Codes of conduct have been produced for tourists to educate them about societies they visit, and how to behave without causing offence. While numerous codes of conduct have been developed, has been carried out to evaluate their effectiveness in changing tourists’ behaviour. A code of conduct was developed with local stakeholders in Ngadha, Flores, Indonesia in 2003. In 2005, research was conducted to evaluate its usefulness as a tool to educate tourists to behave in a more responsible way. The highlights the complexities of trying to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of codes of conduct for tourists. Initial research suggests that in some areas of behaviour the code was effective; there were, however, limits to the tourists’ compliance. While, the development of the code proved a useful tool for stimulating dialogue between local stakeholders.
The growth and diversification of the ecotourism market has resulted in an expansion of operators catering for individuals willing to undertake voluntary conservation and research activities, this identifies the demographic background and motivational characteristics of volunteers working with one such operator in Indonesia. The has been interviewing and the majority were female, single, young and well educated, reflecting previous research concerning this sector of the ecotourism market. Despite the young age of the sample, a large proportion described their previous holiday experiences in terms consistent with ecotourism. A dominant ecocentric attitude was identified among the volunteers through their interpretations of 'ecotourism', their awareness of nature-related issues and a desire to learn more about the environment. The most frequent responses for participating in overseas expeditions were 'personal development' and 'academic achievement' reasons. These findings support the contention that 'research ecotourists' represent an important sector within the ecotourism market. Furthermore, there is evident potential for growth in this element of ecotourism, underlining the importance of this study in identifying the target market and its implications with regard to the future development of this sector.