RETHINKING TOURISM & ECOTRAVEL:
The Paving of Paradise and What You Can Do To Stop It.
Author: Deborah McLaren
Reviewer: Marguerite Hampton
The author thoroughly explores ecotourism and its impact on Indigenous Culture and the regions surrounding local ecotravel communities. Digging into the subject of authenticity as it relates to the experience of both the ecotraveler and the people, the book reveals that the fantasy land painted by the travel agent is often not a true representation. Thus, those whose living may depend upon creating the experience find themselves, in many instances, unable to live up to the expectations of the traveler. The end result becomes a demeaning experience for both the local person and the ecotraveler seeking what the tour was supposed to be.
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Deborah McLaren
This book is a must read for the traveler who wants to be a conscientious
ecotraveler, the agency that wants to promote and adhere to authentic
ecotravel experiences, the developer considering construction of an
ecotravel lodge, along with government officials who need to establish rules and guidelines in order to protect and preserve ecotravel in their
respective regions. If the warning signals that the author outlines in the
book are left unheeded, it may be that a once viable industry will find
itself decimated as the very experiences that the ecotraveler will pay to
visit, cease to exist.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deborah McLaren is the Director of the Rethinking Tourism Project, a non-profit education and networking project that supports Indigenous self-development, as well as a columnist who writes about environmentally and socially repsonsible tourism for Transitions Abroad. Ms. McLaren earned her master's degree in social ecology from Goddard College. She has lived and worked throughout Asia and the Americas.
Currently she is organizing educational exchanges between Indigenous Peoples to work together on tourism issues, designing educational programs that integrate Indigenous science and wisdom, and recruiting Indigenous Peoples and others to work on international tourism policy and research. She believes critical new areas of research include monitoring the multilateral financial institutions' tourism investments and development and new ideas for cooperative land management partnerships between Native groups and governments should be established.
A prologue to the book may be viewed at: http://www2.planeta.com/mader/planeta/1197/1197rtpro.html
Deborah McLaren is the Founder of the RETHINKING TOURISM PROJECT for more information: http://www2.planeta.com/mader/ecotravel/resources/rtp/rtp.html
LATEST ARTICLE:
Globalization, Tourism & Indigenous Peoples: What You Should Know About the World's Largest "Industry" an article by Lee Pera & Deborah McLaren http://www2.planeta.com/mader/ecotravel/resources/rtp/globalization.html