Over the recent past couple of decades mankind has got to understand as well as appreciate the importance of a better and cleaner environment that has resulted in a greater impact on our lives today. Now, more and more tourists are becoming attracted to the new concept of ecotourism that is taking place as something of a new revolution in the way that we are thinking about taking our holidays.

A Welcome Departure From The Usual Tourism Hotspots

About twenty years ago, how we took our vacations used to follow a tried and tested path, which meant going to places based on interests and budgets. If we could find a place that was worth visiting and it did not cost more than what we could afford, then that was all there was to taking a holiday. But, with new concerns about our environment coming to the fore, there has been a gradual shift in position and rethinking has led to the beginning of ecotourism.

Basically, ecotourism is making a trip to locations that are environmentally significant as well as sensitive and though it is now gaining in popularity, has in fact been known to us in one form or another for quite some time. Excursions to watching birds is something we may all be familiar with and this is just one good example of what ecotourism is all about. We can even think of Charles Darwin’s trip to the Galapagos Islands as being the pioneering form of ecotourism.

Today, however this form of tourism is quite viable and it all really began in the early eighties though at that time its popularity was confined to small groups of people that showed their keenness in the environment. The popularity of ecotourism increased when in 2002 the United Nations declared it as being the Year of Ecotourism. There are many forms of ecotourism though generally it means visiting places that have one of a kind environment, and one can easily think of places such as rainforests, and also endangered animals’ habitats as good examples of such ecotourism destinations. It is also almost a custom to leave a tiny footprint when one visits such places.

Most ecotourism operators provide facilities, tours as well as allow you to interact with the habitat so that you come away better educated and also do not impact the habitat too adversely. Sustainability is another aspect to ecotourism and very often it has been seen that there are some places where there are people hell bent on exploiting these sensitive areas, which require giving jobs and putting money into the local economy to prevent such from happening.

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