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Market

WHY INVEST IN ECOTOURISM?

According to the World Travel Council (that convenes the largest multinational companies of the sector),  tourism:

• Employed 183 million people in 1991,
• In 1994, with growth of 10,6% it employed 204 million persons  (one in nine workers of the world),
• From 1985 to 1993, in spite of the world recession, the number of tourists that participated in international trips increased from 380 to 500 million.
• The World Organization of Tourism estimates that this number will be 661 million in the year 2.000.
• Excepting the area of transportation,  international tourism profits grew from US$ 18 billion (1970) to US$ 324 billion (1993).
• The tourism industry presents high rates of world economic growth. It moves about US$ 3.5 trillion annually. In the last decade, it has grown by 57%. In tourism, ecotourism is the segment that is growing the fastest.

We estimate that tourism has made major gains in the last years as a commercial resource of vital importance.  I has overtaken petroleum in first place of world trade.

In 1995, Brazil received 1.7 million tourists that represented 0,3% of the 534 million tourists in the world. Considering that ecotourism represents 10% of  tourism,  Brazilian ecotourism participates with 0.03%; a mediocre number for a country that possesses much diversity of landscapes, the greatest biodiversity in the world and 5.7% of the terrestrial area of the planet.

There is consent among  managers that tourism is a market in expansion, being measured in  growth of about 20% a year. This is according to results obtained in interviews  with specialized tourist operators and experts and in the observation of the growth of ecotourism operators and agencies. (ZIFFER, 1989, P.10)

The appreciation of society of environmental subjects  has been contributing to the growth of the demand for ecotouristic activity. The strong world perception about the urgent needs for protection and recovery of  natural resources, disseminated mainly by the media, influences the choice of trip destinations and scheduled routes

The attraction of ecotourist destinations depends of the existence of an area's high ecological and cultural value and the way that an area is managed.  It's ecotouristic value also depends on the existence of appropriate infrastructures and the readiness of qualified human resources.

"Countries, that offer appropriate ecotourist destinies, obtain significant values of income with their national parks". (OMT/PNUMA, 1992 p.6-7):

• In 1988, Kenya generated with  tourism an  activity that Brought the most foreign exchange value for the country, US$ 400 million.
• In Rwanda, tourists that want to see gorillas of the Volcanoes National Park spend, annually, US$ 1 million in entrance fees  and US$ 2 to 3 million in other expenses.
• In  developed countries, ecotourism is a major activity. The United States national park system, considered  the largest network  of natural tourist attractions in the world, received more than 270 million visitors in 1989; and  state parks received a further 500 million visitors.

In  Latin America, where  ecotourism is beginning to have importance, such activity is of extreme importance for  efforts at economic and social development promotion. The appropriate use of the varied existent ecosystems, many of which are still not very explored, will propitiate the opening of new economic  alternatives and the consequent improvement of the conditions of life of the populations directly involved, besides reducing some of the negative impacts caused by  traditional tourism.

Brazil has great potential, represented by its nature, varied geography,  climate and the happiness of its people. EMBRATUR considers  ecotourism as the economic section with large development potential next years. For this reason, it is concerned about the need for initiation of new mechanisms destined to facilitate and stimulate private investment.

However, so that ecotourism can constitute a solid, accessible and permanent structure, it is necessary that alliances be formed to accommodate the peculiarities of each ecosystem appropriately and of each line of  Brazilian popular culture.

Brazil offers the opportunity for a primary ecotourist destination in the choice of travellers though out the world.  The varied Brazilian natural landscapes of beauty and interesting ecological value are combined with a cultural atmosphere where one sees preserved a way of simple life, art and communities that live in harmony with nature.

This is added to the fact that the tendency observed in research conducted in the main issuing countries of tourist flows of Europe, Asia and North America points to the growth of the tourism returning to nature to experience activities different from daily existence.

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