Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Editors: Bill Bramwell (Sheffield Hallam University) and Bernard Lane (Visiting Research Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University)
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Volume: 7 Number: 2 Page: 146–158
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Ecosystem Tourism: A Resource-based Philosophy for Ecotourism
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Duncan Tyler and J. Mark Dangerfield
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Ecotourism has become a popular form of tourism development and marketing in the past ten years, often harnessing the growth in public concern over the wise use of natural resources. In most cases, however,
impacts on the ecosystems that are the resource base for ecotourism products are either externalised or their consequences incorporated into the natural evolution of tourism products. This paper is an attempt
to stimulate debate on the role that more holistic resource management should play in ecotourism developments. We contend that this can only be achieved through an understanding of ecological science. Credible
ecotourism must be firmly based in scientific ecological principles that define ecosystem integrity, especially the resilience of ecosystem processes to disturbance. Such tolerance should be the fundamental
measurement against which ecotourism products are monitored.We introduce the term 'ecosystem tourism' to summarise this agenda to define truly sustainable ecotourism development.
© Channel View Publications 1998
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