It is somewhat ironic that tourism

It is somewhat ironic that tourism should be seen as having the potential to
combine development with conservation, given the popular caricature of mass
tourism as the destroyer of once quaint fishing villages and proud cultures.
Prominent advocate of ecotourism Harold Goodwin resolves the issue in a paper
titled ‘Tourism and Natural Heritage: a Symbiotic Relationship’ (Goodwin,
2000). Goodwin argues against the view that tourism, like any other industry, is
necessarily in conflict with the natural environment. Rather, he argues, it has a
special role to play in development. Ecotourism, depending as it does on a desire
to experience areas of perceived natural beauty and distinction, can provide
funds to manage and maintain conservation areas. Revenues can also serve the
function of encouraging local communities to cooperate in conservation. This
outlook may be especially apt given the growth of the ecotourism market in the
developed world, where a desire to be ‘ethical’ through experiencing a closer
relationship with the natural world appears to be a significant and growing
‘push’ factor on demand (Poon, 1993; WTO, 1995, 2001).
Ecotourism is indeed a popular innovation in discussions of rural Third
World development. It is sometimes suggested as a less damaging form of deveopment by environmentalists who fear the Third World may be committing
‘ecocide’ through logging, or other activities that use up natural resources, in
their struggle to survive (Cater, 1994: 84). The United Nations International Year
of Ecotourism advocates ecotourism in Africa as a way of making ‘the conservation of natural resources ..........
mainstream to socio-economic development’
(UNEP & WTO, 2002: 11). Both arguments identify a ‘win-win’ situation between
conservation and development. The community can earn money from tourists
appreciative of the natural environment, and this money can support the
community in their existing way of life, offsetting the desire for other forms of
development that may be deemed less ‘sustainable’. The direct benefits to the
local populations concerned may include the opportunity to work in conservation, salaries paid from aid funds, revenue from ecotourism, and sometimes
infrastructural benefits such as schools and medical facilities