Ecotourism Doubling as Environmental Conservation

Ecotourism is on the rise, as consumers wish to satisfy their desire to visit exotic locales as well as to help conserve them, reports The New York Times.

A study by the Travel Industry Association of America found that more than 55 million Americans are interested in ecotourism. In 2004, conservation-minded travel grew three times faster than the entire tourism industry.

Among nonprofit groups taking advantage of this trend and hoping to attract new members are Blue Ventures, Earthwatch, the Nature Conservancy, Seacology, and the Sierra Club. These groups organize tours all over the world, including to places such as Brazil, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, and Scotland. These trips were once only for major donors, but nonprofit groups have opened them to the public.

Blue Magruder of Earthwatch says, “People selfishly want experiences that are real—they don’t want canned tours, they want to meet the park ranger, they want to help in an orphanage. And an increasing number of people want their time on the planet to count.”

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