Tourism is the largest business sector in the world economy and the tourism industry is especially important to developing countries since it is the principal foreign exchange earning from tourists the enjoyment of tourism and the beauty of the destinations it serves, it can be as destructive as traditional extractive industries such as logging and mining. Tourism requires a great deal of infrastructure—including hotels, roads, parking lots, and restaurants—which typically brings with it a number of negative consequences, such as increased pollution levels, the destruction of natural habitats, the displacement of natural wildlife and undesirable influences to once remote cultures. Ecotourism provides a sustainable alternative to conventional tourism and has continued to gain momentum over the last two decades. In particular, certification is increasingly used by the ecotourism industry in an effort to enhance the credibility of the sector and raise consumer awareness. The Sustainable Tourism Eco-tourism Program (STEP) is new certification program which was developed because “the industry wasn’t moving in the right direction as quickly as it needed to be.”