Features of Alternative Tourism

Alternative Tourism

Alternative tourism can be defined as ‘forms of tourism that set out to be consistent with natural, social and community values and which allow both hosts and guests to enjoy positive and worthwhile interaction and shared experiences’. Therefore, ecotourism can be assumed to be one form of alternative tourism (Zurick, 1992 cited in Sheedy, 1995;

Wearing and Neil, 1999). 

Butler (1990 cited in Kunwar, 1997) identified several characteristics of alternative tourism. He observed it to be of small scale and developed and owned by local people. It involves traveling to relatively remote, undisturbed natural areas with the objective of admiring, studying and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals and cultural

attributes. It also considers the  conservation of the environment and sustenance and well-being of local people.  Further, clients are expected to be individuals. Accommodations are locally owned and small-scale.

Kunwar (1997) observes that alternative tourists try to avoid the beaten track and visit places where nobody has been before. Such a tourist seeks to forget civilization for a while and enjoys contact with the local people. S/he may enjoy even without modern  tourist infrastructure and travel alone or in small groups. An alternative tourist is anticipated to be well educated and possess above average income and tend to remain in the country for more days than a traditional tourist.

Features of Alternative Tourism

• The attempted preservation, protection and enhancement of the quality of the resource base which is fundamental to tourism itself.

• The fostering and active promotion of development, in relation to additional visitor attractions and infrastructure,  with roots in the specific locale and developed in ways that complement local attributes.

• The endorsement of infrastructure, hence economic growth, when and where it improves local conditions and not where it is destructive or exceeds the carrying capacity of the natural environment or the limits of the social environment whereby the quality of community life is adversely affected.

• Tourism which attempts to minimize its impact upon the environment, is ecologically sound, and avoids the negative impacts of many large-scale tourism developments undertaken in areas that have not previously been developed.

• An emphasis on not only ecological sustainability, but also cultural sustainability. That is, tourism which does not damage the culture of the host community, encouraging a respect for the cultural realities experienced by the tourists through education and organized 'encounters'.