Strengthening Sustainability: A Thematic Synthesis of Globally Published Ecotourism Frameworks

Abstract

Ecotourism is considered to be one of the fastest-growing tourism sectors. Countries all over the world have been trying to develop sustainable ecotourism frameworks for protecting the environment and achieving high economic growth, but very few have succeeded. So, the objective of this study is to examine successful sustainable ecotourism frameworks implemented globally since 2006-2020 and find similarities that can help to achieve and develop sustainable ecotourism in other parts of the world where ecotourism sustainability was found to be difficult. This was achieved by doing a thematic analysis of the finalized articles. This study identifies four important themes which can be used to develop sustainable ecotourism in destinations where past attempts of ecotourism implementation were not fruitful. Ecotourism can be made sustainable for the long run if there is a proper understanding of the stakeholders, management of the destination, and the key stakeholders are involved in the planning, decision making, management of ecotourism in the destination. The study fulfils the gap of lack of thematic analysis review of sustainable ecotourism frameworks and provides analysis for academicians and practitioners to understand already published ecotourism frameworks. It was also established that to enrich the findings of this research, regional studies of successful ecotourism frameworks should be conducted.