Abstract:
Tourism has grown a lot around the world since the second half of the 20th century. Tourism related only 50 million tourists in 1960 to reach 561 million by 1995 and 980 million in 2011 according to the World Tourism Organization.
Associated with this phenomenon, globalization has increased the ecological thinking. Indeed, the Meadows Report (1968), awareness politicians to environmental problems in the world.
Since the Brundtland Report in 1987, through the Earth Summit in Rio, and more recently the Johannesburg Summit, the concept of "Tourism and Sustainable Development" seems to correspond to the expectations of the public authorities.
Tourism induce environmental degradation or at the contrary it allows preservation of natural areas?
Field work in Madagascar and Costa Rica has led me to a questioning of the relevance of background on development strategies based on the concept of eco-tourism. It is a deep analysis of the concept of ecotourism in its practical application on major sites internationally. Depth study in time and space, the establishment of ecotourism on these two areas of research and consequences for the economie, social, cultural and environmental system.
