states that it “offers valuable opportunities
for generating revenues for development and for conservation” (World Bank, 2003, p.
1). There is, therefore, increasing identification of ecotourism as a means by which
economic regeneration can be afforded and this recognition is at both the regional
level (for example, Ibrahim and Gill, 2005, in Barbados; Sol Sapo, 2011 in Portugal),
and international level (as reported in Pelanatureza Magazine, 2011, the United
Nations encourages member countries to invest in ecotourism). There is,
subsequently, similar rhetoric at government level in many countries (eg. Cision,
2010). Honey (2008, p. 444) explains the two-stranded rationale of conservation and
economic value further: