Picture above shows ecotourists from Lithuania visiting a village near Woitape in Central Province. Ecotourism involves visitors coming to interact with the natural and cultural attractions of a place rather than visiting man-made attractions like resorts, fun parks, museums, and so forth. In some countries ecotourism is also taken to mean tourism that has very little impact on the natural environment, even to the extent of implementing measures like composting toilets, raised walkways and solar power to make ecotourism facilities environmentally friendly. Australian Aaron Hayes, who runs Ecotourism Melanesia , a Port Moresby-based inbound tour company which specialises in sending tourists into the rural areas of Papua New Guinea, is one those who takes a special interest. “Here in PNG, we use the word ‘ecotourism’ more generally to mean ‘nature and culture based tourism’,” Hayes expounds. “Other catchphrases these days are ‘responsible tourism’ and ‘community-based tourism’. “Responsible tourism denotes tourism that cares for both the environment and the local people by ensuring that the tourism activity treads softly on the environment and also has decent benefits for local communities. “These days many tourists browsing holiday pamphlets and websites tend to ask tour operators for information about how their tours benefit local communities. “Community-based tourism involves tourism ventures that are actually owned and operated by peop ...
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