Tourism is widely believed to be the most rapidly growing global industry, and the World Tourism Organization predicts international tourism will grow at approximately 4% per year through the year 2010 (World Tourism Organization 1996). While difficult to measure, ecotourism is believed to be the fastest growing tourism segment (Buckley; Deardon; Ecotourism and Wild). Estimates by Filion, Foley and Jacquemot (1994) suggest that in 1988 there were between 157 and 236 million international ecotourists, generating economic impacts of $93 billion to $233 billion. In Costa Rica, a country which has increasingly tailored its industry to fit the ecotourism niche (Evans and Schl), foreign exchange receipts from tourism have surpassed those earned by traditional export products (coffee and bananas), to become the country’s most important economic activity (ICT 1993).

There is considerable debate over what ecotourism really means, however, and estimates of value generated by Filion et al (1994) are based on a definition of the form which allows tourists to enjoy and appreciate nature. This reflects the original ecotourism definition provided by Ceballos-Lascurain (cited in Boo 1990) and popularized by Boo (1990), that focused on the site or object of tourist viewing. As ecotourism has grown in popularity, sometimes resembling traditional mass tourism, its definitions have been expanded to incorporate ideas about ecotourist responsibility, environmentally friendly destination management, profit linkages to conservation efforts, and the sustainable development of local human populations.

Ecotourism can be defined in terms of the “product” or as an operating “principle” (Cater 1994a). Buckley and Ormans, and Stewart and Sekartjakrarini (1994) review its definitions and conclude that preference for one over another reflects different priorities of actors and analysts. Thus, while Ormans (1995) favors a definition that focuses on encouraging better ecotourists who will help maintain a better environment, and Blangy and Nielsen (1993) focus on guidelines for operators (product-oriented definitions), proponents of local development find these types of definitions inadequate, or incomplete. While Stewart and Sekartjakrarini (1994) argue that the multifaceted nature of expanded, principle-based definitions leads to ambiguity in interpretation, a definition which includes community development is increasingly promoted ( Boo 1992; Budowski cited in Kutay, 1992; Cater and Ecotourism, 1998; Kutay, K. 1992 Ecotourism Marketing: Capturing the Demand for Special Interest Nature and Culture Tourism to Support Conservation and Sustainable Development. Paper Presented to the Third Inter-American Congress on Tourism, 1992. Cancun, Mexico..Kutay, 1992; Norris; Whelan and Ziffer, 1989). For the purposes of this paper, an expanded definition of tourism, which encompasses both visits to natural areas and the development of local communities, is referred to as alternative ecotourism.

Community participation as described by Murphy (1985) is central to the alternative ecotourism concept, with proponents arguing that participation in planning is necessary to ensure that benefits reach residents in destination areas (Simmons 1994). Cater and Wild suggest that ecotourism which encourages local employment and small business development promotes higher economic multipliers, and that a community approach to decision-making helps to ensure traditional lifestyles and community values are respected. Kutay (1992) cites environmental benefits of community participation, arguing that a close working relationship between the local community and the industry will provide the means to support conservation efforts. Small scale, community led tourism has been suggested as particularly appropriate for developing countries (Britton; Kangas and Oppermann).

In definitional discussions, there is often an underlying assumption that tourism to small rural communities will be planned and that planning with environmental and community development goals in mind will help ensure their achievement. This assumption of planning is problematic, as the level of choice exercised by host communities in becoming a destination is questionable with tourism in general, and particularly in developing countries (Cater 1994a). Based as it often is on visits to rural towns and villages in remote and undeveloped areas (Wild 1994), ecotourism is additionally problematic as it is perhaps unreasonable to expect that national planners interested in foreign exchange earnings will invest time and effort in insuring the goals of alternative ecotourism are met in such places. The size of the industry in general and the high rates of growth in ecotourism specifically suggest that, even when governments are interested, they will be unable to oversee development at all potential sites. They have sometimes intervened in ecotourism development on behalf of rural communities—such as Zimbabwe’s Campfire Program (Chalker 1994), and Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area (Gurung and De Coursey 1994). But such intervention often occurs where the natural resources in question are capable of attracting considerable tourism dollars, and/or where the industry is being promoted to reduce more consumptive forms of wildlife utilization (e.g., direct harvesting).

It could also be argued that a philosophy of alternative ecotourism, which relies on community participation and even control, minimizes the extent to which outside planning and intervention is desirable. Control over resources can be key to gaining community support for their conservation, and “top-down” rural tourism activities have sometimes failed to gain such support in spite of their provision of monetary benefits to local people (Balakrishnan and Parry). Perhaps the crucial question is not “what the definition of alternative ecotourism is” or “how alternative ecotourism can be planned” but rather “what the chances are that visits to remote developing areas will meet the community development and participation objectives of alternative ecotourism in the absence of official planning or intervention, and how such chances can be increased.”