Ecotourism Issues and Options for New Zealand

Abstract

Natural sites are key attractions for tourists in New Zealand. Soaring international visitor arrivals and strong growth in domestic tourism is placing increasing pressure on many New Zealand nature-based tourism sites. A rapidly growing number of businesses advertise their activities to tourists as ‘ecotourism’ but the term suffers from ambiguity and lacks ownership. This paper reports ideas from a New Zealand workshop comprising representatives of the tourism industry, government policy agencies, conservation NGOs and researchers who recently debated the future of ecotourism in New Zealand. Specifically we report issues surrounding use of the term ‘ecotourism’, the policies and strategies required to maximize benefits from ecotourism including environmental benefits, and the actions required to verify the social, economic and environmental benefits which are claimed by ecotourism providers.