Quality Tourism, Agro-Tourism, Ecological Tourism, Green Tourism, Village-based Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Environmental Tourism, Low-impact Tourism, Nature Tourism, Special Interest Tourism, Sustainable

Tourism: These are all nice-sounding terms, but few really understand what it means; or more importantly, few understand the sacrifices one must make to achieve it. In other words, it’s easy to say, but it’s another story to actually practice it. All these terms attempt to describe or encompass a type of tourism experience that:

Brings travellers into close contact with the indigenous culture and/or natural environment;

Provides a range of activities other than simply hanging around the hotel and lying on the beach;

Gives emphasis to the unique and distinctly local elements of the culture/landscape including history, customs, architecture, food, music, language, handicrafts, flora, fauna, etc.;

Includes some form of profit-sharing with local (village) communities, such as using village tavernes, locally-operated hotels/village guest-houses, etc.;

Impacts the present culture and landscape as little as possible so that the cultural and natural resources are not completely exhausted in the short term.

next >>>