Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2007. Sectio Scientarium Economicarum et Socialium. (Acta Academiae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 34)
Chambliss Karen-Slotkin Michael H.-Vámosi Alexander R.: A 'javító' fenntarthatóság a'steady-state' fenntarthatóság és a strukturált ökoturizmus
20 Chambliss Karen -Slotkin Michael H.-Vámosi Alexander R. employment. As an example of national impact, in Hungary some 336,000 jobs are related to T&T, or about 8.6 percent of Hungarian employment. 1 In short, if the credo of sustailiability is to be successful, sustainable tourism is central to that mission. This essay explores the theme of sustainability through the tourism market segment known as ecotourism. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as „responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people " [<www.ecotourism.org >]. In truth, however, definitional uncertainty abounds, yielding speculative demarcations between ecotourism and other forms of nature and/or adventure tourism. And this, of course, renders assessments of ecotourism's economic impact and visitor numbers problematic. What seems to be apparent is that an ecotourism continuum exists ranging from individuals who favor small group, physically demanding excursions into remote, undisturbed locales (hard ecotourists) to those with a bias towards passive, large group nature experiences facilitated by forms of mediation (soft ecotourists or eco-lites). Indeed, ecotourism has many shades, and to add complexity, ecotourism researchers further delineate two types of sustainability: steady-state and enhancive. The latter implies improvements to the stock of natural capital, while the former signifies maintenance with the existing status quo. The literature suggests that hard ecotourists are more likely to be enhancive sustainers while soft ecotourists typically adhere to steady-state principles. But an interesting study by Weaver and Lawton (2002) offers evidence of a third "cluster " of ecotourists that hybridizes some characteristics of soft and hard ecotourists in a quite distinctive manner. Labeled structured ecotourists, this segment exhibits both soft and hard principles whose potency, in some cases, exceeds that found within the soft and hard clusters, respectively. Thus, the structured cluster is of a non-intermediate variety, displaying overall characteristics that are "as hard as hard" and "softer than soft. " Since structured ecotourists overlap soft ecotourists in their desire for large group, service-intensive, multi-dimensional trips, we contend that structured ecotourists are oftentimes assumed to be soft ecotourists and are thus under-reported. As a consequence, this hybrid classification represents a vital and under-examined market segment within the academic literature, and more importantly, because structured ecotourists are enhancive sustainers, this knowledge gap serves to understate the true commitment to enhancive sustainability. In light of this deficiency, this research effort seeks to fulfill two main objectives. First, it is likely that the structured ecotourist segment has driven leisure market demand in specific ways, and accordingly, T&T markets have responded by offering new and/or additional products that cater to this market niche. We argue that the expanding birding and wildlife festival movement in the U.S. provides one depiction These stats, and others, are available at <www.\vttc.org>. The World Tourism Organization (<www.unwto.org>) also publishes yearly statistics on a variety of international tourism indicators. In 2005, international tourism receipts amounted to USD 681.5 billion with slightly over 800 million international tourism arrivals. See UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (2006).
