1.0 Introduction 2
2.0 Current Approaches to Ecotourism Development 3
3.0 Examples of Ecotourism 4
3.1 Case 1: Big 5 Safaris in Kruger National Park, Africa 5
3.1.1 The Impacts of Wildlfe Safari 6
3.1.2 Weakness, Strength, Opportunities, and Threats 9
3.1.3 The Stakeholders 10
3.1.4 Policies, Control & Governmental Support 11
3.2 Case 2: Chumbe Island Coral Park, East Africa 12
3.2.1 The impacts of ecotourism activities in CHICOP 13
3.2.2 Weakness, Strength, Opportunities, and Threats 14
3.2.3 The Stakeholders 16
3.2.4 Policies, Control & Governmental Support 17
4.0 Ecotourism - the Ideal versus the Real 17
5.0 Conclusion 21
6.0 Reference List 22
1.0 Introduction
The term ecotourism first emerged in the late 1980s and was quickly adopted by both academics and practice (Weaver, 2008). The evolution of ecotourism can be explained by Jafari’s (1989) four platforms theory. In the advocacy platform, tourism was regarded as the activity that brings “good things” for destinations. Thus, the main philosophy people hold against tourism was “all tourism is good”. The cautionary platform emerged in the 1970s as people started to aware the negative consequences of tourism which means “not all tourism is good”. It then transformed into adaptancy platform in the 1980s where people perceived tourism can bring both positive and negative consequences to destinations. However, options that were considered bringing more positive outcomes than negative were proposed at this stage. This was also when people have awareness of “ecotourism”. Tourists had shifted away from mass tourism towards experience that is more educational and enriching in related to the environment (Diamantis, 1999). Another evidence of the emergence of ecotourism is the paradigm has shifted form the dominant western environmental paradigm to the emerging green paradigm (Weaver, 2008). Knowledge-based platform was emerged from the 1990s which takes consideration into the