Ecotourism Without Ecosystem

“Every village, an ecotourism destination” — a slogan that was meant to be a recipe for boosting rural tourism, but without understanding the natural, cultural, and social capacities of each region, it can turn from sustainable development into an external and harmful intervention. Experts believe that before building accommodation, ecotourism requires planning, empowering the local community, and genuine host acceptance. Because it does not require costly hard infrastructure such as luxury hotels and complex transportation, ecotourism is seen by some policymakers as an easy, quick-to-implement project. Maryam Kazemizadeh: “Every village, an ecotourism destination” — a slogan that was meant to be a recipe for boosting rural tourism, but without understanding the natural, cultural, and social capacities of each region, it can turn from sustainable development into an external and harmful intervention. Experts believe that before building accommodation, ecotourism requires planning, empowering the local community, and genuine host acceptance. Because it does not require costly hard infrastructure such as luxury hotels and complex transportation, ecotourism is seen by some policymakers as an easy, quick-to-implement project. However, neglecting soft infrastructure, human resources, and the host community’s capacity-building has caused many of these projects to fail. This report, drawing on the views of Gholamhossein Karimi, head of the Scientific Tourism Association of the North