Is Eco-tourism the way forward for countries such as Ecuador?

The Republic of Ecuador is located on the Western Hemisphere, on the northeastern corner of South America. The neighbouring countries atomic number 18 Colombia in the North and Peru in the South. Ecuador is unitary of the sm aloneest countries in Latin America (roughly same size as Britain). Despite its size, Ecuador offers great variety of places to visit, some discordent cultures, and m each activities to venerate much(prenominal) as nature stops, mountain climbing above 6000 meters, paragliding, blood slight(prenominal) water rafting, or scuba diving.Ecuador overall has a population of 11 million stack, with an annual population taketh rate of 3%. Ecuador at one meter is a developing nation, evidence that substructure be used to express this is for spring upers the GNP level is depleted being $3,000 (2001), when comp ard to a country much(prenominal) as USA $36,300 (2001) or UK $24,700 (2001) it shows that Ecuador is a developing country. The diagram on the next page shows the GNP level through with(predicate) the years passed for Ecuador. separate aspects that show that Ecuador is a developing ar the birth rate and the infant mortality rate. The infant mortality rate of Ecuador reaches up to 30.69% in resemblance to United Kingdoms infant mortality rate, which is 5.78%. This already shows that thither are often much babies dieing per 1000 live births in Ecuador than UK, which then leads to showing that in that respect are to a greater extent than diseases and unhygienic invigoration conditions. The bread and stillter expectance of Ecuador initially is 69.54 for males and 74.90 for females, maxim that, the life expectance in UK a developed country is 74.73 for males and 80.15 for females. There are over 50 % of Ecuadorians living in poor conditions. All these factors substantiate that Ecuador is still a developing country.Being a LEDC, Ecuador has many main(prenominal)tenances for convalescing living conditions and impro ving the economy. Therefore Ecuadors main concern is bullion. The close comfortable personal manner is TOURISM, in that location are however a nonher(prenominal) ways for getting bills much(prenominal) as labour course, but since Ecuador has beautiful sceneries and plenty of attractions touristry will be the fastest and the easiest way of bringing in silver into the country. Earning more money would helper the country emend the economy which then can improve and create jobs for the unemployed, it will as well help create more schools and hospitals which would help the country on the whole and generally improve amenities.Commercial TourismMany LEDCs promote touristry for money. Tourism is a huge industry that can support many different types of jobs. This would be beneficial for the spate who are unemployed, they can take up jobs such(prenominal) as shopkeepers in fairs in order for tourists to buy souvenirs, and other jobs can embarrass shorters. Tourism generates easy money as tourists will be coming to gain your culture and your traditions and in like manner enjoy the many facilities such as sight seeing or enjoying themselves on beaches. It basically does non include much hard work for the autochthonic multitude. Since tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, more and more lot are spending more money on tourism each year, travelling abroad etc. Many countries such as Jamaica, Kenya or India are all starting to invest and father familiar with tourism. Most of the LEDCs are becoming increasingly popular with tourists coming to see different cultures or to decelerate and enjoy the wildlife, which are only to be found in LEDCs.Ecuador is the perfect place for tourists interested in the outdoors and nature activities. picturesque colonial architecture, rain forest trips, Inca treasures and the Andes are among Ecuadors top attractions. The main movement commonwealth will go to Ecuador for a holiday is that it i s a debark of contrasts you will never forget, Ecuador is divided by nature, yet solidly held together by a common cultural heritage. It is a four-in-one deal fling an awesome wealth of cultural and natural diversity trek through the Andes, swim along a tropical coast, and explore the mysteries of the jungle and the Galapagos Islands, all in one tripTourism not only provides many different jobs, but it in addition helps areas that are fragmentiseicularly spoilt to start to improve and develop. Money is invested into the topical anaesthetic anaesthetic areas services are improved such as hospitals and schools. From tourism the local transport system improves tremendously, which would benefit the local original batch and also tourists. As you can see, this ( commercial-grade) type of tourism can help a country economically and also help the innate people. While Commercial tourism looks to be perfect in all ways, it also has many disadvantages, some of which discourage LEDCs t o take on commercial tourism.These disadvantages include social problems, for instance when western tourists offend local people or various religious groupings within the society because of their course of dress or even when their behaviour seems different it discourages these local people to stop working with tourism.There can also be environsal problems, when natural surrounds and landscapes are damaged from tourists for example coastal areas and seaside resorts are completely altered from rubbish from the tourists. Rivers and seas are increasingly polluted from the tourists throwing social occasions such as wrappers and rubbish, which again effects the environment disallowly.Mainly the government would be in favour for this type of tourism but only to an extent. former(a) wise the indigenous and the more environmental friendly people would be against this type of tourism. The main risks commercial tourism and also any other type of tourism is that a country may not be as po pular as time passes, it will become less interesting to holiday makers and with the same leisure activities each year, it would start to become boring to people.From all the disadvantages LEDCs are being discouraged constantly from the tending of their natural environment being undone by tourists. Therefore more and more LEDCs have started to familiarise them selves with another type of tourism, ECO-TOURISM.Eco-TourismEco-tourism comes from a concern close to the natural ecosystems of places and from a concern that the local ways of life and the environment or wildlife can be damaged or destroyed by commercial tourism. As commercial tourism has extensive negative effects on the beaches, local cultures and the environment, the idea of developing eco-tourism is to encourage small scale developments with visitor coming and staying with the indigenous people and learning about the environment. This type of tourism also supports the idea that holidaymakers will spend time learning a bout the wildlife and the environment. It can also include bird reflexion and sight seeing. The main scheme of eco-tourism is to make tourism less modify and more in tune with the environment.The main obvious advantage of eco-tourism is that it helps the environment enormously and also the wildlife. The other advantage of eco-tourism is that the money made would go straight to the actual indigenous population by small groups do in front of tourists or acting like guides. The Quicha people are able to use their expert knowledge of the plants and animals of the forest as the tail of tours, which again will bring money straight to the people them selves. It is also an advantage as it would make the indigenous people more self-dependent and this would entail they would work for themselves. In contrast to commercial tourism where the local people have to take up jobs such as cleaners in order to get money and sometimes they are not being paid fairly. The profits that are earned from the eco-tourism are invested to improve the lodge and public issues such as schools and hospitals or health centres. This type o tourism also makes the people feel they are in the connection and they are working together, it makes the community strongerThere would also be less crime because most of the crime came from children stealing things of the tourists in commercial tourism, but since the indigenous people are more intact with the eco-tourists there would be less crime.While being many advantages, there are also a few disadvantages. But none of which include environmental or social issues but instead include economical issues.These economical issues would include the lack of tourists interested actually in eco-tourism. Again most people would rather spend their money to go abroad to places where they can relax on beaches, enjoy parades and basically leave their troubles behind, there would not be that many people interested in learning about the environment and the wildlife , and because of the lack of tourists going to the eco-tourism countries there would be a lack of jobs and more people unemployed since most of the indigenous people will be depending on the tourists so they could give tours. The other main disadvantage unconnected from the lack of tourists is that the country will just be depending on the tourism and when that starts to decrease, the country as a whole will start to be more and more less developed.Views of the local peopleDifferent people in the crossroads would be thinking different things. The main thing on there minds will be to be in favour of eco-tourism as they will not be up for commercial tourism as that can damage the rainforest, some people even trust that commercial tourism could not bring enough jobs and if it does it would be jobs such as cutting down trees which is against the culture and traditions.The colonisation leader wants the village to stay together and prosper. However he is completely against commercial tourism. This is because the hold water time that tourist had come into the village they had paid the villagers little money and also they did not respect the villagers in a proper manner. The village leader is also not sure about the eco-tourism scheme, as he is worried it would have the same effect as commercial tourism, which was poor. topical anaesthetic development worker in contrast to the village leader cogitates that eco-tourism is the remedy way foregoing. The local development worker has helped villages around the area and has seen it work therefore she believes that eco-tourism will work in this village.As you can see we can understand wherefore different people will differ in their views for or against eco-tourism, for instance the village only wants the village to grow and develop through, he does not understand the facts of what eco-tourism can do because of the panic of what he had suffered when the tourist exploited their village and did not respect any of the villagers. On the other dedicate the local development worker believe that the village can develop very easily if they allow eco-tourism, her main argument against the village leader could be that she has seen other villages develop through eco-tourism and it can happen to this village as well.EvaluationAfter analysing two commercial and eco-tourism, I have found many advantages and disadvantages of both. Commercial tourism will destroy the land and the wildlife will get hurt and the indigenous people are sometimes not respected. On the other hand commercial tourism does bring more money into the country not necessarily straight to the local people and also more people are interested in commercial tourism.However the eco-tourism protects the wildlife and keeps the land clean and unpolluted. It also helps the indigenous people feel they are dependent and part of a strong community, but eco-tourism having the environmental and social advantages, it has a flaw, there is an economical disadvantage which is, it brings in less money and in most cases most tourists would go to a commercial tourism country as it would be more pleasurable.The final question really is Is eco-tourism the way forward for countries such as Ecuador?After going through all the advantages and disadvantages and what the indigenous people think, my answer would be, yes eco-tourism is the way forward for countries such as Ecuador. I have decided this because, it helps the environment without destroying it, it does not hurt the wildlife in anyway, and it also brings in a reasonable amount of money straight to the indigenous people. However these all are very important factors on why I have chosen eco-tourism, but there is one more imperative factor which I think is vital, it is that the Quichua tribe are intellectual with it, they believe eco-tourism is the way forward, it does not destroy their environment and the wildlife are expert and the Quichua people are satisfied in occupying jobs suc h as tour guides.The main argument I would believe which is against eco-tourism is the economical problem people believe that eco-tourism will bring in less money than commercial tourism. However the way I see it, I believe that either industry when it starts of in the beginning has less people, in spite of this there are small groups going to countries that follow the eco-tourism scheme and slowly that group will be expanding as people will be cogent others about their holiday and slowly the eco-tourism industry will begin to rise.