Ecotourism is an agent of change. Measurement of the impacts of tourism is fraught with similar challenges to those
involved in assessing impacts in general and tourism in particular. Research on the impacts of tourism has not been
cumulative because of the adoption of an inappropriate paradigm and inadequate attention to the contexts in which
impacts occur. It is suggested that aggregated information is more useful than summary measures and the characteristics
of useful indicators for measuring impacts and monitoring change are described.