Sustainable Tourism

Sabah, Malaysia – Did you know? Natural heritage destruction by human made is the highest rate compare to the scourge. If you ever travel, you are either wittingly or unwittingly part of a delicate and complicated morass facing today’s tourism destinations: How do we attract and service the greatest number of tourists without causing irreparable change or damage to the destination’s resources? This is followed by a question that is still begging for an answer: Is the notion of sustainable tourism one that can truly be achieved in a practical, capitalist-minded world?

Most of us would agree in our travels we want to enjoy ourselves and do it in a way that causes “the least harm.” We want to maintain precious resources such as air, water, marine habitats and species, animal populations and indigenous peoples. However, in certain cases, tourism has been an actor in a tableau vivant of lost resources in various places around the world.

In most development scenarios, sustainable tourism is thought of in terms of whether the tourism itself is sustainable (economically viable over a long period of time) not whether the tourism is doing the least amount of harm to resources. This is not to say development impacts are not considered through required regulations but clearly the facteur principal of development is capitalism.

“Purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the culture and natural history of the environment, taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people.” – The International Ecotourism Society.

Ecotourism also seeks to reduce its impacts on the area visited. It also contributes to the conservation of natural areas and the sustainable development of adjacent areas and communities, generating further awareness among resident and nearby populations and visitors.

Although a relatively new part of the tourism industry, ecotourism has...