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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 Viewssort Date
14 Think Tank IX Cultural values in sustainable tourism: Conflicts betw... file 34653 Oct 13, 2013

This paper evaluates cultural conflicts between indigenous groups, recreation users and management agencies over the appropriate amenity use of protected areas in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. It assesses both social values conflicts ...

Author: Heather Zeppel 

Year: 2009 

OPA: 2009 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

13 Think Tank XII Integrated Planning of Sustainable Tourism and Mobilit... file 36022 Nov 06, 2013

Emerging tourist market trends are pushing destinations to consider mobility an essential strategic component of sustainable tourism planning. Destination Management needs to use tourism mobility analysis systematically if it wants to seize ...

Author: Anna Scuttari, Maria Della Lucia & Umberto Martini 

Year: 2012 

OPA: 2012 Runner Up 

12 Think Tank VI Ethical Issues in Collaboration in the Aviation Industry file 40331 Oct 13, 2013

The aviation industry is a critical element of any tourism system, and has several secondary effects – a source of employment and foreign exchange earnings. A ‘national carrier’ is also a symbol of the country, a source of pride amongst the ...

Author: Ravi Ravinder 

Year: 2006 

11 Think Tank XII The Impact of Volcanic Ash Clouds in 2010 and 2011 on ... file 41094 Nov 06, 2013

Few recent events which disrupted global tourism and especially tourism mobility, match the impact of the volcanic ash clouds generated from the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull in 2010 and the Chilean volcano Puyehue in 20...

Author: David Beirman 

Year: 2012 

10 OPA award Envisioning Sustainable Tourism Futures: An Evaluation... file 41559 Oct 13, 2013

Methods for researching the future have grown both in variety and rigour, offering new opportunities for understanding sustainable tourism. This paper discusses the value of futures research as a tool for envisioning and planning sustainable...

Author: Pierre Benckendorff 

Year: 2007 

OPA: 2007 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

9 Think Tank XVII New Forms of ‘Responsible Tourism’ in Refugee Camps an... file 43435 Aug 17, 2017

Responsible Tourism is about “making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit”. Traveling responsibly is thus about managing travel and destinations in an environmentally and culturally responsible way and de...

Author: Jaume Guia, Sil van de Velde & Lauren Chan 

Year: 2017 

8 Think Tank XIV Tropical Communities as Resources for Tourism or Touri... file 48843 Jun 26, 2014

The purpose of this paper is to review the barriers to sustainable tourism development faced by rural and developing regions and to explore the notion of tourism and its potential contribution to community well-being, with a focus on Flora’s...

Author: Laurie Murphy, Gianna Moscardo & Anna Blackman 

Year: 2014 

7 Think Tank VII Branding Sustainability: Taking 'The Natural Step' in ... file 67595 Oct 13, 2013

Translation of the concept of sustainability into practice is fraught with problems. While policy advances in all sectors of the economy have made steps in the right direction the lack of clarity in defining what is meant by 'sustainability...

Author: Alison Gill & Peter Williams 

Year: 2007 

6 Think Tank XVII Product innovation in route-based tourism: Interactive... file 68931 Aug 17, 2017

Route-based tourism on walking, hiking and cycling routes is experiencing resurgence throughout the world (Collins-Kreiner, 2010) and can be a driver of sustainable development, particularly for remote areas (Briedenhann & Wickens, 2004;...

Author: Anna Scuttari & Isidoro De Bortoli & Harald Pechlaner & Hannes Riegler 

Year: 2017 

5 Think Tank VIII Moving from Destination Marketing to Destination Manag... file 71208 Oct 13, 2013

This paper provides a case study of how a tourism organisation has interpreted the change from a ‘marketing’ to a ‘management’ approach in destination development. It begins by looking at what the literature has said about destination manag...

Author: David Foster 

Year: 2008 

4 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility in the Catalan hospita... file 76755 Oct 13, 2013

The practices of CSR have attracted the attention of the investigators, who have prepared a great diversity of theories and the international organisms, which have done recommendations, so that the companies have added them in their strategi...

Author: Ramon Palau 

Year: 2006 

3 Think Tank VIII Enhancing the Quality of Life through Cultural Events:... file 104428 Oct 13, 2013

The Wadden Sea Festival in Denmark is based on the idea of integrating the coastal environment in the presentation of contemporary art. Specifically, unique tidal differences are utilized to stage a range of performances. The Wadden Sea Fest...

Author: Janne J. Liburd & Anja Hergesell 

Year: 2008 

» Think Tank VI Ecotourism and Environmental Education: Opportunities ... file 155043 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 

1 Think Tank V Discussion on Extended Validity of an Alternative Fram... file 211308 Oct 13, 2013

The risk management of tourism as an industry involves quantification of unprecedented, unlikely but possible negative exogenous event to the region. The objective of this paper is to discuss further on an alternative quantitative method to ...

Author: Tadayuki Hara 

Year: 2005 

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