Augustin, J. A. (2021, March 11). ECOTOURISM’S POST-COVID COMEBACK. Suston Magazine. https://sustonmagazine.com/2021/03/11/ecotourism-post-covid-comeback/
Due to the pandemic, many places have struggled to make money due to the loss of traveling and tourism. Ecotourism brought profit to many people before the pandemic, and now that restrictions have been reduced, ecotourism is expected to return, and maybe in larger quantities than before. Some believe that the pandemic allowed people to learn to respect nature more, and this could lead to ecotourism being more sustainable and beneficial to the environment. If all goes well, ecotourism will return to what it once was, and the pandemic would have benefitted to teach the tourists how to treat our environment.
Upon reading the article, I thought it was nice to see the bright side to ecotourism, as there are several positives as long as people are respectful to our environment. With many travel restrictions being dropped, I think many people are eager to go into nature again and explore new places. This will be good for many people as it will bring profit and business to their jobs that were harmed from the pandemic. My only wish is that people will learn to respect nature when traveling, and will allow ecotourism to grow but remain safe and sustainable.
I think it is very interesting to see how tourism can be beneficial to the environment. The pandemic has definitely affected peoples’ desire to go out and travel again so it is important that we keep aware of what is going on with the environment and we should learn to understand how to be safe travelers.
I have thought about some of the places/countries that rely heavily on ecotourism during the pandemic… and how their cash flow must have trickled. The key, as you imply, is can we manage the surge of people wanting to travel now… and many want to stay outside. I can tell you the National Parks have been overrun. So places will be torn from needing the money to not wanting to trample their resources hoards of tourists. That’s always the balance that needs to be struck and we can imagine it’s a tough one. Do you that should just be up to the locals running their program, or are bigger regulations in order.I am hopeful for ecotourism but there’s lots of examples of places that haven’t managed it well. Should be an interesting topic for you to follow, Jack. I look forward to reading more.
While I agree that it can be great to have tourists seeing and visiting so many special places, I feel that there are so many downsides to the large populations flooding these areas. Do you think the tourism’s money being made makes up for the harm it does to the ecosystems or areas as a whole?