Suggestions for Ecotourism in Lijiang 漓江生态旅游.docVIP

1. Introduction No final conclusion had yet been reached on the matter that who first put forward the concept of “ecotourism”. “Most people think that the word “ecotourism” was first put forward by the special consultant of International Natural Conservation Union (IUCN), a Mexico expert H.Ceballos-Lascurain in 1983. As it was posed, ecotourism was noticed by people in the field of world tourism, ecology and other relevant fields. Ecological environment is the fundament of tourism existence and development.”1 The rising of ecotourism is the result of people’s increasing awareness of protesting natural environment. Ecotourism represent the direction of development of tourism in 21st century. 1.1 Concepts and Characteristics of Ecotourism Since the concept of ecotourism was posed, many researchers and organizations definite ecotourism from different viewpoints. However, there is no unified approved definition about ecotourism till now and the definitions are various. For example, “Kong Hongmei said that Ecotourism is a kind of double tourism activity under the base of protecting the existing natural and cultural ecological environment. The International Ecotourism Association deficits that Ecotourism is a kind of traveling and sightseeing activity responded to the ecological environment in order to make the ecology and people develop sustain ably.”2 Other definitions are also familiar. Though these definitions have the different viewpoints and special emphasis, they have the same characteristics about ecotourism. Protecting property is the biggest characteristic compared to the traditional tourism. The target of ecotourism is to protect environment and benefit from ecotourism. Ecotourism prevents the short term tourism activity, but seeks the sustainable development of economy, society and environment. In addition, the biggest beneficiaries of ecotourism are investors, tourists and local people. Ecotourism development pays attention to protect ecological environ