Ecotourism

Ecotourism is broadly defined as low impact travel to endangered and often undisturbed locations. It is different from traditional tourism because it allows the traveler to become educated about the areas - both in terms of the physical landscape and cultural characteristics, and often provides funds for conservation and benefits the economic development of places that are frequently impoverished. Ecotourism and other forms of sustainable travel have their origins with the environmental movement of the 1970s. Ecotourism itself did not become prevalent as a travel concept until the late 1980s. During that time, increasing environmental awareness and a desire to travel to natural locations as opposed to built up tourist locations made ecotourism desirable. Since then, several different organizations specializing in ecotourism have developed and many different people have become experts on it.