Adventure sports and Sustainable Tourism Academy

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM Paul F. J. Eagles In: McCool, Stephen F.; Watson, Alan E., comps. 1995. Linking tourism, the environment, and sustainabilitytopical volume of compiled papers from a special session of the annual meeting of the National Recreation and Park Association; 1994 October 12-14; Minneapolis, MN. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-GTR-323. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. ABSTRACT Sustainable tourism refers to a broad range of recreational activities occurring within the context of a natural environment. An emerging consensus is that sustainable tourism has identifiable niche markets, each with a unique set of characteristics. Four such niche marketsecotourism, wilderness use, adventure travel, and car campingare discussed within the context of extrinsic and intrinsic motives, environmental attitudes, social motives, demographics, economics, social constraints, environmental impacts, travel profile development, business cycle, use levels, key management issues, and market opportunities. The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Owen and others (1993) argue that sustainable tourism development in Wales should follow several key principles, including: Tourism should be one part of a balanced economy. The use of tourism environments must allow for long-term preservation and for use of those environments. Tourism should respect the character of an area. Tourism must provide long-term economic benefits. Tourism should be sensitive to the needs of the host population. The North American concept of sustainable tourism development also accepts these principles, but the discussion is often limited to tourism based on natural environments. We used the latter approach, defining sustainable tourism as tourist use of natural environments where long-term economic benefits, continuous environmental protection, and local community development are inherent. We emphasized North...