Costa Rica's reputation as Ecotourism destination at stake

Résumé du document

Ecotourism is not a universally defined concept and the literature gives several definitions for it. However the most known and widespread is the one provided by The International Ecotourism Society (TIES, 2004) as “a responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people”. Ecotourism is also often described as a conservation and community development tool (Stem, Lassoie, Lee and Destiler, 2003) generating money in an ecologically and socially friendly way (Koens et al., 2006).

Hetzer (cited in Buchsbaum, 2004) identified four major concepts of responsible tourism: minimizing environmental impacts, respecting host cultures, maximizing benefits to local people and maximizing tourist satisfaction. Costa Rica, located in Central America, is considered as the birthplace of ecotourism development (Makwana et al, 2008) taking advantage of the worldwide emergence of ecotourism in the 1970's – 1980's, (Kotler et al, 2005) and the dissatisfaction of mass tourism (Buchsbaum, 2004).

Extraits

[...] Virginia Polytech Institute and State University. Courvisansamos, J. and Jain, A. (2006) framework for Sustainable Ecotourism: Application to Costa Rica”. Tourism and Hospitality Planning and Development, Vol No p.131 -p.142. EPI Yale (2011). “Costa Rica” Available from: http://epi.yale.edu/page_header_module/countries/CRI.pdf (Accessed 15 November 2011) Honey, M. (1999). Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism: Who Owns Paradise? Island Press. Washington D.C. [...]

[...] Costa Rica has already created ecotourism programmes in its universities and high schools. Tour operators, national parks, and private reserves are starting the environmental awareness programmes for tourists as well. However, these efforts need to be reinforced and continued because a well educated public that understands impacts of ecotourism to Costa Rica will help benefit the country in the long term (Wearing, 2001). Ecotourism in Costa Rica has reached a high level of maturity; it now serves as an example to both the potentials and pitfalls of ecotourism and provides lessons on how it needs be managed in other countries in the world. [...]

[...] (2003). How 'eco' is ecotourism? : A Comparative Case Study of Ecotourism in Costa Rica. Journal of sustainable tourism . Travel Excellence website. Available from: http://www.travelexcellence.com/costa-rica-travel-blog/costa-rica-tourism- new-advertising-campaign-costa-ricas-million-dollar-gift-of-happiness (Accessed 16 November 2011) Unitar website (2011). Available from: http://www.unitar.org/costa-rica-s- ministry-environment-develops-capacity-participatory-environmental-quality- management-l (Accessed 15 November 2011) UNWTO website (2011). Available from: http://mkt.unwto.org/sites/all/files/docpdf/unwtohighlights11enhr_1.pdf (Accessed 14 November 2011) Wearing, S. (2001) “Exploring Socio-cultural Impacts on Local Communities”. In David B. Weaver Encyclopedia of Ecotourism. [...]

[...] More recently, in 2007, Costa Rica started a campaign in order to make Costa Rica the world's first ‘carbon neutral' tourism destination (Makwana et al., 2008). All these initiatives stand witness to the effort by successive governments to boost and maintain ecotourism in Costa Rica. As a result of the above Costa Rica ranked 3rd in terms of the environmental performance index in 2010 (EPI Yale, 2011) and 1st in terms of Happy Planet Index (Seager, 2009). These rankings had obviously created a great attractiveness for Costa Rica since the two main values of the ecotourists are to protect and enjoy the nature while meeting a happy and friendly population. [...]

[...] Costa Rica has gained an international reputation as a world leader in environmental conservation (Courvisansanos & Jain, 2006). What began in the 1970's in a humble way, ecotourism in Costa Rica took a leap during the 1980's as it gained support from the government, intergovernmental organisations (Honey, 1999) and institutions such as ICT (Costa Rica Institute of Tourism), OTS (Organisation of Tropical Studies) and the INBio (National Institute of Tourism for Biodiversity). These institutions helped Costa Rica create its image and reputation abroad (Courvisansamos & Jain, 2006) using promotional campaigns such as ‘Costa Rica, No artificial Ingredients' launched in the USA in 1996. [...]