NATURE-BASED TOURISM AS AN INTRODUCTION
NATURE-BASED TOURISM AS AN INTRODUCTION

Summary/Abstract: Ecotourism, as a core of sustainable tourism is perceived as very difficult to organize and – as very demanding - not especially interesting for an average tourist. In addition, it is often mistaken with green, environmental (nature-based) tourism. According to its definition, there is no need for maximizing the number of ecotourists, however, a problem of how to “create” a more conscious and responsible tourist still remains. Another issue is how to attract people who are looking for something new and exciting to local tourist resources – natural as well as cultural and provide income for local communities. In Poland nature is still very valuable and attractive. It is protected in different ways at various levels, but most appropriate for developing sustainable tourism and nature-based tourism are landscape parks. That is why the research was held among tourist visiting areas of some landscape parks in western Poland. Respondents were asked, among other things, about their preferences of spending time during the holidays, opinions on (and knowledge of) nature, natural tourist resources and values, nature protection, nature-based tourism and ecotourism. In addition some theoretical models of ecotourism and nature-based tourism were elaborated, which will be only mentioned in this paper.

• Details
• Contents