DIMENSIONS OF ECOTOURISM IN RELATION TO ECOSYSTEM

Ecotourism is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people. Ecotourism, when properly executed based on these principles, exemplifies the benefits of socially and environmentally sound tourism development. The object of this study is ecotourism and the relationship he has with the ecosystem and analysis of core criteria of ecotourism suggests two “ideal types” based on the level of sustainability outcomes. The comprehensive model adopts a holistic and global approach to attractions and interpretation that fosters environmental enhancement, deep understanding, and transformation of behavior. It is argued that the comprehensive model can best promote global sustainability by accommodating selected hard (or small-scale) and soft (or large-scale) characteristics, thereby taking advantage of the economies of scale offered by the latter. While this high level of attention has not yet resulted in a universally accepted definition, there is an emerging consensus that qualifying products must be primarily nature-based, focused on the provision of learning opportunities, and managed in such a way as to maximize the likelihood of environmentally and sociocultural sustainable outcomes, including positive benefits for local communities. In the end of this study it is argued here that size per se is not the problem, and that the success of the comprehensive model is dependent upon the extension of its principles into the soft arena, where economies of scale confer several critical potential advantages in the interests of environmental and economic sustainability that are absent in its hard manifestation.