ECOTOURISM: SHOULD TOURIST BREAK THE LAW?

INTRODUCTION

“I have watched the culture of all lands blows around my house and other winds have blown the seeds of peace, for travel is the language of peace”

            Mahatma Gandhi (1914)

“Travel has become one of the great forces for peace and understanding in our time.  As people move throughout the world and learn to know each other, to understand each other’s customs and to appreciate the qualities of individuals of each nation, we are building a level of international understanding which can sharply improve the atmosphere for world peace”

John F. Kennedy (1963)

“Tourism means peace in peace, for peace during war.  But sometimes tourism may cause war:  War against errant tourist”

Abdul Aziz Hussin &

Badaruddin Mohamed (2003)

The question is:  How those statements applicable in today’s tourists activities?

            As stated by loannides (1995), today, the travel and tourist industry is a massive business.  Indeed, if publicity is anything to go by, the travel and tourism sector is one of just a handful of industries that warrants an entire section in the world’s major newspapers on a regular basis.  He added that during the past three decades, the collection of tourism-related businesses has expanded rapidly and tourism has become one of the service economy.  According to World Trade Organization (1988), as an example, between 1980 and 1987 tourism recepts raised their share of trade in services worldwide by more than 3 percent to just under 20 percent.  Malaysia hopes to have 20 million tourists a year by 2010 (The Star 22.7.2002).  According to the Ministry of Culture, Arts & Tourism, Malaysia (2002) the tourism industry, the country’s third biggest income earner, was poised to play an even larger role with the steady increase of tourist arrivals.  For example, in year 2001, 12.7 million tourists visited Malaysia, generating an income of RM24 billion.

ECOTOURISM AND ECOTOURIST (?)

One of the growing concepts of tourism industry is nature tourism and ecotourism which have recently become high growth areas (Merlino, 1993; Rymer,  1992).  Although the number of nature tourists and ecotourists remain a small percentage of total international visitors, the high rate of growth and affluent character of this particular sector has attracted substantial commercial attention (Higgins, 1996).  But what is “nature tourism” or “ecotourism” any way?  The term “ecotourism” was first mentioned in the literature by Miller (1978) and subsequently founds its way into the sustainable development movement.  Ecotourism society define “ecotourism” as “responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people (Western, 1993).  There are several other associate names or terms which are related or inter-related to “ecotourism” or “nature tourism”, such as “alternative tourism”, “responsible tourism”, “agrotourism”, that have become popular  jargon in tourism development reports or studies (Cooper & Ozdil, 1992; Jarviluoma, 1992).  Some writers emphasis that “ecotourism” refers exclusively to “nature tourism” (Muller, 2000) in the following definition:

“Ecotourism is used to mean tourism based… Upon natural and archaelogical and/or historical resources such as birds, and other wildlife, scenic areas, caves, …, wetlands, and areas of rare of endagered species…  We define ecotourism as that segment of tourism that involves travelling to relatively undisturbed and uncontiminated natural areas” (Kusler, 1991)”.

            “Alternative tourism” as mentioned before, is divided into several subcategories, such as cultural, educational, scientific, adventure, and agri-tourism (Muller, 2000), and it seems that ecotourism is a part of alternative tourism.  Several authors and researchers have suggested that “heritage tourism” is about cultural traditions such as “family patterns, religious practices, folklore traditions and social customs, and includes many different types of attractions”.  Attractions might include monuments, battlefields, birthplaces, historic structures, landscapes, trails, wildernes areas, and many others (Parks & Recreation, 2000).  Ecotourism, also in many ways, associates with “experiential environmental learning”.

            The scope of ecotourism seems to be quite wide.  For example, a content analysis of ecotourism definitions revealed that ecotourism is a new form of nonconsumptive, educational, and romantic tourism to relatively undisturbed and undervisited areas of immense natural beauty, and cultural and historical importance for the purposes of understanding and appreciating the natural and sociocultural history of the host destination (Sirakaya & Sosidharam, 1999).  This scope of ecotourism may also become the objective of ecotourism.

            The examples of ecotourism products for ecotourists are to includes “amenity forest” (Dept. of Forestry, 2001) “for the conservation of adequate forest areas for ecotourism and in promoting public awareness in forestry”, sanctuaries for wildlife or rare and endangered species (eg. tigers, rhinocerus, slow loris, birdwing butterfly), indigeneous produces such as selected timber, rattan and fruits, and birds santuaries.  Some of ecotourist activities includes hiking, bird watching, and mountaineering (Boo, 1990; Cater, 1992), ride down winding mountain roads in jeeps (4 x 4 vehicle) or on camel (or elephant) back, canoe (or bambo raft) along rivers, climb mountains, etc (Jenkins, 2001).

The purpose of ecotourism products and activities varies. It includes environmental learning (understanding and appreciation for natural systems) or for wilderness learning. But, be always in our mind, that, as mentioned by Boo (1990), ecotourism does not come without a considerable number of pitfalls. Cater (1993) cautions, “without adequate understanding of underlying factors and careful planning and management, ecotourism may include unsustainable aspects”.  One of the pitfalls is “contributed” by the activities of the tourists itself, which become our next sub-topic of this paper.

The above discussion is part of a paper by Abdul Aziz Hussin & Badaruddin Mohamed. 2003. Ecotourism:  Should Tourist Break The Law?.  Proceedings of Tourism Educators Association of Malaysia.  The 2^nd Tourism and Hospitality Educators National Conference.  Shah Alam. 10-11 October 2003.