Abstract
Tourism offers both advantages and disadvantages to the involved countries. Ecotourism emerges as a tourism segment based on the principles of sustainable tourism, oriented to the preservation of nature, respect for local traditions and customs, interest in the history and culture of the destination, encouragement of intercultural communication, and aid to the local economy. This study aims to understand how students of tourism from the Porto Polytechnic Institute, in Portugal, know and define it. Additionally, it aims to understand how many of these students have participated in typology activities and the reasons that led them to do so. A quantitative research with 123 students (44% of the universe) was conducted and the results showed that 23% of students know the four basic principles of ecotourism and about half have experience in the practice of it. The main motivation is related to “contact with nature.” Finally, it is discussed how ecotourism can be seen as a way of empowerment of students, regarding sustainability and the well-being of our environment and its inhabitants.
TopIntroduction
The tourism industry is nowadays among the largest industries in the world, and nature-based tourism (NBT) is often said to be one of the fastest growing types of tourism. Its contribution to economic growth is relevant, but has negative impacts concerning environment and infrastructures, which makes it a subject of concern (Øian et al, 2018). The concept of sustainable tourism is complex and tends to bring out several paradoxes and dilemmas as the three dimensions of economic, social, and environmental concerns are difficult to balance (Gkoumas, 2019). Some short-term solutions may turn into unsustainable solutions in a longer time perspective (Sedarati, Santos & Pintassilgo, 2018). The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) promotes tourism as a key to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) and countries with a more sustainable tourism sector are more likely to enjoy higher levels of positive peace in the future (WTTC, 2016). As the impact of sustainable development in the world’s future is better understood, every industry is encouraged to get a solution for sustainability in its own field. Actions are conducted in a responsible way, through a set of principles and values, having in mind its impacts on economics, environment and society (Font & Mccabe, 2017; Dieguez, 2018).
Tourism is a very powerful social invention to deal with the plenty of desires of the modern industrialized world (Kunwar, 2018). It is “an arena in which many players interact and negotiate the construction of culture to different ends” (Salazar, 2006, p.329), and can be considered a “machine of happiness’ (Wohlmuther & Winstersteiner, 2014, p .35), where the cultural “value” is “travelling to happiness” (Wohlmuther & Winstersteiner, 2014, p.35). As hallmark activities of the postmodern world, tourism and hospitality (TH) are “worldmaking” activities that have a creative and transformative role in the making of people and places and in the production of meanings, values and understandings about the past, present and future (Urry, 2003; Dredge, 2017). In other words, if TH is well managed within an integrated and sustainable approach, they can have significant impact on places and people, add value to cultural and environmental resources, and promote peace and understanding (Sharpley, 2009). They can raise social and cultural awareness and tolerance, deal with poverty, give power to communities and make them richer and more developed (Higgins-Desboilles, 2006, Dredge et al., 2012).
As Tourism is getting more importance in our society, knowledge production in tourism requires closer link with Higher Education Institutions (Castells, 2000, Portegies, De Haan, & Platenkamp, 2009). In fact, Universities play an important role as education is an important asset for people to positively and negatively compare things in life and strongly build a better future making smart decisions (Beier & Rittmayer, 2008). Also, researches and studies are critical to make available knowledge and understanding, in particular to students in learning how to control their behavior regarding the environment (Emanuel & Adams, 2011; Tan & Lau, 2009). Tourism can be considered as a form of education, whether it’s by learning about the history of different places, about other gastronomic cultures or language, whether by learning to respect others peoples’ space or our planet, by understanding it’s our duty to live consciously. Many times, by leaving our usual place we understand how precious our planet is and how much we should care about it. Additionally, we also learn how diverse is our world and how respectfully we should be towards everyone. Tourism has the potential of teaching people how to take care of our planet and to respect and care about other communities (Dangi, 2018; Mondino, & Berry, 2019).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Tourism: Tourism encompasses travels and stays outside the usual environment of the traveller, for more than one day and less than one consecutive year, for business, leisure, or other purposes.
Ecotourists: Ecotourists are defined as consumers of Ecotourism. This mean tourists who select a certain travel experience and destination, that of nature-oriented experiences in pristine natural environments, interacting with and benefit to the local community.
Sustainable Tourism: Sustainable Tourism is a conscious tourism, aware of its stakeholders needs and economic, social, and environmental impacts, in the present and future. The concept of sustainable tourism is complex and tends to bring about several paradoxes and dilemmas as the three dimensions of economic, social, and environmental concerns are difficult to balance.
Tradition: Tradition can be understood as a belief or behaviour (folk custom) that persists from the past to the present, accepted by those who receives it and who in turn will pass it on to the next generation. It has a symbolic meaning or special significance.
Citizenship: Citizenship is a group of rights and responsibilities or duties: the rights are the citizen’s entitlements from the nation, whereas the responsibilities are the duties that the nation is entitled to expect from the citizen; they are a set of legal obligations through which the citizen’s status of belonging in the society is asserted. Although the concepts, rights and duties that compose citizenship may vary from one society to another, they do share specific mutual aspects. Perhaps the most important of these shared values is equality among all citizens in their citizenship rights and duties, facilitating mutual cooperation, strengthening their loyalty to their nation as well as helping them accept each other where there are differences of opinion.
Local Community: Local community is a group of interacting people sharing an environment. Being a durable and organized human population that integrates a space of proximity, typically, their individuals share multiple ties: they are relatives, friends or simply acquaintances; they buy and sell among themselves, are in the same places and have common references. Like a state, the local community integrates population, government, and territory. Its durability, on the other hand, implies a high degree of self-sustainability - political, demographic, economic, social, and environmental.
Sustainable Development: Sustainable development relates to the systematizing standard for meeting human development goals in accordance to the preservation of environment and economic profits. It cares about future generations and its needs.
Ecotourism: Ecotourism is a sustainable tourism where focus is on minimising negative impact while learning about the environment and contributing to environmental protection. It is an alternative to mass scale tourism.