Ecotourism is definitely ‘easier said than done’. Conceptually, the idea is most appealing: carry out responsible, educational travel to natural areas in ways that contribute to environmental conservation and enhance the livelihood of local people. Put another way, ecotourism is the business of nature tourism measured against the triple bottom line: black ink for business and the equivalent of black ink for both conservation and local well-being. With three strong motivations at the same time, no wonder it is the ‘fastest growing sector of the largest industry on earth’ (Taylor et al., 2003, p. 977). But the challenge of ecotourism is to deliver the goods. Instead of simply performing to the satisfaction of one set of shareholders, ecotourism requires satisfying three – including conservationists and local community members – who come with three different sets of expectations, including some which may be in conflict. Between the late 1980s and the late 1990s, there was a kind of naive optimism that ecotourism was going to bring together two big social agendas, the alleviation of poverty and the reduction of global threats to biodiversity, and stitch them together with an innovative business model. Putting these good intentions to work has proved to be a difficult task.

Inglés