Volume 7 Issue 2
Ecotourism versus Mass Tourism. A Comparison of Environmental Impacts Based on Ecological Footprint Analysis
Mehdi Marzouki, Géraldine Froger and Jérôme Ballet
1Local government (Yvelines department), 2 place Pierre Bonnard, Guyancourt 78280, France
2CEMOTEV-UVSQ (EA 4457), 47 boulevard Vauban, Guyancourt 78280, France
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Academic and policy interest in ecological footprint analysis has grown rapidly in recent years. To date, however, the application of ecological footprint analysis to tourism has been limited. This article aims to discuss the potential of ecological footprint analysis to assess sustainability in tourism. It is about a comparison of the global environmental impacts of different forms of tourism in southern countries where tourism is a major source of foreign exchange earnings. It illustrates how an ecotourism destination has a larger ecological footprint than a “mass” tourism destination.
Keywords:ecological footprint; sustainable tourism; environmental impacts; global scale; Tunisia; Seychelles