THE SPREAD OF ECOTOURISM - SOME PLANNING IMPLICATIONS

The idea of ecotourism is being promoted and supported, by growing num bers of people and groups in different parts of the world, as a major means of dealing with the damaging effects of tourism. Yet the meaning of the term varies among different people, projects, and places. Evid ence from national parks, where this type of tourism has been promoted for many years, shows that such tourism can cause substantial long-te rm cumulative changes in environment. Concepts such as ecotourism, gre en tourism, and sustainable tourism development, are general in their nature and have to be described, planned, and assessed, in detail on t he ground in terms of the socioeconomic and environmental conditions a pplying in different places. In this respect, careful planning and man agement procedures are needed not only for ecotourism but indeed for a ll forms of tourism. These procedures and conditions required for tour ism planning include: 1) setting of goals and objectives; 2) research to provide a good understanding of relevant ecological and socio-econo mic systems; 3) concern for efficiency; 4) environmental education; 5) employee involvement; 6) codes of ethics; and 7) monitoring and asses sment procedures. A basic principle is the involvement of all affected parties throughout the life-cycle of ecotourism or other tourism proj ects. This involvement can be aided by paying more explicit attention than hitherto to means of facilitating more comprehensive decision-mak ing and especially to key processes such as understanding, communicati ng, assessing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and adapting to cha nge. All concerned parties need to recognize such key steps or process es in decision-making in order to be prepared to participate efficient ly and effectively along with other interested persons and groups.