How eco is ecotourism?

Egypt Daily Star News

Siwa is a case in point for this discussion, and is mentioned in the following article:

Whether that might be deluding yourself into believing that the business phone-call will have miraculously been made by the time you get back, that somehow the sea-air will cure that mysterious ailment you’ve been suffering recently, or that the hot waiter you met on a beach in Sharm will sweep you off your feet and whisk you away to his private island.

But the biggest delusion of all, according to some, is that of “ecotourism,” the neologistic cross-cultural genie delivering precarious wishes of “sustainability,” “authentic experiences,” “community commitment” and “green practices.”

In 2002, the same year declared “The year of Ecotourism” by the United Nations, British professor Rosaleen Duffy, called ecotourism to the dock with her book “A Trip Too Far.” According to Duffy, ecotourism is nothing more than a self-indulgent by-product of neo-liberalist consumer culture at its most hypocritical.

In a forthcoming book, “Nature Inbound: Conservation in a Neoliberal Age,” she and her colleagues write: “Although ecotourism is often presented as significantly ‘different’ from mass tourism, it is far from unproblematic.

This is because it exists in a context of global neoliberalism, is part of it and entirely compatible with it.”

Others have conjured up an impressive array of counter-buzzwords, such as ego-tourism, deco-tourism and green-washing, all conveying the elitist sport they perceive ecotourism to be. Some have even discerningly pointed out the relationship between luxury ecotourism and colonialism.

These accusations are critical, since they not only point to the misuse of the term itself, but preclude the viability of any reconciliation between ecological sustainability and tourism.

Education, a fundamental principle of ecotourism, seems the only way forward. And that can only come through direct experience. “You can’t fight something by being extreme,” says Alaa Taher, geologist, nature photographer and manager of eco-travel company, InVision. “What needs to be done is to educate people, and raise the awareness level by showing people how beautiful these places are so they can protect them.”