ABSTRACT
Ecotourism, as marketed to tourists, is normally linked to ‘traditional’ culture at the destination. The invocation of ‘traditional ways of life’, ‘local customs’ and ‘authentic culture’ are common refrains in the advertising of this growing niche market (Butcher 2003a). The ‘new tourist’ (Poon 1993) desires to witness examples of cultures different from their own, perhaps centring themselves spiritually (Cohen 1972: 165) in developing world cultures that in some way exhibit a closer relationship between people and the natural world (Fennell 2003; Krippendorf 1987). Indeed, it can be argued that the growth of ecotourism itself is in part a response to a profound disillusionment in the developed world with the experience and the outcomes of development (Butcher 2003a).
