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I’m Faith Lapidus.
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And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.Today we tell about visiting places to enjoy the natural environmentor ecology. This kind of holiday vacation is called ecotourism.(ee-co-TOUR-ism)
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We begin our holiday in thenortheastern United States. We are in the town of Bar Harbor, Maine.We have paid money to take a three-hour trip on a large boat. Wewill be traveling several kilometers off the coast to look forwhales. We hope to see several kinds of whales — the huge humpback,the finback and the smaller minke.
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A small storm passed the area last night and the water is rough.The ocean makes the large boat move in several directions at once.The movement of the boat makes walking difficult.
The trip out to the ocean takes about forty-five minutes. Soon,the captain slows the engines. We begin to wait. A member of thecrew says they have seen whales here for the past several days. Ifwe are lucky we too will see a few.
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Suddenly a crewmember shouts, “There — on the left side of theboat. Look! It’s a humpback whale.” About ninety meters from ourboat, a huge humpback whale raises its head above the water. Slowly,it begins to move down again. Moments later the huge tail clears thewater and then slowly moves below the waves.
A crewmember tells everyone to look for a smooth area of water.That means the whale will be again rising to the surface. Minuteslater, a smooth area is seen to the left. The color of the waterturns from deep blue to light green and the whale again comes to thesurface. This time, two whales appear.
Now everyone is standing on the left side of the boat holding acamera. The captain of the boat is careful not to come too close tothe whales. He does not want to frighten or harm the huge animals.
A few minutes later, it is time toreturn to the harbor. The passengers will take back with us severalphotographs of the whales. We will also take memories of one ofnature’s largest animals. We will always remember how we shared afew minutes with these wonderful creatures.
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We have just experienced what travel industry officials callecotourism. The word ecotourism means several things. It is aholiday vacation that can include visiting and learning about localareas and cultures. It can mean visiting extremely wild areas. Itcan also mean learning about nature, animals, birds, plants and newways to live on our planet. And it is tourism designed to limitdamage to the environment.
Our three-hour trip to see humpback whales off the coast of BarHarbor, Maine was a small ecotourism adventure.
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Travel and holiday experts say ecotourism is the fastest growingpart of the holiday vacation industry. It is possible to visitalmost any country to learn about the culture, history, food,plants, animals or anything else that might interest you. You canlearn about and watch whales in the American states of Maine andHawaii, and in Mexico.
You can visit a natural protected area in Costa Rica, one of thetop ecotourism countries in the world. You can travel to the hugenational parks in several African countries to see and photographlions, elephants and other wild animals.
You can swim deep under water to experience this beautiful worldif you learn how to use special breathing equipment. Companies offerunderwater exploration trips in Australia, Mexico, several islandsin the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and many other places.
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Tourism, the travel and holiday industry, provides huge amountsof money to the economies of many nations. So ecotourism has becomeextremely important. And officials in the travel industry sayecotourism works to create, improve and protect holiday areas thatpeople will want to visit.
Ecotourism also teaches the people who live in areas thattourists may want to visit and enjoy. Government agencies useecotourism methods to teach these people how to develop these areasfor visitors. The people learn to protect the natural environment sothat they remain popular places to visit.
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An example of this kind of protection is our whale-watching tripin Bar Harbor, Maine. The boat companies that operate such trips arevery careful not to harm or frighten the whales. The boats do notcome too close to the large animals.
Crewmembers on the boats warn passengers not to throw anything inthe water. The boat companies work to protect the whales. They wantthe whales to return to the area and feel safe there.
Most professionals in the travel business learn very quickly thatthe environment must be protected if an area is to remain popular.
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Some environmental scientists have strongly criticized thetourism industry. These scientists say the travel industry oftenfails to understand that thousands of people visiting an area cangreatly harm the environment.
Environmental experts say people who visit an area are sometimescareless in their actions. They leave food, paper, and bottlesbehind. They harm plants, animals or objects important to a localculture.
The experts say people on holiday often do not understand thedamage they can cause. In some cases the experts say ecotourism iskilling animals and destroying the environment. They say it isdestroying the very thing it is seeking to develop and protect.
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A boat ride to watch whales is a good example of whatenvironmentalists mean. Three years ago, a large humpback whale cameup under a ship off the coast of the eastern state of Massachusetts.The whale was seriously injured. In another accident, a smallerminke whale was hit by a ship and killed. These accidents werecaused by ships carrying people who paid money to see the whales.
However, travel industry officials say environmentalists do notunderstand how important economic growth can be to the local economyin a developing country. And they say ecotourism can be a veryimportant part of that growth.
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The World Tourism Organization is the leading internationalorganization in travel and tourism. It serves as an internationalmeeting place to discuss tourism policy issues and education. Itworks to help countries and local communities develop ecotourismareas.
The World Tourism Organization’s members include one hundredthirty-eight countries and territories. It has more than threehundred-fifty members representing local governments, tourismorganizations and private companies. The headquarters of the WorldTourism Organization is in Madrid, Spain.
Last month, the World Tourism Organization held a meeting inWashington, D.C. Officials from many governments, international aidagencies and several of the world’s leading universities attendedthe meeting.
It was the first meeting among many government agencies,developing countries and university officials. Their goal was tolook for ways to cooperate and use the economic power of tourism toincrease development.
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At the meeting, the World Bank vice president and the presidentof the Inter-American Development Bank spoke about the importance oftourism.
Both said ecotourism creates jobs and brings money to localeconomies. They also said ecotourism creates the need for localpeople to learn to protect the environment. They said agencies anddepartments within each government must learn to work together tocreate a tourism industry that can help the economy.
The World Tourism Organization says tourism has become the mainsource of foreign money earnings in the forty-nine least developedcountries in the world. But it says the money from tourism in thesecountries still represents only one percent of the world total.World Tourism Organization records show that there were more thanseven hundred million international travelers last year. Thesevisitors spent more than five hundred thousand million dollars.
The organization says there will be nine hundred millioninternational tourist visits by the year two thousand ten. Expertssay ecotourism is becoming an important part of the future for manycountries in the world.
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This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byMario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.
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And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.