ecotourist
With more and more people becoming concerned about the environment, as well as looking for distinctive vacation experiences, ecotourism is the fastest growing segment within the travel industry. An ecotourist has a strong environmental conscience and a philosophy of environmental protection. An ecotourist destination is a property, which often includes an on-site hotel or resort, with a primarily unspoiled or reclaimed environment of native flora and fauna. This destination also educates tourists, often on a sophisticated level, about the local environment, and minimizes the impact of visitors on the environment with various measures, such as welcoming only a small number of guests. Finally, the ecotourist site is usually protected by a local or national government. We have known for some time that ecotourists are not a homogeneous group, but rather a group, which differ across a number of different dimensions.