Abstract
There has been an upsurge of interest in ecotourism as a possibly profitable means to ensure sustainable ecological development. However, care is needed in investing in ecotourism because it is not always a worthwhile investment from a private or a social viewpoint. Sometimes such investment is unprofitable and may hinder rather than assist nature conservation. This paper discusses the assessment of private and social returns from ecotourism investment from angles that appear to have been overlooked in the recent literature, and argues that positive private returns can be a prerequisite for achieving the conservational goals of ecotourism. In addition, some limitations involved in applying the user pays principle to ecotourism are noted and offset policies are considered as one possible means to counteract some of the possible adverse environmental consequences of tourism.
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