Author Description

Around the world, ecotourism has been hailed as a panacea: a way to fund conservation and scientific research, protect fragile ecosystems, benefit communities, promote development in poor countries, instill environmental awareness and a social conscience in the travel industry, satisfy and educate discriminating tourists, and, some claim, foster world peace. Although "green" travel is being aggressively marketed as a "win-win" solution for the Third World, the environment, the tourist, and the travel industry, the reality is far more complex, as the author reports in this book. The first edition of this title, originally published in 1998, was among the first books on the subject. For years it defined the debate on ecotourism: is it possible for developing nations to benefit economically from tourism while simultaneously helping to preserve pristine environments? This second edition provides new answers to this vital question. A comprehensive overview of worldwide ecotourism, this book shows how both the concept and the reality have evolved over more than twenty-five years. Here the author revisits the six nations she profiled in the first edition, the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, and South Africa, and adds a new chapter on the United States. She examines the growth of ecotourism within each country's tourism strategy, its political system, and its changing economic policies. Her case studies highlight the economic and cultural impacts of expanding tourism on indigenous populations as well as on ecosystems, based on information and her experiences as a reporter who lived in East Africa and Central America for nearly twenty years. She has led the International Ecotourism Society and founded a new center to lead the way to responsible ecotourism.