Ecotourism is a relatively new kind of holiday. While we think of regular holidays and vacations as simply visiting a country or city and passively taking in the sights and sounds, ecotourism is a holiday to a natural area that is focused on conserving the environment, sustaining the local community, and learning about a new culture. It is not so much the destination that has changed, but rather the attitude around the holiday itself. You can find numerous Borneo adventure tours to suit your needs.
What Does Ecotourism Involve?
Given our modern focus on carbon footprints, sustainable communities, and environmental conservation, ecotourism is a great way to have a holiday and to educate yourself about other cultures. There are a number of core values that guide ecotourism, including:
- Keeping environmental impact down to a minimum. This impact can be social, behavioral, or physical.
- Supporting local communities through economic means, such as patronizing local artists and merchants.
- Helping to build new facilities that are low environmental impact in order to improve local communities and contribute to long term sustainability and growth.
- Building a positive experience for the local community and for visitors to that community.
- Recognizing the importance of cultural beliefs and self-education.
- Becoming aware of the local political, social, and environmental climate and interpreting this experience and sharing it with others to raise further awareness.
In these important ways, ecotourism is a method of active empowerment of communities through education, interpretation, awareness, and physical and financial contribution. Bearing this in mind, the participant becomes and active voice rather than a passive observer.
The Detailed Benefits of Ecotourism
The benefits of ecotourism really encapsulate its guiding principles in a detailed and practical way. As a participant on Borneo adventure tours, you can expect the following benefits:
- Ecotourism greatly benefits local towns and communities. Apart from the economic benefit of foreign travelers’ spending money, local communities are heavily involved in eco tours. This empowers locals to educate travelers, interpret their own culture, cross-pollinate ideas, sell crafts and goods, and financially support their families. For many communities, the improvement of local infrastructure through regular ecotourism is a way to improve their lives.
- Because participants in Borneo adventure tours are more heavily involved in the local community and are not simply sterile observers in a large chain hotel, they are often interested in cultural education. This can rehabilitate and even revitalize traditional forms of art and crafts. In this way, indigenous culture can be preserved.
- Tourists on such a tour will also find that their financial contribution in the form of event entrance fees, park fees, and so on are funneled into activities to build new facilities and conserve other areas of the environment.
- Importantly, because the money from ecotourism goes directly to local communities rather than to large organizations and government institutions, corrupt political regimes are not directly economically supported through this type of tourism.
- Finally, because ecotourism promotes cultural exchange and direct contact with a local community, it results in greater education and awareness of human rights violations, corrupt regimes, and poor social conditions in some parts of the world. Historically, this greater awareness and education leads to improvement in local conditions over time.
Educate Yourself on a New Culture and Thrive
At first glance, ecotourism might seem like another trendy way to make money, but the guiding principles are strongly defined and focused on environmental and community improvements through education, activity, and awareness.
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