**TL;DR – The effect tourism has on the environment, an area, and their people is difficult to imagine. Travelling can be an extremely personal thing, but becoming more mindful of its effect on a greater scale is important if you want to continue to reap the benefits of it.** [*Ecotourism*](https://medium.com/world-travelers-blog/can-ecotourism-solve-our-overtourism-problem-e595297511df) can be defined as, “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.” Not only do tourists come to places to explore, learn, and enjoy life there for themselves, but they should also be responsible to better life for local people, conserve the environment, and influence a positive economic impact. The negative effects of tourism can change an area greatly through eventual gentrification, increased traffic, and a diminishing effect on the local environment and culture. Travel companies have even used *ecotourism* as a term to appeal to more environmentally conscious tourists while not actually expressing its best interests. If ecotourism was genuinely practiced, certain areas might already be past the point of it being effective merely because it has become so normalized to travel for the opposite reasons. It could end up just making these areas even more overpopulated. Regardless, some easy ways to implement ecotourism that may not promote the negative effects include staying in one place for an extended period of time rather than continuously travelling, always supporting local businesses, and researching companies and endeavors you could lend a hand to while you’re there.

**TLDR: I agree! I think genuine ecotourism is beneficial but is difficult because tourism necessarily commodifies the environment for consumption.** I think ecotourism is a good thing, but actually implementing it can be difficult. One of the draws of tourism is the ability to go out and see "exotic" places. This often means leaving the cities (where pollution and cultural ripple effects can be better contained) and going out into the wilderness or coming into contact with more "native" areas. Because we live in a capitalist society, many tourism companies have marketed their green practices or nature attractions when really those things have little effect on the sustainability of tourism. Balancing the line between consumption and preservation of the environment is very complicated