Overview of EcoTourism in CR

Ecotourism is growing at an extreme rate all around the world. This growing demand has opened doors for places like CR which possess such beauty throughout the country and an ability to satisfy the demand from tourist of foriegn countries. Though economically, ecotourism is very prosperous, the biggest questions the industy faces revolve around sustainability. The greatest benefit that ecotourism provides is the chance to preserve the natural beauty and natural resources in countries like CR while also providing profit for an economy to build off of. Lately, some ecologists believe that because of such high damand for ecotourism resulting in construction and overuse of the areas attracting the tourists, ecotourism may be on a path of self destruction.

In CR, the incredible biodiversity that the small country is blessed with has resulted in the ecotourism industry becoming the building block for developing the country even further. Ecotourism in CR, second behind only INTEL´s chip production, provides the second highest amount of income. There are many reason why this industry flourishes. Biodiversity, pivotal location, a strong understanding by the Costa Rican government of the importance of preserving it´s natural surroundings, and support from abroad, have all made ecotourism a successful and attractive industry for Costa Rica.

Ecotourism has both benefits and costs. Benefits include, being an alternative to environmentally damaging industries and encouraging conservation efforts. The Costs of ecotourism include, overuse of the environment from an amount of tourist view, greenwashing, and the threat of profit coming before preservation.

In CR, it seems that ecotourism has become a major reason for the countries success. It has helped in conservation, slowed or even stopped deforeststation in certain countries, and has also brought jobs and income to rural areas which in the past had lacked a stable industry to latch on to. As ecotourism moves into the future, I beleive it will be important for close regulations to be imposed or recomended to ensure that the conservation of CR comes before the profit.