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eco tourism > glossary
GlossaryAboriginal: Refers to the original inhabitants of a country and their descendants. The term is used mainly in Australia and Canada. See also: First Nations, indigenous people.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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ABTA: Association of British Travel Agents. The trade association of large tour operators.
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All-inclusive: A resort providing accommodation, food and all facilities (eg. beach and watersports) internally, so that visitors have no need to leave the resort.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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ATOL: Air Travel Organizers Licence. A bonding scheme run by the Civil Aviation Authority. If your tour operator is a member of ATOL, you are guaranteed a refund if the company goes into liquidation.
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Backpacker: A (usually young) independent traveller; typically carries a rucksack and stays in cheap, locally owned accommodation.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Community: A mutually supportive, geographically specific social unit such as a rural village or tribe. In an urban, Western context, the phrase is often used more loosely, to describe people with common interests, ethnic origins, etc.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Community tourism: A shorter term for community-based tourism
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Community-based tourism: Tourism that consults, involves and benefits a local community, especially in the context of rural villages in developing countries and indigenous peoples.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Conservation (nature): Protection against irreversible destruction and other undesirable changes, including the management of human use of organisms or ecosystems to ensure such use is sustainable.
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Customised itineraries: A holiday schedule drawn up by a tour operator specifically for one client or group, usually including flight, accommodation and transport. Sometimes called tailor-made holidays.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Developed countries/nations/world: See the West.
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Developing countries/nations/world: The world's less wealthy nations, mostly former colonies: ie most of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific. Also sometimes referred to as the South.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Development: A process of economic and social transformation that defies simple definition. Though often viewed as a strictly economic process involving growth and diversification of a country's economy, development is a qualitative concept that entails complex social, cultural, and environmental changes. There are many models of what 'development' should look like and many different standards of what constitutes 'success'.
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Domestic tourism: Holidays taken within the tourist's own country. The volume of domestic tourism is hard to quantify but has been estimated at three to five times greater than international tourism.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Ecology: Originally defined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, ecology is the study of the relationships that develop among living organisms and between these organisms and the environment.
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Economic growth: The change over a period of time in the value (monetary and non-monetary) of goods and services and the ability and capacity to produce goods and services. It is economic growth which generates the wealth necessary to provide social services, health care, and education. It is the basis for ongoing job creation. However, sustainable development requires that there be a change in the nature of economic growth, to ensure that goods and services are produced by environmentally sound and economically sustainable processes. This will require efficient use of resources, value-added processing, sustained yield management of renewable resources, and the consideration and accounting of all externalities and side-effects involved in the extraction, processing, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of those goods.
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Economy: What human beings do. The activity of managing resources and producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services.
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Ecotourism: According to the US-based Ecotourism Society, 'Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people'. In the UK, the phrase green travel is sometimes preferred.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Endangered species: Species of plants or animals threatened with extinction because their numbers have declined to a critical level as a result of overharvesting or because their habitat has drastically changed. That critical level is the minimum viable population (MVP), and represents the smallest number of breeding pairs required to maintain the viability of species.
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Environment: A combination of the various physical and biological elements that affect the life of an organism. Although it is common to refer to �the� environment, there are in fact many environments eg, aquatic or terrestrial, microscopic to global, all capable of change in time and place, but all intimately linked and in combination constituting the whole earth/atmosphere system.
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Environmentally-sound: The maintenance of a healthy environment and the protection of life-sustaining ecological processes. It is based on thorough knowledge and requires or will result in products, manufacturing processes, developments, etc. which are in harmony with essential ecological processes and human health.
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Ethical tourism: See responsible tourism.
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Fair trade: Equitable, non-exploitative trade between developing world suppliers and Western consumers.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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First Nations: A collective term for the original, pre-European inhabitants of the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. In individual countries, different terms are sometimes used, for example, Aboriginal, indigenous, tribal, Indian, First Peoples, Native American, AmerIndian.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Green travel: A UK alternative to the American term ecotourism.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Independent traveller: Someone who travels without booking a package tour.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Indigenous people: The original inhabitants of a country and their descendants. Indigenous communities are often, but not always, tribal peoples and the two terms are often and easily confused. See also First Nations, Aboriginal.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Local communities / people: People living in tourist destinations, especially in the rural developing world.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Multinational corporation: See transnational corporation.
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National conservation strategies: Plans that highlight country-level environmental priorities and opportunities for sustainable management of natural resources, following the example of the World Conservation Strategy published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 1980. Though governments may support preparation for the strategies, they are not bound to follow IUCN's recommendations.
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Native Americans: A collective term for the indigenous people of the Americas. Also First Nations, AmerIndians, American Indians, Indians.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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NGO: Non-governmental organisation: an independent pressure group or campaigning organisation, usually non-profit.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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North, the: See the West.
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Package tour: A holiday combining transport and accommodation in an inclusive price.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Pro-poor tourism: Tourism that benefits poor people in developing-world tourist destinations
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Proper resource pricing: The pricing of natural resources at levels which reflect their combined economic and environmental values.
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Responsible tourism: Tourism that aims to avoid harmful impacts on people and environments. Sometimes referred to as ethical tourism. Other similar concepts include People First Tourism, reality tourism, etc.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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South, the: See developing countries.
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Sustainable development: Sustainable development has as many definitions as subscribers. In essence, it refers to economic development that meets the needs of all without leaving future generations with fewer natural resources than those we enjoy today. It is widely accepted that achieving sustainable development requires balance between three dimensions of complementary change:
- Economic (towards sustainable patterns of production and consumption)
- Ecological (towards maintenance and restoration of healthy ecosystems)
- Social (towards poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods)
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Sustainable tourism: Tourism that does not degrade the environment or local cultures/societies.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Third World, the: Now generally referred to as either developing countries or the South.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Tourists: Holiday-makers, mainly (but no longer exclusively) from the West. The term is sometimes used to distinguish package tourists from independent travellers, but can be used to mean anyone going on holiday.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Transnational corporation: Correctly, a large company with shareholders in more than one country. The term is often used more loosely to mean any large, powerful, Western-owned company.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Tribal peoples: People living in close-knit social units based on kinship ties and shared belief systems. While most remaining tribal communities are indigenous, not all indigenous peoples still live tribally. (On the other hand, for example, many 'hill-tribes' in northern Thailand migrated there fairly recently from southern China, making them tribal but not indigenous to Thailand.)
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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West, the: The world's rich nations: ie Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and (economically, although perhaps not culturally) Japan. Also referred to as the , the .
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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World Commission on Environment and Development: Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1983 to examine international and global environmental problems and to propose strategies for sustainable development. Chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the independent commission held meetings and public hearing around the world and submitted a report on its inquiry to the General Assembly in 1987.
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World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD): The World Summit on Sustainable Development takes place from 26 August - 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Governments, UN agencies, and civil society organisations will come together to assess progress since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992 (hence the title 'Rio + 10' for the Johannesburg meeting). Sustainable development is defined in the report from the Rio meeting as being 'economic progress which meets all of our needs without leaving future generations with fewer resources than those we enjoy'.
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World Tourism Organisation (WTO): A UN-affiliated organisation based in Madrid and comprising government and industry representatives, that compiles statistics and guidelines and promotes global tourism.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC): An organisation based in Brussels and London and made up of the chief executives of the world's largest travel companies, that lobbies on behalf of the tourism industry.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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