Hello and welcome to our blog dedicated to the exploration of ecotourism in Europe! We are very excited to tell you all about this eco-friendly type of tourism and the benefits of it. We picked to discuss the Old Continent, because it offers many options to the enthusiastic ecotourists.
If you don’t know what ecotourism entails, we are happy to tell you everything about it in this welcome post. Remember to love yourself and to love your surroundings just as much; this is the ecotourism way!
Ecotourism – Definition
There isn’t a simple answer as to what ecotourism is, but it has a few characteristics which more or less define its main principle. So, let’s try to explain it now. Firstly, ecotourism is a conscious effort to preserve the natural beauty of the places you travel to. One has to be a responsible traveler and think about their impact on the nature and local communities of their destination of choice.
This is ecotourism in the simplest possible terms. It’s now time to discuss the core principles of ecotourism and how to abide by them in practice.
Ecotourism – Core Principles and Their Application
We already postulated that ecotourism is concerned with the conservation of nature, so let’s talk more about how to achieve it and how to do it correctly. It all starts with the journey to the destination.
Air travel produces a lot of carbon emissions, so if you’re relatively close to your destination, you’re encouraged to use a different mode of transportation such as a train. This can be best achieved in Europe, which has a sophisticated railway system that connects most countries on the continent.
If you, however, are travelling to another continent, you’d have to use air travel. Most airways nowadays allow you to pay a small carbon tax when you buy a ticket, so you can minimize your carbon footprint.
Some people think that travelling by ship is more eco-friendly than travelling by plane, but they’re factually wrong. Even the most efficient cruise ships emit at least 3 to 4 times more carbon dioxide than planes.
Moving on, you can choose to travel to your destination on your own terms, or you can use the services of an ecotourism agency, which could help you learn more about your destination and how to be a true ecotourist.
However, beware that not all ecotourist agencies are abiding strictly to the principles of ecotourism. Some are ecotourist on paper, but not so much in practice. You can check online reviews or even better you can see if these companies have accreditation from local governments. Countries such as Sweden and Denmark have a few reliable operators that are properly regulated by them.
Another important principle of ecotourism is knowledge of the destination. To be precise, that is knowledge of the flora and fauna, as well as the local communities and how they interact with their homeland.
Ecotourism seeks to educate foreign travelers and local people about the benefits of preserving nature, and consequently the benefits of ecotourism as a concept. That includes educating locals on how to preserve their nature and how to mitigate contact with wild animals and their habitats. The same goes to the tourists.
An ecotourist could directly (donate money to proper charities) or indirectly (pay for their stay and/or activities in a protected region) invest in this local community as a way to support ecological conservation, along with the economic development of the area. These recourses would be then used by the local authorities for the preservation of the region.
Some communities might wish to do everything to conserve nature, but they might be unable to due to the lack of financial and/or other recourses. For instance, the tiger population of India is declining, because local communities have destroyed tiger habitats out of necessity (e.g., by cutting trees for timber). This has led to dangerous interactions between people and tigers, which have had tragic outcomes.
Thus, by investing in a proper charity, an ecotourist would help such a community find a better, more sustainable, way to live and to thrive, which would consequently also preserve the wild animals of the region.
Ecotourism also seeks to educate tourists about the new culture they are interacting with. Ecotourists would learn more about the history and practices of the local communities they visit, which would create a deeper appreciation for other cultures.
All in all, you, as a tourist, would experience travelling like you’ve never had before, while simultaneously ensuring that other tourists in the future would have a chance to share the same experience.