Management and sustainable development of ecotourism destinations

Abstract

The accelerated development of ecotourism reflects through an almost equally rapid increase in the number of researchers who draw attention to potentially harmful and destructive consequences of tourism development. Sustainable tourism and ecotourism destinations are essential for sustainable development, which arose as a logical necessity to stop the expansive economic growth based on the uncontrolled use of available resources. A positive approach, designed to reduce tensions and conflicts that create complicated interactions between the tourism industry, visitors, the environment and the communities that host tourists, advocates the concept of sustainable tourism. Tourism and the environment are interconnected and dependent, while environmental protection is of fundamental importance for the future development of tourist destinations. The motivation of modern tourists is increasingly tied to destinations guided by the principles of sustainable development, so the decision-makers and the local community should pay more attention to the regulations related to environmental protection and the effectiveness of its implementation. Environment protection aims to properly constitute new or implement existing protection measures to achieve positive environmental and social results of a long-term nature. Despite numerous studies regarding ecotourism, there is a particular gap regarding the management of ecotourism destinations. This article provides better insight into ecotourism destinations' management and sustainable development through a comprehensive literature review of groundbreaking researches and articles from state-of-art journals. The concept of ecotourism destination management requires finding new and revising various management strategies to preserve biodiversity in tourism destinations and educate about the importance of sustainable development.