THE ECOTOURISM PRINCIPLE - PRACTICE DIVIDE: FACTORS THAT LIMIT THE APPLICABILITY OF ECOTOURISM PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE

Abstract

As countries continue to develop their tourism industries, it produces significant impact on resources, economies, and social systems. Despite the acceptance of evidence of damaging effects that tourism has on the environment, tourists, tourism businesses, governments, destination local communities, and other stakeholder groups struggle with how to achieve a reasonable amount of sustainability. To conserve these critical components of tourism, it requires long term planning and the incorporation of sustainable practices that ecotourism principles can offer. While there is no dearth of principles, theories, and frameworks in ecotourism, it is questionable to what extent all these help the practitioners. The aim of this paper is to explore the root causes of such reduced applicability and to propose some solutions to bridge the divide.