Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving visiting fragile, pristine, and relatively undisturbed natural areas, intended as a low-impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial (mass) tourism.
Ecotourism deals with living parts of the natural environments. Ecotourism focuses on socially responsible travel, personal growth, and environmental sustainability. Ecotourism typically involves travel to destinations where flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. Ecotourism is intended to offer tourists insight into the impact of human beings on the environment, and to foster a greater appreciation of our natural habitats.
Ecotourism is an environmental and community focused alternative to mainstream, mass tourism. It adds a more active role to tourism, instead of simply visiting an exotic locale, and taking pictures, ecotourism provides individuals with the opportunity to make a difference. The often quoted definition of ecotourism is, "responsible travel to natural areas that conserved the environment and improves the well-being of local people." For people who participate in ecotourism, there are certain principles that should be followed which include providing financial benefits for the local people in the country, providing direct financial benefits for conservation of the country and preserving the natural resources of the countries as well as helping the local communities. Ecotourism can come in many forms, but the driving principle is the things that you will be doing will benefit the environment or a particular community in a planned way. By this definition going river rafting can be considered ecotourism, if the event is designed to raise funds or increase awareness about an environmental issue in the forest.
For most true environmentalist however, it would be hard to argue that