The nature of ecotourism

This thesis examines the social construction of an alternative tourism experience. It does this intially by establishing that alternative tourism experiences can be possible for tourists coming form urban industrial societies, in that there is the possiblity of different experiences to those of mass tourism experiences as put forward in the literature (Rojek 1993; Mac Cannell 1976; 1992). It then seeks to examine the process of an alternative tourism experience through a specific case study. It poses two research questions for the case study that stem from the intial literature review. What are the elements of an alternative tourism experience and its process that may make it different from mass tourism? In seeking to discover these elements it looks at how the tourists perceive the effects their experience had on them through their recollection of the on site experience. In order to understand this an examination is made of the tourists motivation for seeking the experience. This is combined with an investigation of the effect the experience may have had upon them through their recollection of the experience upon their return.