ABSTRACT
Ecotourism has caught the imagination of many local communities, governments, international organizations and the tourism industry. There is growing interest in the potential of ecotourism particularly by the tourism industry. For while ecotourism is increasingly being seen as a way to promote sustainable tourism, it is also believed to provide valuable income to local communities. Wearing and Neil (1999, 2009) and Wearing and Wearing (1999, 2006) have previously outlined the need for new approaches, in which decommodification principles and practices must take place to ensure sustainable and valued ecotourism. There are many definitions of ecotourism (Fennell, 2001). Despite these varied definition, it is widely agreed that it incorporates conservation of the natural environment, economic benefits for local communities and recreational, as well as environmental learning activities for visitors (this stems from the original definition by CeballosLascurain, cited in Boo, 1990, see also Cater, 2006, Butcher, 2008, Biggs et al., 2012). We would suggest that one component of this debate is around the two traditionally ‘competitive’ forces of environmentalism and economy (cf. Stamou and Paraskevopoulos, 2004). It is this tension between environmentalism and the economy that is the focus of our discussion in this chapter.
