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Applying the ecological footprint to ecotourism scenarios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2006

COLIN HUNTER  and
JON SHAW
COLIN HUNTER*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK
JON SHAW
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK
*
*Correspondence: Dr Colin Hunter Tel: +44 1224 273694 Fax: +44 1224 272331 e-mail: geo341@abdn.ac.uk
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Summary

Academic interest in ecotourism has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by the increasing popularity of ecotourism holidays. This paper adopts ecological footprint (EF) analysis as a means of estimating the potential net EF of hypothetical international ecotourism scenarios involving air travel. A procedure for the rapid calculation of indicative, potential minimum net EF estimates using secondary data sources was applied to a variety of source/host country scenarios with the aim of establishing a reasonable and conservative range of EF values associated with ecotourism. The influence of changing assumptions about the broad nature of resource demand at the destination and of three length of stay periods was considered. In total, 252 estimates were made of the potential net per tourist EF, assuming conservative resource use at the destination. For a 14-day holiday, potential net EF estimates ranged between 0.02 and 4.26 global hectares. Only one, a 21-day scenario, produced a net negative EF value, suggesting the potential for an overall reduction in absolute demand on global renewable resources. Some 80% of 14-day holiday scenarios produced potential per tourist EF estimates greater than the annual average per caput EF in low income countries. The size of the transit component was very important to overall net EF estimates, supporting largely anecdotal concerns about the environmental impact of long-haul flights to ecotourism destinations. The implications of these findings for judging the impact of ecotourism were found to vary according to different absolute and relative benchmarks, although the global EF of ecotourism is likely to be considerably less than that of mass tourism.

Keywords

ecological footprintecotourismindicatorsustainable developmentsustainable tourism
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 294 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2006

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