Ecotourism as a Catalyst for Environmental Conservation: Balancing Tourism and Ecosystem Preservation

Dear Colleagues,

Since the 1960s, human beings have rapidly reflected on and recognized the relationship between themselves and nature. In 1972, the United Nations issued the “Declaration on the Human Environment”, which solemnly stated that while humans are developing and utilizing the environment, they also bear the obligation to protect nature. After the 1990s, the emergence of a series of milestone programmatic documents represented by the “Rio Declaration on Environment and Development” and “Agenda 21” marked the period when achieving harmonious development between man and nature became global consensus. As a new form of human civilization, ecological civilization is based on respecting and protecting nature, and emphasizes the interdependence and mutual promotion between human beings and the natural environment. All industries need to pay full attention to environmental protection while developing, which is especially important in the tourism industry. Determining how to develop ecotourism and balance tourism and ecosystem protection has become a topic of great concern in the tourism academic and industry circles.

The impact of tourism activities on the ecosystem of tourist attractions is multifaceted, with both subjective and objective impacts. Subjective impacts mainly come from the development needs of the tourism industry, such as scenic area development, road construction, and tourism service facility construction. These activities often cause direct damage to the natural ecosystem, such as vegetation destruction, soil erosion, and water pollution. At the same time, tourists' subjective behaviors during their visit, such as climbing, breaking plants, and picking fruits, could also cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem. Objective impacts are mainly reflected in the consequences that are not caused by subjective intent during tourism activities, such as soil compaction and vegetation damage caused by tourists' trampling, noise pollution affecting animal habitats, and environmental pollution resulting from large amounts of garbage generated by tourism activities. Tourism activities are diverse, and determining how to integrate multiple groups, including tourists, community residents, and government and non-governmental organizations, into the tourism ecological development system to achieve value co-creation is worth attention.

In this light, determining how ecotourism can be activated as a catalyst for environmental protection and how to strengthen environmental education through ecotourism are topics that need urgent research. Relevant topics would include but not be limited to tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors, ecotourism planning and development, value co-creation of ecotourism, environmental education and ecosystem preservation in ecotourism, technology innovation and green consumption, and community support for ecotourism. Therefore, this Special Issue calls for papers that address such issues in the tourism industry. Any conceptual/empirical study that is relevant to the topic or that presents appropriate implications is invited for submission to this Special Issue, which will serve as the cornerstone for the sustainability of the global tourism industry.

Dr. Xiaoting Chi
Dr. Wenjia Ruan
Dr. Young-joo Ahn
Guest Editors

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• ecotourism
• sustainable tourism
• environmental conservation
• ecosystem preservation
• tourist behavior
• environmental education
• tourism co-creation
• tourism planning and development
• tourism management
• tourism impacts
• digital technology and green consumption in tourism
• green leadership
• ESG (environmental, social, and governance)
• pro-environmental behavior
• food waste management
• green lifestyle