Enforcing Efficient Ecotourism Practices - Admission/Application Essay Example

? Proposal for admission in masters program Lecturer presentation Ecotourism is one of the fastest growing segments in the tourism industry in developing and developed countries. The major attractive feature of ecotourism is its wide range of activities including walking, hiking and trekking (Fletcher, 2009). This makes it one of the most popular leisure activities to people of all ages. Markercher (2002) conducted a study in United States to establish the major motivations behind the increasing number of eco tourists in the country. Though ecotourism is mainly regarded as recreational activity, the study established that including diverse activities has enhanced its growing popularity in different parts of the world. However, Markercher (2002) found out that the major motivation for engaging in ecotourism is its flexibility that enables inclusion of diverse activities that are less costly compared with conventional tourism. In addition, ecotourism provides an ideal environment for group activities such as team building and family outings (Markercher, 2002). In this respect, it is one of the ideal forms of tourism in developing countries because it does not entail construction of expensive infrastructure and there are many activities that could be undertaken without threatening the environment and social cultural aspects of the host destination. These include bird watching, sightseeing, rock climbing, camping and other activities dependent on the natural resources available in the country. In a similar study, Arnold (2005) investigated the effects of tourism in Cambodia and suitability of ecotourism in the country and the larger South East Asian countries. He noted that Cambodia was one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the world due to its unique natural and historical attractions. These include archeological parks, beautiful parks and beaches in addition to its rich cultural heritage. However, the country had experienced many adverse effects of tourism, because of unsustainable practices. These effects include conflicts with the local communities, environmental degradation and prevalence of antisocial practices in regions frequented by foreign tourists (Arnold, 2005). In the study, Arnold (2005) found that the rural communities in the country depended on subsistence farming for a living. They complained that the management of local game parks denied them access to employment opportunities and building of infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and other social amenities. This caused conflict between the locals and the tour operators in these rural regions. Most members of Cambodian rural community resorted to clearing the protected forests in order to make a living through subsistence farming (Arnold, 2005). In such developing country and others experiencing negative effects of tourism, ecotourism provides an opportunity for addressing these challenges and involving the local people in promoting sustainable practices. However, for full benefits of ecotourism to be realized, planning for tourism development is essential to ensure that the all stakeholders are involved in the running and management of the project. Environmentalist and researchers regard ecotourism as crucial and sustainable development strategy that ensures conservation of environment and participation of the local communities in tourism. Arnold (2005) defines ecotourism as a form of educational and sustainable tourism to scenic areas that are relatively new and intact ecologically. These areas are of cultural and historical importance and the main intention of ecotourism is to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the socio-cultural and natural endowments of such destinations (Arnold, 2005). From this definition, it is apparent that ecotourism offers limitless opportunities for enhancing economic, social and environmental goals especially in developing economies. It provides avenues for investing and developing new enterprises, creating employment opportunities in addition to encouraging the preservation of natural resources (Perkins & Grace, 2009). In spite of these noble intentions, ecotourism has often failed to achieve these objectives because of poor implementation mechanism that undermine optimal engagement of local communities in efforts to participate effectively in tourism and conservation of the natural resources. In this respect, it is imperative for stakeholders in tourism industry to be empowered so that they can engage constructively in formulating and enforcing workable ecotourism programs to ensure the achievement of maximum benefits to all parties involved. High population growth and poverty especially in developing countries has put enormous pressure on the available natural resources (Markercher, 2002). In efforts to create room for food production in such countries, rampant logging, clearing of forests and hunting has put these habitats in danger of extinction. These unsustainable practices are causing disappearance of invaluable natural resources. Many countries in the developing world have official protected areas such as parks and natural reserves, but lack of enough funds to enforce efficient protective measures have been undermining their conservation efforts. Consequently, surrounding communities destroy these habitats because they lack understanding of their importance and out of necessity to meet their immediate needs (Markercher, 2002). This trend has put the global natural resources heritage at risk of extinction and in this respect, it is important for promotion of eco-friendly tourism activities such as ecotourism. According to Fletcher (2009), ecotourism provides limitless opportunities for reversing the trend and encourage perpetuation of endangered natural resources globally. This is achieved by educating the local communities about the importance of the natural resources and encouraging their participation in conserving biodiversity and creating sustainable methods of generating revenue. In this regard, ecotourism approaches the industry in the perspective of encouraging participation of the locals in conservation of nature in exchange of monetary or material incentives. Developing countries have vast natural resources such as wildlife and other habitats that are suitable for ecotourism (Fletcher, 2009). These resources are ideal for activities such as sight seeing, mountain climbing, diving and other activities that promote sustainable tourism. In the recent past, these destinations are increasingly becoming popular especially to global tourists from western hemisphere because of their rich diversity. Millions of foreign tourists flock to these countries, injecting billions of foreign currencies in the economies. The revenues generated play a great role in building infrastructure in the host countries besides supporting other tourism related enterprises, such as tour guide services, craft industries, hotels and transport ventures. In addition, prudent management of ecotourism revenues generates resources for enforcing protection measures of the natural resources. Though ecotourism has enhanced the importance of conserving natural diversity, appreciation of the local cultures in the respective destinations has not been adequately addressed. Consequently, unregulated construction of tourism infrastructure has often resulted to adverse effects on the surrounding environments and cultural diversity. This has caused conflicts that have undermined the intentions of the industry. Therefore, ecotourism development and planning is important in order to ensure sustainability of tourism industry. One of the main importance of studying ecotourism is to get empowered on how to plan ecotourism development projects in order to promote delivery of superior services to relevant stakeholders. In ecotourism, planning ensures sustainable development, without compromising on cultural, economic and environment aspects of the stakeholders (Perkins & Grace, 2009). Sustainable development is the cornerstone of tourism planning because it ensures consistent improvement of communities’ quality of life and conservation of environment in the surrounding tourist destination. It is important for a planned ecotourism project to provide accessible, reliable and environmentally friendly enterprise that has the potential of generating new economic opportunities for the present and future generation in a particular community. One of the major shortcomings in ecotourism development in many parts of the world is failure to engage all stakeholders in planning and implementation of the projects (Perkins & Grace, 2009). In countries with rich biological diversity especially in developing countries, engaging private partnerships is important particularly in large projects to ensure smooth running of the project. I am convinced that undertaking a masters program in ecotourism would empower me on how to engage private partners during planning and implementation of ecotourism projects. According to Markercher (2002), these types of partnerships are crucial in order to indentify and eliminate future areas of conflicts that could jeopardize tourism ventures. Well-planned enterprises involving stakeholders create a favorable environment and provide suitable mechanisms of addressing economic, environmental and cultural interests of the partners. The role of local community based organizations in planning and implementation of ecotourism projects has often been overlooked by tourism planners. Besides reducing conflicts between environment and economic interests, the organizations assist in educating the surrounding communities on the importance of their rich biodiversity. This results to formulation of better and sustainable ways generating income rather than killing wild animals and cutting trees for burning charcoal. Moreover, local communities through such organizations are provided with opportunities of displaying their rich cultural heritage to visiting tourists for a fee. This enhances intercultural understanding and appreciation of culture between the local and international visitors. Such partnerships have created smooth running and sustainable projects that continue to serve the interests of all stakeholders in different countries around the world. Planning for an ecotourism project affects large number of people and it is important to include the views of all persons, their fears and concerns about the project. In this respect, it is important to ensure that it is also economically sustainable to prevent incidents of the local community reverting to destruction of their natural endowments. During planning, it is important to make realistic approximates of the revenues and the costs of running the ecotourism project in order to ensure its sustainability. This prevents incidents of job cuts to people employed directly in the surrounding community. Minimizing the adverse effects of tourism is one of the main objectives of ecotourism (Markercher, 2002). Though tourism contributes positively to economic development, it also results to widespread pollution of the environment. Utilization of unsustainable sources of energy such as wood and fossil fuels contributes to emission of greenhouse gases. Other environmental effects of tourism include discharging hot and untreated water into marine ecosystem that disrupts ecological balance in such habitats (Arnold, 2005). To minimize such effects, enforcement of good ecotourism practices is important to in order to enhance efficient utilization of renewable sources of energy and environmentally friendly practices such as recycling. In addition to environmental and economic effects, tourism affects cultural and social aspects of the host communities. Some of these effects include widespread drug abuse, prostitution and other antisocial behaviors including homosexuality. In order to eliminate these adverse socio-cultural effects it is important for tourism stakeholders to embrace ecotourism practices to ensure that it provides positive experiences to the visitors and the local people. Enforcing efficient ecotourism practices in the world has been one of the major issues in the hospitality industry. Perkins and Grace (2009) noted that many institutions purporting to be nature friendly are coming up resulting to green washing and other unethical practices. Ecotourism has enormous potential of transforming tourism industry in both developed and developing countries. However, the risks of uncontrolled ecotourism to the environment and the local communities remain a considerable challenge that requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders. Another area of concern is the wide disparity for revenues controlled by international tourism chains and the amount of money that reaches local people on the grassroots. According to Fletcher (2009), the international tourism chains control over 80% of the revenues generated in the industry and the remainder is distributed between the government and the local community. This makes sustainability of ecotourism a challenge especially to the developing countries. References Arnold, S.(2005).The political economy of sustainable tourism in the third world. Annals of Tourism Research, 9(3):pp 208-225 Fletcher, R. (2009). Ecotourism discourse: Challenging the Stakeholders theory. Journal of Ecotourism, 8(3): pp 290-331. Markercher, B. (2002).Cultural tourism: The partnership between tourism and cultural heritage management. New York: Haworth Press. Perkins, H.& Grace, A.(2009).Ecotourism: Supply of nature or tourist demand? Journal of Ecotourism, 8(4): 230-269. Read More