Effects of Ecotourism

Although the effects of ecotourism should be good for the environment, most of the time, ecotourism leaves negative effects on the environment and local communities.

Since ecotourism has grown into a large industry of its own, there is not enough regulations on ecotourism to restrict people to do whatever it takes to profit for themselves. Some people genuinely do not know what ecotourism is whereas others know perfectly well but still do things that give ecotourism a bad name and leaving bad effects on ecotourism on local economies, residents  or communities.

If you examine closely, all the disadvantages and negative effects of ecotourism can be avoided if everyone agrees on a common purpose. However it is difficult to get people to agree especially if agreeing means less profits and money into their pocket.

Negative effects of ecotourism

Education is key and without proper education of ecotourism, actions taken to preserve nature could end up destroying natural resources and making things worse. Also, ecotourism relies heavily on research information and statistics. However, these researches are prone to errors and sometimes what we think is sustainable turns out not to be.

The negative effects of ecotourism include:

• destruction of local resources to make room for ecotourism

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• exploitation of local tribes, local residents such as using them for cheap labor

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• hunting down and destroying rare species and natural resources to make souvenirs and to use for tourist attractions

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• damaging the environment and destroying nature to make room for man made establishments

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• Using wildlife as tourist attractions and primarily to generate money for the economy, not to preserve them.