Introduction
The ecotourism is one of alternative tourisms, and often appears in culture and nature based tourism. It includes sustainability of environment, socio-cultural and economic development and educational components. A Main purpose of ecotourism is protecting environment that often threatened by unsustainable development or cultural distinction. Unsustainable development causes poverty, and triggers distractions of environment that people cause to survive. Cultural distinction converts a balance between local people and an environment and affects the sustainability of the society.
Ecotourism can be applied to mass tourism for green consumers as long as it satisfies the ecotourism principles. Bigger number of travelers means higher revenue for conservation as well, so mass ecotourism would support development of ecotourism financially. However, often tourism customers decide what ecotourism is, and the industry side does not have strong initiatives for ecotourists to organise ‘right’ ecotourism.
Judd and Fainstein (1999, p. 5) mentioned “The tastes and desires of tourists are fickle; just like car buyers, they will yearn for next year’s model even before it appears”. If ecotourism operators follow visitors’ expectations without specific strategies for conservation, they are likely to step out from ecotourism principles: sustainability of development. According to Honey (1999, p. 15-17), the World Bank focused on tourism to reduce debt crisis of developing countries, and “many Third World countries turned to ecotourism as a foreign exchange earner that was potentially less destructive” (Honey, 1999, p.17).
Culture tourism as ecotourism
People can organize culture tourism in New York to observe ‘American capitalism culture’. Even many people visit, it would not harm New York environment but benefit local economics, so it is sustainable and beneficial for local people. However, tourism in New York cannot provide economical sustainability for local society, because of its size. There are many financial industries, which create much of economical revenue, so tourism industry does not play main role. That is a reason people are not interested in ecotour in New York. Cater (2006, p.24) stated, “Western-envisaged ecotourism needs to be viewed against the backdrop of the global political economy”. So, it is difficult to create an image of ecotourism in New York. As long as images of tours attract travelers to a destination, ecotourism cannot be organised in a culture, which is supported by capitalism or globalisation.
On the other hand, if many people from developed countries visit cultural heritage, it damages local society and culture. Zogrofos & Kenrick (2005, p.205) wrote, “Local people are able to manipulate the image they present to visitors to satisfy tourist images (Cohen 1988), in a process that has been termed reconstructing ethnicity' (MacCannell 1984). This process is not always seen as negative given its potential to reinforce ethnic identity (Smith 1982), help local people maintain their identity (Mansperger 1995) or revive values and identities (Van den Berghe 1994) in such a way that tourism can potentially become an empowering vehicle of self-representation (Stronza 2001)”. Weather as negative or positive, there is a crash and change when two cultures face. ‘Indigenousness’ people have to reconstruct their own culture comparing western custom.
Almost all of traditional cultures were developed by local people, who chosen their preference, however, they can never add up western lifestyle as the tradition. Zogrofos & Kenrick (2005, p. 206) also stated, “Accounting for the fact that 'indigenousness' notions are probably negotiated rather than imposed through the ecotourism encounter”, but the ‘indigenousness’ still has to be different from western style. Moreover as they also stated later, local people have to be identified as indigenous by advanced world “to maintain control over asserting their own notions of indigenous identity and more generally, asserting control over the development of ecotourism and the use of local resources” (Zogrofos & Kenrick, 2005, p. 206).
A principle of Ecotourism contains “3. Promotes ethical behaviour toward local communities and environment, 7. Supports local community empowerment through genuine and full participation” (IPC definition). So, ecotourism may support local people to organise and conserve their traditional culture. Then it would help them avoid stereotypes by other cultures, although, the tradition has to be considered as ‘indigenousness’ by advanced world, where ecotourists come from.
The ecotourism is one of alternative tourisms, and often appears in culture and nature based tourism. It includes sustainability of environment, socio-cultural and economic development and educational components. A Main purpose of ecotourism is protecting environment that often threatened by unsustainable development or cultural distinction. Unsustainable development causes poverty, and triggers distractions of environment that people cause to survive. Cultural distinction converts a balance between local people and an environment and affects the sustainability of the society.
Ecotourism can be applied to mass tourism for green consumers as long as it satisfies the ecotourism principles. Bigger number of travelers means higher revenue for conservation as well, so mass ecotourism would support development of ecotourism financially. However, often tourism customers decide what ecotourism is, and the industry side does not have strong initiatives for ecotourists to organise ‘right’ ecotourism.
Judd and Fainstein (1999, p. 5) mentioned “The tastes and desires of tourists are fickle; just like car buyers, they will yearn for next year’s model even before it appears”. If ecotourism operators follow visitors’ expectations without specific strategies for conservation, they are likely to step out from ecotourism principles: sustainability of development. According to Honey (1999, p. 15-17), the World Bank focused on tourism to reduce debt crisis of developing countries, and “many Third World countries turned to ecotourism as a foreign exchange earner that was potentially less destructive” (Honey, 1999, p.17).
Culture tourism as ecotourism
People can organize culture tourism in New York to observe ‘American capitalism culture’. Even many people visit, it would not harm New York environment but benefit local economics, so it is sustainable and beneficial for local people. However, tourism in New York cannot provide economical sustainability for local society, because of its size. There are many financial industries, which create much of economical revenue, so tourism industry does not play main role. That is a reason people are not interested in ecotour in New York. Cater (2006, p.24) stated, “Western-envisaged ecotourism needs to be viewed against the backdrop of the global political economy”. So, it is difficult to create an image of ecotourism in New York. As long as images of tours attract travelers to a destination, ecotourism cannot be organised in a culture, which is supported by capitalism or globalisation.
On the other hand, if many people from developed countries visit cultural heritage, it damages local society and culture. Zogrofos & Kenrick (2005, p.205) wrote, “Local people are able to manipulate the image they present to visitors to satisfy tourist images (Cohen 1988), in a process that has been termed reconstructing ethnicity' (MacCannell 1984). This process is not always seen as negative given its potential to reinforce ethnic identity (Smith 1982), help local people maintain their identity (Mansperger 1995) or revive values and identities (Van den Berghe 1994) in such a way that tourism can potentially become an empowering vehicle of self-representation (Stronza 2001)”. Weather as negative or positive, there is a crash and change when two cultures face. ‘Indigenousness’ people have to reconstruct their own culture comparing western custom.
Almost all of traditional cultures were developed by local people, who chosen their preference, however, they can never add up western lifestyle as the tradition. Zogrofos & Kenrick (2005, p. 206) also stated, “Accounting for the fact that 'indigenousness' notions are probably negotiated rather than imposed through the ecotourism encounter”, but the ‘indigenousness’ still has to be different from western style. Moreover as they also stated later, local people have to be identified as indigenous by advanced world “to maintain control over asserting their own notions of indigenous identity and more generally, asserting control over the development of ecotourism and the use of local resources” (Zogrofos & Kenrick, 2005, p. 206).
A principle of Ecotourism contains “3. Promotes ethical behaviour toward local communities and environment, 7. Supports local community empowerment through genuine and full participation” (IPC definition). So, ecotourism may support local people to organise and conserve their traditional culture. Then it would help them avoid stereotypes by other cultures, although, the tradition has to be considered as ‘indigenousness’ by advanced world, where ecotourists come from.