ABSTRACT
What does and does not characterize the ecotourism experience has been subject to sustained inspection by academics for the better part of three decades. Numerous monographs and scholarly articles have sought to articulate typologies and conceptual framings of the ecotourist, framings that are then used as the basis for a seemingly never-ending array of empirical studies. However, can we ever say what the ecotourism experience is or isn’t? The title of this chapter Ecotourism Experience: Myth and Reality taps into varied perceptions amongst ecotourists and others that are elucidated in this chapter over what should be considered the outcomes of a particular tourism form. Beyond this, however, it also taps into a wider theme; can we ever indisputably define the ecotourist when the nature of the ecotourist experience varies temporally based on the social and ecological mores of the society that practises it?
