What is Ecotourism?

Everywhere you go, it's "green" this and "green" that. But what exactly is ecotourism?

According to the Centre for Ecotourism, Hector Ceballos-Lascurain created the term ecotourism in 1983. The original term described "nature-based travel to relatively undisturbed areas with an emphasis on education."

Simplified we can say: Ecotoursim is Environment and Culture Oriented travel.

In general, ecotourism is an insightful, mindful and participatory travel experience to natural and cultural environments, assisting the well-being of the local cultures and environments for future generations. At the same time ecotourism produces viable economic opportunities for the host areas.

Originally, ecotourism was defined as purely nature based, forgetting the impact tourism had on the local villages and culture. However, it quickly became apparent that trying to create a new type of tourism, which only focused on wildlife and the environment, while excluding the local villages, simply did not work.

Most recent definitions of ecotourism now include a more synergistic approach, including the tourist, local villages and environment. 

We at Mimpi Indah resort believe that we need to involve the local communities in the ecotourism and all together we need to take care of the environment. In order to do this we set up a seperate non-governmental organization (NGO), called Suara Pulau Foundation. In English this means the Voice of the Island Foundation. See the following website for more information: www.SuaraPulau.org