Over the past few decades, scuba diving ecotourism has grown significantly. The diving industry has broadly welcomed this, but growth has been uneven. Operators that present themselves as eco-resorts tend to be the most expensive, exclusive properties, while more mainstream dive centres, though eager to promote their environmental credentials, work on thin profits and tight budgets. They do what they can, but they know that most holidaymakers would rather dive and leave saving the planet to someone else.
There is no shortage of environmental projects divers can join, but participants usually come from local clubs and communities rather than visiting holidaymakers. In fact, much ecotourism asks nothing of divers beyond paying and agreeing to do as little damage to the local environment as possible. These are not bad things. For example, by charging high fees to offer a comfortable green holiday, some high-end resorts in Indonesia have used this model to enable Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi to establish a near-pristine marine protected area through the promotion of sustainable diving. In more densely populated resort areas, environmental best-practice programmes such as Green Fins have become a global phenomenon over the past decade.
Image source: divemagazine.com (Copyright of the images belongs to the original author. To report infringement, please contact us for removal: support@mywowtrips.com)
Image source: divemagazine.com (Copyright of the images belongs to the original author. To report infringement, please contact us for removal: support@mywowtrips.com)
In recent years, some large travel companies have become keen to show their environmental credentials. TUI, one of Europe's largest travel companies, is one of them. In 2016 the company launched an initiative aimed at bringing ecotourism to budget-conscious mainstream travellers. This change is driven through its charitable arm, the TUI Care Foundation, which is partly funded by the TUI Group but is itself an independent non-profit organisation. The group currently funds more than 80 projects in over 30 countries, across four areas: community education, culture, local agriculture and land restoration, and marine conservation initiatives. In marine conservation, these include TUI Turtle Aid, Destination Zero Waste and the TUI Sea the Change programme, and the Bali-based Livingseas Foundation is one of the beneficiaries of that programme.
Source: divemagazine.com 路 Original article 路 Image source: divemagazine.com (Copyright of the images belongs to the original author. To report infringement, please contact us for removal: support@mywowtrips.com)
Edited by MyWowTrips.com