The significance of eco-tourism

Today, tourism has become an important economic sector or even a pillar industry in many countries or regions. As an ideal form, eco-tourism has also made some progress in China and become an indispensable project in many local and departmental planning. Developing a "sustainable development" tourism form that integrates economic benefits, ecological protection and social benefits is of great significance to avoid the development model of quick success and instant benefit. In recent twenty years, people in the industry and scholars at home and abroad have defined ecotourism, and pointed out that it is necessary to cultivate ecotourism for a long time according to the strategy of sustainable development, establish a scientific development concept and advocate the concept of ecotourism. Based on the original study of ecotourism, this paper further discusses the definition of ecotourism and analyzes its economic significance.

Keywords: definition of eco-tourism economic significance

Discuss the economic concept of ecotourism.

Eco-tourism has become an ideal standard for developing regional projects, but today tourism is becoming a key economic field in some places and even a sustainable industry. Since the concept of "eco-tourism" was put forward in1980s, many scholars have tried to find out its definition, studied the strategic thought of endogenous paradigm of sustainable development, called for more attention to the wealth of eco-tourism and advocated the development of eco-tourism in China. This paper mainly discusses the economic impact of ecotourism. There are two related but different economic concepts in ecotourism: economic impact and economic value.

Keywords: Eco-tourism defines the concept of economy

1. Redefining the concept of ecotourism

The term "ecotourism" was first put forward by Ceballos-Lascurain( 1996), a Mexican expert and special consultant of IUCN, in the early 1980s. Its meaning not only refers to the tour of all natural scenery, but also emphasizes that the scenery should not be destroyed. It was not until 1992 that the United Nations World Conference on Environment and Development was held that the concept and principle of sustainable development were put forward and popularized worldwide, and ecotourism, as the main form of sustainable development of tourism, was widely studied and practiced worldwide. Hertzer believes that the so-called "eco-tourism" should have four connotations: minimizing environmental impact, respecting local culture and minimizing cultural impact, supporting the host country's local maximum economic interests, and maximizing tourists' satisfaction (Miller, 1993).

Ziffer( 1989) believes that eco-tourism implies the mode of local communities participating in tourism development, aiming at making the development of local tourism meet local needs, enabling communities to properly market, formulate tourism norms and industry management norms, and reasonably obtain financial resources to support the improvement of community resources and environmental quality.

The definition of eco-tourism by the Environmental Protection Department of the World Bank and the Ecotourism Society is: "Going to natural areas purposefully to understand the culture and natural history of the environment will not destroy nature, but will enable local communities to gain economic benefits from protecting natural resources." (Yamaha, 2004)

The National Nature Conservation Association of Japan (NACS-J) (Yamaha, 2004) defines eco-tourism as "providing environment-friendly facilities and environmental education, so that tourists can understand and appreciate natural areas, thus protecting local nature and culture and making contributions to regional economy." Eco-tourism, as a new form of tourism, has become a new and popular international tourism project in recent years. Eco-tourism is to know, appreciate and protect nature without destroying the natural ecological balance. It has multiple functions such as sightseeing, vacation, rest, scientific investigation, exploration and popular science education, and takes natural ecological landscape and humanistic ecological landscape as consumption objects. Visitors can cultivate their temperament and purify their hearts by being in a natural, true and perfect scene.

Vlangali, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, pointed out in his speech at the World Ecotourism Summit that "ecotourism and its sustainable development shoulder three urgent missions: stimulating economic vitality and reducing poverty; Society should create employment opportunities for the most vulnerable groups; The environment should provide necessary financial resources for the protection of natural and cultural resources. All participants in ecotourism must work together for these three important goals. "

The concept of "eco-tourism" was introduced into China from abroad and gradually accepted. 1The First East Asian National Parks and Nature Reserves Conference held in Beijing in September, 1993 adopted the document "Outline of Action Plan for East Asian Protected Areas", which marked the first time that the concept of ecotourism was confirmed in the form of a document in China. In recent ten years, a large number of documents about ecotourism research mainly focus on the basic theoretical research such as the definition, connotation interpretation, function discussion and feature description of ecotourism. Many experts and scholars have given the concept of "eco-tourism" with China characteristics according to the national conditions of China (Ma Congling, 2002). In China, there are dozens of definitions of "ecotourism". For example, "Eco-tourism is a marginal tourism ecological project and tourism activity that can not only obtain social and economic benefits, but also promote ecological environment protection." "Eco-tourism is a kind of tourism that goes to nature, educates and explains the natural environment and is ecologically sustainable."

In the Interim Measures for the Management of National Eco-tourism Demonstration Zone, eco-tourism is defined as "a tourism activity oriented to absorb natural and cultural knowledge, minimize the adverse impact on the ecological environment, ensure the sustainable utilization of tourism resources, organically combine ecological environmental protection with public education, and promote local economic and social development."

At present, although the word eco-tourism has been widely used, there is still great controversy about its definition. Some definitions still follow the concepts of green tourism and natural tourism, and define it as a tourism product. The new viewpoint holds that eco-tourism is an effective means and way to achieve the goal of sustainable tourism in the development and utilization of natural tourism resources. The concept of ecotourism can be divided into three categories:

First of all, define ecotourism from the perspective of tourism development strategy. This definition regards sustainable development as the core concept of eco-tourism, takes eco-tourism as a tourism development model, closely combines tourism development with community development and environmental protection, and holds that only tourism with the functions of protecting resources and promoting community economic development is eco-tourism.

Second, the definition of eco-tourism based on the behavior of tourism subject. This concept tends to take the market and consumption behavior as the core content of eco-tourism, and push eco-tourism as a tourism product to the market, providing tourists with a natural and cultural tourism environment that is not or rarely disturbed and destroyed, such as natural tourism, cultural tourism, scientific tourism, adventure tourism and other tourism types. Compared with general tourism activities, this kind of tourism activities have less impact on the environment and can enhance tourists' awareness of environmental protection.

Third, define eco-tourism from the perspective of the value of tourism resources. This definition emphasizes the behavior norms of tourism managers, tourists and local residents and the resource value of tourism planning and development, and enables tourists and local residents to establish environmental protection and environmental ethics through tourism activities and tourism education.

In a word, the definition of ecotourism should include two basic contents: first, ecotourism is a kind of tourism activity based on the natural environment; Second, eco-tourism is a tourism development mode with strong environmental awareness. There are two hot spots in China's eco-tourism practice research: one is the judgment and concern of China's eco-tourism conditions, and the other is the case study of eco-tourism planning in specific regions.

Second, the economic significance of eco-tourism

From the above definition of eco-tourism, we find that tourism resources are closely related to landscape environment and human resources. As early as 1950s and 1960s, British geographer Kirk (195 1) pointed out that when perceived by human beings, the environment is endowed with the whole of shape, cohesion and meaning, and once the meaning is endowed, it will be passed down from generation to generation (Johnston, 1986). Recent studies have pointed out that in the concept of tourism landscape, there are other different meanings besides the material aspect that Karl O 'Sauer (1925) pays attention to, such as the symbolic or aesthetic metaphorical landscape concept, which has been put forward by scholars one after another. They have different positions on the role of culture in landscape description and meaning giving, and their analysis of culture and ideology is also selective. Landscape is the visible physical environment around human beings, and it is also a kind of resource that can be used by human beings, so the utilization function it provides becomes the reason for human beings to protect it, and the concept of eco-tourism has its unique economic significance.

(A) eco-tourism is the protection of non-renewable resources. As a kind of resource, tourism landscape is not only limited, but also irreversible after being destroyed. Whether it is the development of population, science and technology, means of transportation, or the "accelerated growth" of tourism caused by economic globalization, or the complications (shocks) accompanying the growth, the limited resources on the earth are under increasing pressure, and as a result of mass consumption, tourism resources tend to be scarce. From the point of view of material circulation, material circulation is a part of the earth's circulation system. Because the earth's lithosphere contains the largest material inertia, it has the strongest resistance to man-made physical changes in a certain period of time. In other words, the change of tourism landscape is continuous, so it has the nature of non-renewable resources.

(2) Eco-tourism can meet the constant demand of human beings for quality of life. Maslow (Maslow,1968; 197 1), the highest level is self-realization, the demand for knowledge and beauty. Undoubtedly, this is the realm of truth, goodness and beauty. Tourism activities include natural appreciation in the natural environment and appreciation of human landscape in the cultural environment. From this activity, we can not only get proper physical and mental exercise, but also make our bodies healthier; Moreover, due to the static leisure activities in the activity and the various feelings obtained by purifying the mind to meet people's physical and psychological needs, he feels happy (happiness) and cultivates people's noble sentiments, self-esteem and spiritual pursuit. These are all beneficial aspects of human experience, which strongly make people feel satisfied, happy and happy. In addition to these physical and mental feelings, we also gain internal growth in knowledge, memory, values, attitudes, beliefs, emotions, desires, and emotional appeal. The acquisition of these emotions is the goal of emotional teaching and the result of the parallel pursuit of moral, intellectual, physical and artistic education. Furthermore, the natural practice provided by tourism resources is the best teaching material and teaching environment for mass education and school education, and it is also a useful supplement to books and teaching materials. Finally, due to the increase of tourism activities, people generally realize the importance of eco-tourism and environmental quality. The demand for fresh air and pure water has reduced the demand for tourism resources and environmental damage. It can be seen that human life needs eco-tourism to adjust. In order to meet people's spiritual and material needs, human beings are willing to spend money to obtain better tourism quality. In short, no matter how advanced the times are and how developed the industry and commerce are, it is impossible for human beings to reduce the demand for eco-tourism.

(3) Eco-tourism is the inheritance and continuation of historical resources. When we slowly lose the traditional characteristics of our nation under the attack of western civilization, our tourism resources also gradually disappear. If we can't use the concept of eco-tourism to develop and protect tourism resources, then our national culture will really decline! Tourism resources are transformed from the sweat, wisdom and dreams of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, and are a very important legacy left by our ancestors. From tourism, we can feel the traces of various historical stages, which makes us have irreplaceable educational significance, symbolic significance and potential strength, and eco-tourism has also left the best precious wealth for future generations.

(D) the social ecological value chain of eco-tourism. Nature is the source of all scientific development and provides an environment for scientific research. Whether it is biological science, natural science or engineering science, we can find laws from nature. At the same time, tourism resources provide research places for humanities such as sociology, history and archaeology. Due to unlimited improper development and large-scale human social activities, eco-tourism will help protect water resources, biology, human form, history and monuments, primitive environment, sightseeing resources and land resources. It can avoid many disasters caused by human factors and become a stable natural environment.

(5) The economic impact of ecotourism is reflected in three aspects: direct impact, indirect impact and cross impact. The direct impact is reflected in the increase of tourists' personal expenditure on eco-tourism environment and behavior, and the indirect impact is reflected in the improvement of other tourism consumption behaviors. Cross-influence is the potential influence such as "word-of-mouth effect" brought by ecotourism. The concept of sustainable development of eco-tourism can continuously promote regional economic activities, rationalize social division of labor and expand social employment opportunities through the process of redistribution of economic interests. As Aidoo Aldo pedros, Secretary General of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), pointed out at the Second International Ecotourism Forum (2004), the tourism economy, including ecotourism, is an important force to promote the development of the world economy, especially in employment. Jean-Claude Baumgarten, President of the World Travel and Tourism Council, believes that private enterprises should not only make profits, but also protect the environment and gain community support. At the same time, Ecuadorian scholar osvaldo Maggio concluded that a 50-year-old tree can generate oxygen, clean up pollution, conserve water and soil, and build homes for animals, with a value of $6.5438+0.9 million. It can be seen that the value chain constructed by ecotourism is not only in the realistic economic sense, but also potential and long-term (Nie, 2004).

Three. conclusion

The purpose of studying the economic significance of eco-tourism is to better develop and utilize the natural and human resources we have. Tourism resources are natural and humanistic materials that human beings may use; Environment is the state of resources; Tourism ecology is the relationship between human beings and various natural resources in the process of tourism. The concept of sustainable development of tourism resources is the sustainable utilization of resources. Through rational development, economical utilization, pollution prevention, environmental protection and dynamic balance of ecosystem, the sustainable development of regional economy and tourism can be realized. The history of human development shows that ecological balance should be maintained, and sustainable development requires maintaining ecological balance. It is impossible for human beings not to develop and the ecology not to change. Since it is impossible to restore ecological balance, it is only scientific to establish the concept of maintaining ecological dynamic balance and serve the practice of sustainable development of tourism resources development and utilization.

When we trace back to history, the development history of human civilization is based on the continuous development of natural resources and the creation of splendid ancient civilizations, and human beings have developed today. Although human beings begin to understand, get close to and understand the importance of nature and human life, they should form the concept of loving and respecting nature. Now, we should repay nature in developing eco-tourism. In scenic spots where the original ecology is well preserved, measures such as developing a single tourist route, not engaging in too many artificial buildings, limiting the number of tourists and specifying the scope of activities should be taken to minimize the adverse impact of tourism development on the local ecology and follow the laws of nature. Only in this way can we better protect the ecological environment in developing resources and increasing local income.