Principles Of Ecotourism

Introduction

The term “ecotourism”, “sell the nature to conserve”, had become known in the late 1980’s since the public realized the negative consequences on the environment had been increasing seriously as well as continuously. It is the result of rising up the overall demand of tourism around the world, known as, “mass tourism”. Ecotourism stands “one of the fastest growing segments” among the tourism industry since most population around the world is eager to develop and conserve the tourist destinations for their future generation. The two principles of ecotourism, also used as a development tool, have been regulated which are encouraging conservation towards tourist destinations, unspoiled, exotic nature areas and supporting the local

The main reason of setting these two principles is sustainability, having in the top priority, in respect of conserving these areas successfully. With the help of community, overcoming/ minimizing the negative effects of tourism is so effective and efficient in remote, nature areas because the area of people has much local knowledge, participation and assistance in cultural exchange with tourists. Hence, the community involvement can lead to sustaining both cultural and natural resource and sustainable ecotourism as well. Besides, careful planning, implementation of plans systematically and continuous and effective management regarding ecotourism development as well as training and education towards its agents are essential for sustainable ecotourism. The state has to take care concerning legislating national, regional and local ecotourism plans, policies and practices correspondingly seeing that local ones are necessary to have integration with the other two. In addition, capacity building of the local population is very cruel for sustainability so that they can build their own capacity in terms of education through tourism awareness programs. Consequently, sustainability, planning and development have to be interrelated between governmental and non-governmental

According to two actions, Myanmar has remained its own strengths as most of the tourist destinations are still unspoiled, exotic and not overdeveloped especially in marine and beach environment. Myanmar is also rich in its culture and heritage. Therefore, the tourist destinations in Myanmar are quite famous for the tourists who love the nature most, the eco- tourists, owing to coverage with “261,228 miles of forests, stunning mountain ranges, historic woodland and pristine rivers”. However, Myanmar’s government has changed its regime from closed-door policy to democracy because of the election in 2010. The number of tourist arrivals to Myanmar, one of the most renowned host countries in the tourism industry, has been increasing every year. Consequently, it has reached a booming stage. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar (MOHT) is aware of the negative effects on various factors, political, economic, social, environmental and ethical due to increasing amount of tourist arrivals. Since Myanmar has full richness of undistributed nature areas and diverse types of species, MOHT and Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF) try to conserve the environment as a form of responsible tourism in terms of regulating