All cities and countries see a tourism life cycle which includes the original exploration of an environment. This is when a small number of tourists discover a new and exciting destination. Often times the discovery of this site may come from a movie destination or it could just be from the spread of word-of-mouth. The types of people who visit a place within the exploration stage of the life cycle are initial seekers and wanting to explore completely new and undiscovered places.
This site will then move on to the involvement life cycle stage. This happens when community members help to increase small businesses and visitation. Community support is a crucial role in order for a place to become a tourist destination properly. This proper development of a tourist destination is important to maintain the integrity of the ecosystems in these destinations. As the tourist site begins to expand, more facilities will develop, extensive construction and a significant amount of tourists will begin to arrive. This can be a hesitant step in many communities eyes as they view "outsiders" as a possible exploitation of their resources. Many community members fear that they will not be able to control against the tourism growth.
Eventually this influx of tourists will level off as the idea of a "new tourist destination" begins to wear off. This is a time when communities are able to realize the impacts that tourism may have on their ecosystems, both negatively and positively. From this stage, tourist destinations have the opportunity to go three ways, either rejuvenating the accommodations of new tourists, remaining in a stagnate place or decline in the number of tourists that visit the destination. This graphical representation is a great way to visualize the growth and development of a tourist destination.
This is important to keep in mind when discussing topics within Ecotourism because the affect this life cycle can have on natural ecosystems that need to be preserved.
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