Do you love spending time outside in nature, the mountains, the riverside, or the open air parks? If you are nodding yes to the question, then ecotourism is the proper vacation.
Ecotourism is currently getting attention as more people want to spend time in nature rather than being in the city. Spending a few days or weeks with your loved ones around the nature without sacrificing your comfort is a dream come true for most people.
Is Ecotourism Good or Bad?
Ecotourism is a new trend that’s been emerging over the years. But there are many positives and negatives of ecotourism. It is divided into three categories and mainly appeals to people who want to live a healthy life away from city.
- Increases scientific knowledge about nature and its environment. It’s about the people who wish to study nature and research its aspects, are more attracted to ecotourism.
- People stay close to nature for therapeutic purposes to improve their mental health. Nature heals, so it’s advised for patients to spend some time outdoors away from city life.
- People who help natural resources to preserve them by planting trees, wastewater clean-up or recultivating soil.
There are a few demerits of tourism, such as polluting the environment for their comfort, disturbing the animals’ natural habitat or exploiting ecotourism by gathering a crowd at one place. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of eco-tourism.
Pros of Ecotourism
Spending more time in remote areas is one of the positives of tourism. People are choosing remote natural places to relax with their families rather than travelling to a country to see the hustle and bustle of city life. So, what are some of the pros of ecotourism?
1. Ecotourism Can Help Protect the Environment
One of the main aspects of ecotourism is that it helps to protect the environment and the animals. Ecotourism focuses on preserving the foral and the fauna, which can be important to maintain a natural environment for the wildlife. While in other forms of tourism, the natural environment gets exposed to tourists resulting in pollution of the ecosystem.
2. Ecotourism Can Give You a Good Feeling
Recreation away from the busy streets of the city is something we all crave for. Ecotourism is an outdoor vacation with your family and friends without disturbing the ecosystem and is something one should look forward to. It gives you a good feeling to enjoy the natural environment in peacetime with your loved ones.
3. People Will Learn to Improve Their Ecological Footprint
We often ask how can ecotourism benefit the environment? Many people are unaware of how to behave in an eco-friendly way; thus, ecotourism allows them to see for themselves. People learn about environmental problems and might try to solve them once they experience it themselves in real-time.
Related article : A Beginner’s Guide to Calculate Carbon Footprint
Cons of Ecotourism
There are a few demerits of tourism like it disturbs local wildlife, can lead to littering, or people can find the location attractive enough to bring more tourists. As some people love the outdoors, others don’t cooperate reasonably with nature and tend to disturb the environment.
1. May Disturb Local Wildlife
Ecotourism tries to keep a minimum environmental impact so that local wildlife is not affected, imagine being in a place that humans have never touched it. Then suddenly, when people arrive, local wildlife may not know how to deal with the situation and may get disturbed.
2. Ecotourism Can Lead to Pollution
It’s disappointing to see that ecotourism is leading to pollution. One of the cons of ecotourism is that eco-tourists sometimes dispose of their trash into the environment. In turn, the natural environment may turn into a garbage dump, and the natural charm of ecotourism is wholly lost.
Related: Air Quality and Environmental Health
3. People Can Turn the Place into Attraction
Some ecotourism places can become public and become attractions for larger crowds. It’s pretty easy to upload a video of a nice place online, attracting more visitors to explore the area with their friends and family.
Conclusion of Ecotourism
To summarize, ecotourism is a beneficial interaction between people and nature. People can enjoy nature with their families and friends while spending their vacation in the environment. The only concern is that ecotourism can disturb wildlife and pollute the environment. Other than that, ecotourism should be explored on a deeper level to understand the importance of conserving the environment.