Twenty years on: The state of contemporary ecotourism research

Abstract

The ecotourism literature is focused on market segmentation, ecological impacts of wildlife viewing, and community-based ecotourism, but there has been minimal attention to critical areas such as quality control, the industry, external environments or institutions even as the components and parameters of ecotourism are being extended. This imbalance, combined with the fragmentation and lack of integration within the literature, suggest that ecotourism, as a field of academic inquiry, is still in a state of adolescence.