need to write an individual term paper on tourism

SUSTAINABLE ECOTOURISM IMPACT IN COSTA RICA 11

HRTM 6200 Tourism Destination Management

Term Paper

Fall 2017

Sustainable Ecotourism and Economic Impact: Costa Rica’s National Parks study

Submitting to:

Dr. Maloud Shakona

Waled Trog

Student No. 1729108

Fairleigh Dickenson University

Master of Science in Hospitality Management

Word Count: 2155

Page Count: 11 December 07, 2017

Abstract

How tourism has brought many economics benefits for visitors, locals and governments? Moreover, in destinations where environment is involved, is tourism has become more effective and led to massive economics and environmental changes? Also, low-income people in rural places are reported as characteristics of tourism employment, and they tend to be more cautious than other people to save the environment. Local and service providers as well as visitors are responsible to ensure sustainability in a certain destination. As an example, in Malaysia, the government’s policies are important in developing economies where tourism strategies tend to be controlled directly by governments. However, Costa Rica national parks have big role in the ecotourism industry and locals value such feature, for its advantages. therefore, some sorts of tourism which are agro-ecotourism, and bird- watching are mentioned as one of ecotourism methods that attracts visitors to experience rural culture, and the term “agro-ecotourism” was used for the first time in Costa Rica. The cooperation between governments and organizations is essential for this type of tourism. In some national parks, tourist behave negatively towards the environment, and that is due to the lack in education.

Keywords: sustainability, ecotourism, economic

Sustainable Ecotourism and Economic Impact: Costa Rica’s National Parks

According to Carlos & ESPINOSA (2013), tourism is considered as a method for enhancing the lifestyle of local people in many countries. and it has the ability to create occupations and generate salaries. However, the natural scenes of any destination is a potential element that attracts tourists which will lead to growth in the economy for both residents and governments. Moreover, with taking experience in consideration, tourists tend to prefer visiting places that connected to nature, new culture, and heritage, and that will not only create new source of income to the host communities but also will guarantee a good lifestyle for the future generations (Agüera, 2013). In addition, Blersch & Kangas, (2012) indicated that ecotourism, the green industry, has been known as worldwide phenomenon, which provide relaxation and enjoyable time for visitors in their leisure time, but it may be harmful for both local and the environment of the tourist destination.

Ecotourism (Agüera, 2013) could lead to positive and negative impacts and in order to eliminate the destructive impacts to the environment, local stakeholders should be involved, and they must contribute in improving this type of tourism, which could make the economy thrive and flourish. However, sustainability in this section of tourism is essential, which means to protect the environment, understand and respect the host culture, increase the local’s income, and attract more tourists to the destination (Cheia, 2013). In growing economy destinations (Bhuiyan et al., 2011), government contribute and control travel industry, and workers who are from conventional economy sections like agriculture, mining and fishing are possibly to attract tourism, therefore According to Carlos & Espinosa (2013) The today’s impact of tourism towards employment is assessed as of 6-7 % of the total amount of both direct and indirect global jobs, which means over 260 million occupations are related to travel industry.

literature review

During the last twenty years (Blersch & Kangas, 2012, nature-tourism has provided protection strategies in the areas where the environment and residents are harmed from conventional expansion of tourism. In short, a sustainable ecotourism has contributed in enhancing the income of local and protect the environment. Stronza & Gordillo, (2008) added that ecotourism can be a motivation to the local, who receive good amount service, to save the natural resources and to protect the positive changes in the economy. Even thought, there are benefits from this sort of tourism, some restrictions such as social conflict and environmental harms may appear, and communities should act positively to stop these limitations. The main function of ecotourism system, which provide services that attract visitors to the enjoyable wildlife and reinforce the quality of the nature sites, is to improve a sustainable lifestyle of both locals and service providers initiated by Barkin, (2000). Moreover, job opportunity and income of the country have improved a great deal because of the tourism, that based on nature, which considered as one of the largest source of income for countries (Bhuiyan et al., 2011). Since tourism size, kind and value are diverse from place to another (Carlos & ESPINOSA, 2013), it is realistic to consider the merits of tourism labor as a local advantage, and they are reliant on the indigenous economic and sociocultural circumstances. However, the characteristic of tourism employment is defined and formed by specific matters such as the sort and size of economic expansion, the type of tourism activity, and the socio-cultural system of local societies. Consequently, such matter will show how travel industry leads to job creation and improves lifestyle of locals. Therefore, tourism labor in countries should be properly analyzed and involved at local standards for the purpose of policy inclusion.

According to the “Ecotourism Benefits the,” (2014) over 15% improvement was found in the lifestyle of Costa Ricans who already lives close to parks and protected areas, which has contributed in decreasing the poverty by 16%. Besides the fact that ecotourism is usually promoted as “moral” tourism, it has also provided luxury lifestyle to the local people, and protect the environment. In Redang Island Marine Park (Yacob et al., 2008), a Malaysia island, the hotel owner, the ecotourism operators, are directly benefited from this type of tourism, which leads to job opportunities for local, and the development of this truism sector will improve the resident’s income. Also, Carlos & Espinosa, (2013) indicated that travel industry contributes in increasing foreign exchange earnings and job creation which will help growing the economy. For example, in Malaysia (Bhuiyan,. et al., 2011), tourism has positive impact on currency exchange workers which has improved the country balance payment of over 40% in 2005. In addition, (Björk, 2000). in order to keep sustainable tourism, it is important to know the understanding of travelers for the ecotourism industry, and they should be educated to avoid the risk of misconception and harming across the process of nature-tourism. Furthermore, (Barkin, 2000) sustainability and development are economically related to the ecotourism system, which consequently affect the projects owners. According to (Morales, 2010) ecotourism is important factor that improves the lifestyle of local and provide good service to visitors, without harming the environment and the culture of the tourist destination, so there must be a resilient policies and plans to ensure the required needs for local and tourists. (Carlos & Espinosa, 2013) even though the importance of tourism employment is commonness, it is hardly possible to figure out the actual volume of tourism that is connected to job field, and that is because of the complexity in determining the tourism limits, shortage of formal and dependable statistics, and propensity to concentrate on jobs that directly related to tourism. Certainly, the government duty towards ecotourism is to build a partnership with organizations nationally and internationally (Bhuiyan et al., 2011), which will help in creating new strategies that contributes in increasing the economy of the country.

Barkin,(2000) represented that, the low-income people in rural places tend to be more cautious than other people to save the environment, and they participate in protecting and improving the nature areas; therefore, there should be new techniques to create job opportunities for farmers and domestic groups, which will enhance their income. As long as the impacts of travel on international jobs are definite, numbers related to tourism should be used wisely, and tourism should be considered as a method where its contributes and effects on employment are different from country to another, province to province, and location to location Carlos & Espinosa, (2013). business owners can contribute in ecotourism, and the authorities can help by supporting projects that related to the nature scenes which will promote the tourism and the business running. Additionally, some destinations tourism may be suitable for addition goals such as limiting migration. for example, the adoption of tourism has delivered extra jobs to rustic labors with specific assertion on the needs of the youth who are the majority of out-migrants. In fact, the aim and influence of tourism towards employment are significantly argued and considered as one of the main reasons that provide jobs worldwide, in developed and developing countries together (Carlos & ESPINOSA, 2013)

In particular, Costa Rica, a country in central America, is famous of its tourist’s scene such as rivers, beaches, and parks which they bring many tourists. moreover, some specific types of tourism appeared in this destination. for example, agritourist, agro-ecotourism, and bird- watching are one of them. Moreover, with applying proper ways in agriculture, farmers can create a friendly environment projects, which will improve this section of tourism, and as result of that all the community groups will receive economic benefits from agricultural practices. Although Agro-ecotourism, however is known as one of the methods that helps farmers, in countryside, to increase their income; the change to the rustic lifestyle is not definite, and the society understanding towards the relation between tourism agricultural is changing (Morales, 2010). According to Miller, (2014) the residents of costa Rica consider their land as a method that generate their life economically, and they as a farmers and services providers make good money from serving tourists, who are attentive on this nature environment. Since Costa Rica known as developing country, it is considered as one of the destinations that value ecotourism and protect the environment, and the relationship between protecting the environment and facilitating international travel leads to long economic benefits in the ecotourism industry which as a consequence is going to make the country to be the first friendly environment place that reduce the poverty and enhance the lifehood of the locals. Most important, By the beginning of the 20th century, the hotel industry of costa Rica has significantly increased at a proportion of 400%, and that was as a result of the nature attracted areas of the country, but there were some environmental violence actions that happened in some national parks.

During the past view years (Chase et al., 1998), the national parks industry of costa Rica has contributed in a massive growth in the economy, and many travelers visited the country which made the country to be the largest source of foreign exchange earnings. However, as a result of the governmental flexible policies and regulations towards ecotourism, the country has reached a high point of the economic growth (Bhuiyan et al., 2011). Furthermore, rather than having Conflict with organizations, governments must build healthy relationship with tourism experts like private groups and business holder to improve the national and international tourism industry; which will develop the economy of the country. Clearly, visitors to national parks specially who are from oversea, always spend few amounts of money in order to enjoy their trip in protected areas such as; forests and national parks. However, the earning from those visitors should be separated and invested wisely in maintaining the parks, rather than mixing it with other revenues of the country. Accordingly, with failing the ability to use the tourism income in a proper way, there will be alternate routes to use these lands such as cutting trees, farming, and livestock grazing which as a result, will directly affect both public and private lands and cause deforestation. (Chase, 1998).

However, as rejecting the conserved zones is common in most of the countries worldwide (Hance, 2011), a different perspective from the citizens of costa Rica and Thailand shows that protected areas great economic benefits and reduce the poverty in local communities. In addition, since ecosystem attracts visitors and they will have to spend their money in surrounding communities, local people including business providers will get benefited from this type of tourism. Also, it is estimated that due to its eco special activities Cost Rica is considered as one of the biggest destinations in the world that provide natural scenes for visitors, and huge number of international tourist visit this fabulous country. Equally, some factors such as excellent national parks, a stable democratic government, a pleasant climate, and friendly people contributed in creating sustainable ecotourism system in Costa Rica.

conclusion

In today’s world, ecotourism, the nature base tourism, has led to a grow in the economy of countries in many aspects such as foreign exchange earnings as well as enhancing the lifestyle for locals and create job opportunities for them. Moreover, it is governments responsibility to establish policies and regulations that guarantees and provide good qualities of services to tourists and to increase the income of host communities. Additionally, it is essential for those (governments, organizations, and individuals) who stand for the environment and promote nature sites to ensure sustainability in the ecotourism system as it will generate the economic statues for both governments and locals. Finally, in order to make the ecotourism system beneficial for both visitors and hosts, tourists should respect and understand the host’s cultural believes and they also need to be educated.

References

Stronza & Gordillo.(2008). Community views of ecotourism. Journal Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), 448-468.

Carlos, J., & Espinosa, B. (2013). Characterisation of ecotourism employment in a developing world destination. GeoJournal of Tourism & Geosites, 11(1), 54-65.

Blersch, D, M., & Kangas, P, C.(2013). A modeling analysis of the sustainability of ecotourism in Belize. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15(1),67–80

Agüera, F, O. (2013). Stakeholder theory as a model for sustainable development in ecotourism. Turismo y Desarrollo: Revista de Investigación en Turisme y Desarrollo Local, 6(15).

Morales, F, Z. (2010). Agrotourism and agro-ecotourism in Costa Rica.

E-Review of Tourism Research, 8(6), 196-210.

Chase, L, C.(1998), Ecotourism demand and differential pricing of national park Access in Costa Rica. Land Economics,74(4), 466-482.

Miller, A, P. (2014). Ecotourism development in Costa Rica. New York, NY: Lexington Books.

Barkin, D. (2000). Eco-Tourism: A tool for sustainable development. Journal Ilmiah Pariwisata, 4(3), 75-84. Retrived from http://jurnalpariwisata.com/files/jurnal043/Eco-Tourism%20-%20A%20Tool%20For%20Sustainable%20Development.pdf

Cheia, G. (2013). Ecotourism: Definition and concepts. Revista de Tourism - Studii si Cercetari in Tourism. (15), 56-60.

Björk, P. (2000). Ecotourism from a conceptual perspective, an extended definition of a unique tourism form. International Journal of Tourism Research, 2(3), 189-202.

Almeyda, A, M., et al. (2010). Ecotourism impacts in the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. International Journal of Tourism Research,12(6), 803-819.

Yacob, M, R., Shuib, A., & Radam, A. (2008). How much does ecotourism development contribute to local communities? An empirical study in a small island. The Icfai Journal of Environmental Economics, 6(2), 54-67.

Bhuiyan, A, H., et al. (2011). The role of government for ecotourism development: Focusing on east Coast Economic region. Journal of Social Sciences,7(4), 557-564.

Ecotourism benefits the Costa Rican economy by 16%. (2014, March 3). Retrieved from https://thecostaricanews.com/ecotourism-benefits-the-costa-rican-economy-by-16/

Hance, J. (2011, June 12). Environment versus economy: local communities find economic benefits from living next to conservation areas. Monogabay news & inspiration from nature's frontline. Retrieved from https://news.mongabay.com/2011/06/environment-versus-economy-local-communities-find-economic-benefits-from-living-next-to-conservation-areas/

Waled Trog Student No. 1729108