ABSTRACT
Tourism is a major contributor to the economies of many countries; however, the impacts sometimes overshadow the benefits and seldom is development as environmentally sound as it could be. Environmentally sound tourism can offer some areas otherwise unavailable funds for improving environmental management, it has the potential to offer sustainable livelihoods, and it can act as an integrative ‘core’ to bring together various stakeholders, who otherwise would probably not work together. The latter quality may be used as a way to establish sustainable development strategies – for example, using tourism profit to help establish sustainable agriculture or conservation, and then developing those as tourist attractions. When badly managed tourism degrades the environment, local culture visitors tend to pay less or to go elsewhere. Environmentally sound tourism can be more lucrative as well as being sustainable. Where low-quality tourism has degraded a locality and driven down profits, green tourism may be a route to restoration of environment and economy (see Figure 14.1).
