School of Geography - Theses

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Ecotourism in Third World countries

Proctor, M. Howard ( 1999)

This thesis reviews the available literature on ecotourism, particularly in relation to case studies on ecotourism to natural areas in Third World countries. It develops a methodology by which to gauge the success or failure of ecotourism ventures to meet conservation and development objectives. These objectives include issues of ecological sustainability; improving the awareness of local people and tourists to the area's conservation issues; being self-financing; ensuring the local community is involved in and benefits from ecotourism; and ensuring visitor satisfaction. Of the case studies available, five sites are identified where the study is sufficiently in depth that the methodology can meaningfully be applied. These are the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, Costa Rica; Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Belize; Tortuguero, Costa Rica; the Amazon, Brazil and Michi village, Solomon Islands. For all five sites, the degree to which they succeed or fail to meet each objective is analysed and rated, in order to identify common mechanisms by which they may succeed or fail in meeting the objective. A critique on the methodology applied and a general comment on ecotourism is also given.