Ecotourism in Asian tropical countries : Planning a destination's site-plan to meets education objectives <Articles>

The emerging discussions of ecotourism in the world show the significant role of such tourism in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In particular, ecotourism in developing countries has raised crucial issues since most of them are home to high biodiversity, and recently are facing serious problems relating to the poverty, environmental degradation and biodiversity extinction. In Indonesia, the tourism sector, for long time, has been known as being significant in generating foreign earnings, combating poverty, and triggering development of many remote areas. The use of tourism as a vehicle to promote biodiversity conservation has evolved in recent decades by allowing conservation areas to be open to recreation use by opening up new nature-based destinations, by helping formulate tourism policies and development guidelines in pristine areas, and by implementing environmental standards for tourism. According to Indonesian governmental documents, ecotourism is being addressed to increase tourism earnings, to contribute to environmental conservation, to promote environmental education, and to empower local people in adjacent forests, remote areas and protected areas. This paper examines the recent status of ecotourism planning and practices in East Java and proposes a framework for establishing and improving destination performance as a central issue for sustainability and competitiveness of tourism in Indonesia. In particular, the establishing of a destination model to facilitate eco-culture and environmental education are discussed based on the authors intensive studies in the Alas Purwo National Park.