Ecotourism and Community Involvement: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

Tourism has emerged as the global industry and has been playing a leading role in the all-round development of any country. A planned and sustained development of tourism industry in the form of 'Ecotourism' or 'Responsible Tourism' would lead the country to everlasting prosperity in all aspects. Intensive care should be given in developing tourism in the respective areas to maximize output and minimize the bad impacts.

The co-operation and participation of local community is of great significance to all industries especially tourism industry since it deals with the people of different regions, languages, cultures etc. But it is equally difficult to elicit the encouragement, co-operation and support from the local community in developing ecotourism effectively.

The major objective of this article presents the role of local communities in promoting ecotourism in any region. The authors have portrayed the emerging challenges to be faced in developing ecotourism and suitable strategies have been suggested to overcome the challenges.