Ecotourism growing as travelers change destinations

The trick may be balancing those people's impact on the environment with their curiousity.

by Jason Boyer, KWGN

February 7, 2008

BOULDER, CO — "Eco-tourism is the fastest growing segment of travel," said Ben Bressler with Natural Habitat Adventures, a Boulder-based travel company specializing in eco-tourism. It'sl also known as "sustainable travel," a newer buzzword getting a lot of...well...buzz.

Ted Martens with Sustainable Travel International, a non-profit helping educate travel companies on making travel more green agrees. "The mindset of travelers is very fortunately getting more and more eco- and green-sensitive right now."

And that's music to his ears. "Sustainable travel is travel that is viable in the long term, because it results in a net benefit for the communities and the economies of the places where it occurs."

"Natural Travel Adventures runs trips all over the world. From the Arctic, to Antarctica, to Africa, Galapagos Islands. What we do is take these people to these wild areas and show them that these areas need to be protected," said Bressler.

But more importantly, perhaps, "Through tourism they are leaving money in the hands of the local people, and the local people are then motivated to protect the areas in which they live," said Bressler.

There is another side of the story.

"Eco-tourism is a double-edged sword, there's no way around it. As we travel we give off carbon emissions, as we drive into areas we do make marks on the Tundra and so on. It's incumbent on the tour operator like ourselves to make sure that we minimize those effects," said Bressler.

"We have gone through and quantified the greenhouse gas emissions based on these activities," said Martens.

Which allows anyone to calculate their carbon footprint. You can then choose to invest in certain projects that will off-set that exact same amount, essentially, Martens says, having a neutral environmental impact.

"We can support international development renewable energy projects, we've got domestic wind projects, we also have international forestry projects."

Your destination doesn't have to be as exotic as the ice caps of Antarctica. Whether it's thousands, or a few miles from home you can find many ways to travel "green'"

Martens said, "We're seeing a lot of tour operators, we're seeing a lot of airlines, a lot of hotels, a lot of accommodations really embrace the idea and take a variety of steps to really mitigate their impacts."

Now it's just a matter of asking, where do you want to go?