Online Travel Guide….

In to day’s world where environmental issues have become everyone’s concern various concepts are coming up to provide solutions to all the environment related problems. Eco-tourism is a new concept that arose recently. In the year of 1980, the concept of Eco-tourism came into being. The concept of Eco-tourism is restricted to traveling to fragile pristine and usually protected areas that strive to be low impact and often small scale as an alternative to mass tourism.

The main purpose of ecotourism is to educate the traveler, providing fund for ecological conservation and also directly benefiting the economic development and political empowerment of local communities. Fundamentally Eco-tourism means making as little environmental impact as possible and helping to sustain the indigenous populace and thereby encouraging the preservation of wildlife and habitats when visiting a place. It focuses on local culture, wilderness adventures, volunteering personal growth and learning new ways to live on our vulnerable planet.

Eco-tourism facilities are constantly being developed by the professionals. The International Tourism society defines Eco-tourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of local people”. But there involves certain principles in maintaining Eco-tourism.

Some of the principles are:

* Building environmental and cultural awareness and respect.

* Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.

* Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.

* Provide financial empowerment for local people.

* Support international human rights and labor agreements.

Thus, few principles are guide lined for sustaining Eco-tourism. It is a fastest growing market in the economy according to the World Tourism Organization with an annual growth rate of 5% worldwide. Thus Eco-tourism is successful for the cause for which it was introduced.