Ecological tourism is considered a journey to places with almost untouched nature, the purpose of which is to get an idea of the cultural-ethnographic and natural features of the terrain, without violating the integrity of ecosystems. A distinctive feature of eco-tourism is that a person immerses himself in the beauty of nature and the identity of the region where an ecological journey takes place.
At present, ecological tourism in the world is becoming more popular every year. It creates economically favorable conditions for the local population, therefore, nature protection comes to the fore.
History of ecological tourism
The term "ecological tourism" officially appeared in the 80s of the XX century. In a small country of Costa Rica, there was no advantageous geostrategic position, unique crops, valuable minerals and even the army. The country had only a magnificent rainforest, which also had neighboring countries. However, they all chopped down their forest and sold it. Then the inhabitants of Costa Rica decided - we will not do it. Let people come and look at our beautiful forest, admire the plants and animals. They will come again and leave their money in our country.
This is how the development of eco-tourism began, and a very small country in Costa Rica over the decades has managed to make the beauty of nature the main source of income and sharply raise the standard of living of its citizens, while not depleting natural resources and not destroying the environment.
Types of ecological tourism
This type of tourism can be divided into several subspecies:
- Tours of the history of nature. Include a set of scientific and cultural, educational and tourist excursions. Such tours run on special ecological routes.
- Scientific tourism. Usually in this case, protected national parks, nature reserves, zakazniks act as tourist sites. During the scientific tours, tourists conduct field observations and participate in research expeditions.
- Adventure tourism. Can include tours to remote regions, short-term tours on bicycles, walking routes through difficult terrain, traveling with physical loads, traveling cars converted for habitation. This kind of ecotourism is associated with extreme outdoor recreation, which also includes mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain and hiking, ice climbing, diving, speleotourism, water, horse, ski, ski tourism, paragliding.
- Travel to nature reserves. Unique and exotic natural objects and phenomena in the reserves, attract many tourists. Such ecological tourism is very developed in Karelia. And it is not surprising, because in Karelia there is a natural park, 2 reserves and 3 national parks where you can fully feel the greatness of the wild nature. Also, the reserves were mostly visited by scientific groups.
Ecological tourism in Europe
Ecotourism in Europe is particularly interesting because here at relatively short distances from each other there are many small countries in which people with completely different languages and traditions live. In Europe, it is not necessary to overcome large
In Europe, there are lots of ecotourism options: green eco-Sweden, "bicycle" Germany, mountainous Austria, picturesque rustic Italy, romantic Slovenia, space Iceland or little-studied Slovakia.
I must say that the greatest ecotourism fans live in Europe. They are Germans, Englishmen, Swiss. Of course, the protection of their own protected areas for them is very important. Practically in all countries of the Old World this is an important part of the state policy.