• Countries and regions where the economy is driven by the tourism industry are becoming increasingly concerned with the environmental, as well as the sociocultural problems associated with unsustainable tourism.
• As a result, there is now increasing agreement on the need to promote sustainable tourism development to minimise its environmental impacts and to ensure more sustainable management of natural resources.

• The concept of sustainable tourism, as developed in the United Nations sustainable development process, refers to:
“Tourism that minimises the costs (negatives) and maximises the benefits of tourism for natural environments and local communities, and can be carried out indefinitely without harming the resources on which it depends”.

• Ecotourism is environmentally friendly tourism where the people involved seek to protect the environment as much as possible and to allow for some level of education as well.
• In many cases of ecotourism; some of the profits go back into protecting the and the tourism scale, with low visitor number densities and environmental approaches to accommodation and food.

• http://www.lonelyplanet.com/northamerica/videos/canc-n-top-5-ecotourismactivities$lptv-short-form-cancun

• The impact of ecotourism on the environment is low, but because the numbers of tourists allowed is low the price must be high to compensate.
• Ecotourism stems from 2 concepts - stewardship and conservation.
• Stewardship is careful management of the environment on a large scale across regions, nations and even internationally. All developments are planned sustainably.
• Conservation is more LOCAL in its nature allowing local people to be involved.
• Unfortunately not all people or governments are concerned about either.

• Research one sustainable initiative currently being used in Cancun and answer the following question:
• Using a named initiative, explain how it is being used in an area (you have studied) to move towards a more sustainable future.
(6 marks)