Ecotourism is a nature based form of specialty travel defined by
The International Ecotourism Society
(TIES)
as
“responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people.”
This definition has been widely accepted, but does not serve as a functional definition for gathering
statistics. No global initiative presently exists for the gathering of ecotourism data. Ecotourism should be
considered a specialty segment of the larger nature tourism market.
Recognizing the global importance of ecotourism, the United Nations designated the year 2002
as the International Year of Ecotourism.
In May this year the World Ecotourism Summit in Quebec, Canada,
organized jointly by the World Tourism Organization
(WTO)
with the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP)
resulted in the
Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism,
containing 49 specific guidelines for sustainable ecotourism development and management.