Backgrounder

The Welcome Traveller 

Scenario One: Imagine a place on the planet that has just been discovered by the global tourist industry. A small group of Indigenous people live in this breathtakingly beautiful place. Now millions of tourists have seen it on television and are on their way. Roads are being built and so are motels and shops and petrol stations. Communications systems are put into place so that visitors do not feel isolated. Businesses are set up to run the tourist trade so that this wonderful place will be just like home for the tourist.

Scenario Two: There was a story on the radio just recently about a certain town in Australia that attracts thousands of tourists every year. Mining has ruined its once beautiful mountainside, and now the bare, patchy hills give the town the appearance of a moonscape. People take photos to show their friends back home just how ugly this place is. Some local residents had a plan to plant trees on the hillsides to hide the ugliness. However, their plan was rejected. The people thought that that if their town stopped being ugly the tourists would stop coming

Tourists travel for all sorts of reasons. There's the 'famous places tourist'. These are the people who want to see places they've read about like the Taj Mahal, Buckingham Palace, the Louvre, or Angkor Wat. There's the 'adventure tourist' who wants to hike through the Daintree, trek over the Gobi or climb the Himalayas. Have you met the 'safari tourist' on the way to Serengeti? You've probably met the 'tropical island tourist' who just wants to laze around the Whitsunday Islands or Phuket.

More than ever before, human beings have the capacity to travel and to visit someone else's 'home'. Modern forms of transport have made this possible. The whole world is accessible to tourists. Tourists can even go to the parts of the Arctic and Antarctic Circle.

At the same time, tourism is having a huge impact on the environment and on the lives of the local people. Tourism is probably the world's biggest industry. For the local people, tourism is often a good thing. Jobs are created. The local economy is healthy.

On the other hand, the more people go to a place, the more it has the potential to be 'ruined', and then all tourism will stop. When a few people decide to hike through untouched rainforests, nothing much might happen to destroy the ecosystems. When a thousand people visit, the impact can be irreversible. Who makes the decision about how many people can visit a certain area or not? Who decides when the environment will be destoyed because of the numbers of people who decide to visit?

What happens to the local people when there are too many tourists? What happens if there is not enough water for everyone? Does the water go to the tourists or to the people who live there? What happens to the tourists' rubbish? What happens to the tourists' sewage? What happens if a multinational company wants some land to build a big new motel for the tourists?

Meet the new tourist aboard the planet. It is the 'ecotourist'. This tourist wants to travel, to see new places and to meet new people. However the ecotourist is someone who really loves the earth and does not want to do anything to spoil it. S/he respects Indigenous people and would like to learn more about different cultures. S/he wants to have fun but not at the expense of other people. S/he knows about sustainable tourism, tourism that promotes the long-term 'life' of a place and its people. The ecotourist will be welcomed in other people's 'homes' all over the world.

LEANING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

1. This year is the International Year of Ecotourism. Visit this website for more information. http://www.ecotourism.org.au

2. The International Ecotourism Society in 1991 produced one of the earliest definitions of ecotourism. "Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people." In small groups design a poster to promote ecotourism.

3. Draw a grid like this one with many more rows. In the first column, write the name of the places mentioned in the article. In the second column, write its country. In the third column name the reason tourists would visit this place. In the last column describe the tourist from hell.

4. a) Describe the impact of tourism on the lives of the Indigenous people in the imaginary place mentioned in Scenario One.

b) Describe what might happen if tourists stopped coming to the town mentioned in Scenario Two.

5. Here are a few guidelines for 'responsible' tourism. Add a few more and make a poster titled: The Good Tourist Always:

Respects local people and their customs Asks before taking a photograph of a person Takes their rubbish with them Wears appropriate clothing Tries to learn some of local language Respects holy places

6. Discussion: Recently, there was some discussion about offering bus trips to people who would like to see just where Ian Thorpe lived in Sydney and where he went to school etc.

Imagine that you are living in a town or suburb which was soon to be filled with tourists. What impact would tourism have on your town or suburb? Think about the roads, the shops, the motels, the traffic etc. Also think about privacy or lack of it. What jobs are created by the arrival of daily tourist buses? How do residents feel about these tourist buses?

7. You are a travel consultant. You have been asked to organise a holiday for a small group of people (let's say five). They want to be entertained at the same time as seeing new parts of the planet. They enjoy being outdoors and look forward to being good tourists, conscious of the environment and the local people. Choose a destination and outline a holiday, which meets all the criteria for a sensitive ecotourist holiday.

8. You are a travel agent. You have decided to branch out and start your own business, with an edge. You are going to provide ecotourism. Design a power point presentation or a brochure for distribution about your new company.

Give it a name. Give a good definition of ecotourism. Tell people what makes ecotourism different from other kinds of tourism. Give an example.

Use advertising strategies to draw people to read your brochure and come to you, instead of another tourism agency which does not offer ecotourism? Why are you so different?

9. Why is the word 'home' in quotation marks in the article?

10. Design your own ecotourist-type holiday. Make a presentation to the class either on PowerPoint, or as a poster.

Teachers: Here are some helpful websites for responsible and sustainable tourism:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/gaw/oceans/oceans_912_teacher.html
http://www.ecotourism.org.au/ 
http://www.wilderness.org.au/links/ecotourism
http://www.responsibletravel.com/