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RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Aphirom Promchanya
School/Work Place : University of Perpignan, France
Contact : tongleave@yahoo.com
Year : 2006

Ecotourism, which typically involves nature-based tourism, plays an increasing role in today's environmental management. As environmental conservation has, in many cases, suffered from a limited budget, funding ecotourism is perceived as a way to provide additional resources to finance environmental conservation efforts. In some cases, revenue generated from ecotourism can be substantial and can be used to provide alternative employment/income to local residents. This alternative employment also helps to reduce the pressure on encroachment and environmental destruction by the local people. Ecotourism is, thus, seen here as a vehicle for sustainable development.

As ecotourism involves human interaction with nature, it inevitably asserts a pressure on the environment. Overcrowding, waste and littering, pollution or commercialization resulting from ecotourism can also accelerate environment destruction. For this reason, there is a need to carefully promote ecotourism so that it will not become an additional threat to the environment. For ecotourism to benefit society but not damage natural heritage, it has to recognize the carrying capacity of the environment and not expand beyond that threshold.

Controlling ecotourism within the limit of the carrying capacity of the environment can be accomplished via sound management techniques (park management) or the use of economic instruments such as user charges (or entrance fees), various kinds of taxes, and imposing a limit on the number of visitors or tradable permits. These economic instruments aim to control ecotour activities so that the marginal benefit (revenue) equals the marginal social and private cost (environmental damage plus opportunity cost of all inputs) and, hence, maximize the net social welfare to society.

In a recent literature review found that only relaxation exceeded learning in importance as a motivator for many leisure activities. They found that from analysis of a number of studies, considerable gains occurred in factual knowledge, recognition memory, and behavior of skills during leisure participation. However, evidence of attitude change was less compelling. The opportunity to learn, whether that learning be cognitive, affective or motor skills development has been an implicit value of travel and tourism. They further agree that what they call the big issues of learning, such as environmental sensitivity and stewardship, pride and commitment to a nation’s heritage, have not been addressed in the context of leisure.

Tourists’ opportunities to learn during their travels are many, though it could be argued that the quality of these learning opportunities varies considerably. Tourists to natural areas (national parks and similar reserves) have long been offered a range of environmental and cultural interpretive opportunities, ranging from interpretive signs, brochures, booklets and other printed material, and personal experiences with rangers and other interpretive guides. Defined interpretation as an educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objectives, by firsthand experience and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information

Interpretation can be though of, then, as a form of non-formal environmental education carried out in a largely recreational setting, in which the visiting population is provided with opportunities to become more aware of particular concepts and phenomena by firsthand experience. Environmental education differs from interpretation in that it is a more formal approach to learning, has a more rigorous structure, and presents information more in the form of information to be learned.

Ecotourism and Environmental Education in Thailand recommended the following key goals of environmental education:

  • To foster clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social, political and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;
  • To provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment;
  • To create new patterns of behaviour of individuals, groups and society as a whole towards the environment.

List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
» Think Tank VI Ecotourism and Environmental Education: Opportunities ... file 152157 Oct 13, 2013

Ecotourism, which typically involves nature-based tourism, plays an increasing role in today's environmental management. As environmental conservation has, in many cases, suffered from a limited budget, funding ecotourism is perceived as a w...

Author: Aphirom Promchanya 

Year: 2006 

21 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Travel & Tourism B... file 5477 Oct 13, 2013

This paper discusses some economic, social, and environmental “hard issues” for the travel and tourism (T&T) industry with the aim of shedding some light on little discussed aspects of industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) with ...

Author: David Stipanuk 

Year: 2006 

20 Think Tank V Political Instability and its Effects on Tourism file 6687 Oct 13, 2013

Tourism today is second only to oil as the world’s leading export commodity, accounting for global earnings of more than $300 billion, or nearly 25 per cent of total world GNP (Poirier 2000, p30, cited in Dieke, 2000). Over the last two deca...

Author: Sarah JR Ryu 

Year: 2005 

19 Think Tank V Knowledge Management for Tourism Crises and Disasters file 12903 Oct 13, 2013

Tourism is especially vulnerable to disasters and, being fragmented, often its response is difficult to initiate and coordinate. It is also information intensive and when in chaos its information needs are exacerbated. The paper aims to deve...

Author: Nina Mistilis & Pauline Sheldon 

Year: 2005 

18 Think Tank V Crisis Communications and Tourism Recovery Strategies ... file 5357 Oct 13, 2013

This paper describes the application of lessons and processes gleaned from previous crises and disasters to the tourism recovery process for the Maldives following the tsunami of December 26 th , 2004. An assessment of existing literature as...

Author: Jack Carlsen 

Year: 2005 

OPA: 2005 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

17 OPA award Crisis Communications and Tourism Recovery Strategies ... file 7241 Oct 13, 2013

This paper describes the application of lessons and processes gleaned from previous crises and disasters to the tourism recovery process for the Maldives following the tsunami of December 26 th , 2004. An assessment of existing literature as...

Author: Jack Carlsen 

Year: 2005 

OPA: 2005 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

16 Think Tank V Reflecting or Directing Perceptions? Fox Media’s Respo... file 11915 Oct 13, 2013

Disasters at tourism destinations often receive extensive reporting in the news media, particularly when one or more of their own nationals are affected. From terrorism to natural disasters, the stories of tourists and, more recently, their ...

Author: Sue Beeton 

Year: 2005 

15 Think Tank V Effects of SARS Crisis on the Economic Contribution of... file 3732 Oct 13, 2013

In a context of uncertainty over traveller security, tourism experienced two major crises in 2003- the Iraq War and SARS. While the relative impacts of a complex array of impacts on travel decisionmaking are almost impossible to dissect, thi...

Author: Larry Dwyer, Peter Forsyth & Ray Spurr 

Year: 2005 

14 Think Tank V An Economic Explanation of the Net Benefits of Tourism... file 2766 Oct 13, 2013

International tourism is increasingly viewed as one of the best opportunities for a sustainable economic and social development of developing countries. There is also an increasing concern from public policy makers as to whether mass tourism...

Author: Mondher Sahli & Jean-Jacques Nowak 

Year: 2005 

13 Think Tank V Resident Segments Using SUS-TAS file 5040 Oct 13, 2013

Recognizing that tools developed solely to measure perceptions of positive/negative impacts of tourism within the traditional conceptual works are insufficient, recently Choi and Sirakaya (2005) developed and tested both an innovative framew...

Author: Ercan Sirakayae, Linda J. Ingram & Hwan Suk Chris Choi 

Year: 2005 

12 Think Tank V Tourism in Small Communities: Risks and Benefits file 3449 Oct 13, 2013

This paper presents the findings from a Sustainable Tourism Co-operative Research Centre study into the risks associated with the social impacts of tourism on a small community in the Australian state of Tasmania. This state is known for its...

Author: Leo Jago, Margaret Deery & Liz Fredline 

Year: 2005 

11 Think Tank V Tourism Education for Cambodia: A Case Study of its Fi... file 7030 Oct 13, 2013

This paper details the development, delivery and outcomes of a Masters course in Tourism Development that was delivered by the Royal University of Phnom Penh, with the assistance and support of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and t...

Author: Ravi Ravinder 

Year: 2005 

10 Think Tank IV Possibilities for Sustainable Tourism Management in Ac... file 4593 Oct 13, 2013

Sustainability is an inevitable concept in tourism which heavily depends on natural resources and environment with its products and services. Here prevention and controlling water, air and noise pollution, habitat degradation is more importa...

Author: Meryem Atik, Türker Altan & A. Akin Aksu 

Year: 2004 

9 Think Tank IV Tourism focused NGO's - An Online Content Analysis file 3242 Oct 13, 2013

The number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) increased from 31,246 to 37,281 (19.3%) between 1990 and 2000, (Human Development Report, 2002). The importance of NGOs is documented in United Nations Local Agenda 21 Chapter 27, 'Strength...

Author: Meng-Mei Chen & James Holleran 

Year: 2004 

8 Think Tank IV It's Mostly About Me: Reasons why Volunteers contribut... file 5413 Oct 13, 2013

This paper contributes to the debate by reporting on inital findings from a wider study of volunteers in museums and art museums that was designed to empirically explore volunteer motivation, expectations, values and commitment. The aim of t...

Author: Deborah Edwards 

Year: 2004 

7 Think Tank IV Integration of Theory and Practice in Hospitality Sust... file 8594 Oct 13, 2013

This brief paper describes a new educational model developed at Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL) to link theory and practice, or more specifically, coordinate learning opportunities between the classroom (Sustainable Tourism) and current pr...

Author: James Holleran 

Year: 2004 

6 Think Tank IV A Framework for the Development of Social and Socio-Ec... file 3732 Oct 13, 2013

This paper presents the background thinking to a CRC for Sustainable Tourism project that develops social and socio-economic indicators for tourism communities. The project emanates from the Green Globe 21 Standard that incorporates indicato...

Author: Margaret Deery, Leo Jago & Liz Fredline 

Year: 2004 

5 Think Tank IV Sustainable Tourism and Innovation in Mobile Tourism S... file 3927 Oct 13, 2013

This paper presents a joint public and private sector research project entitled Mobile Digital City and Nature Walks - the development of content and software for a mobile tourism device. Focusing on sustainable tourism, marketing and innova...

Author: Janne J. Liburd 

Year: 2004 

4 Think Tank IV Cultural Tourism as a Means for Sustainability in a Ma... file 4169 Oct 13, 2013

Tourism has become for many islands a means of social, economic and cultural development through the creation of jobs, raising standards of living and through the development of local resources for culture and heritage. Thus, many of these d...

Author: Chryso Panayidou 

Year: 2004 

3 Think Tank IV Environmental Attitudes of Tourism Activity Providers ... file 3567 Oct 13, 2013

This paper looks at the issue of environmental awareness and the related topic of 'ecolabels' in a New Zealand context, adopting a supplier's perspective to gain a greater insight into the attitudes of those managing and providing tourism pr...

Author: Christian Schott 

Year: 2004 

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