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ISSN 1108-8931 |
INTERNATIONAL ECOTOURISM MONTHLY |
Year 5-Issue 58, Mar. 2004 |
 Reviews
"The Green Market Gap": e-report by EplerWood International.
Vatera, Around & About, Volume 2 in the Lesvos Guides series, by Brian & Eileen Anderson
For more details on how to obtain email
Ms Dimitra Balkizas
Green Tourism - Vol. 5, Nr. 7 Plantations are not Forests. Niche Tourism in Question Coastal Mass Tourism: Diversification and Sustainable
Development in Southern Europe, Global Tourism and Informal Labour Relations: The Small-Scale
Syndrome at Work If you would like ECOCLUB to review your ecotourism-related publication please send us a copy by post ( or if it is an electronic one). For free on-line ecotourism-related publications, please email us the direct download link.
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This
11-page report briefly reviews recent consumer
research report findings on the size of the green market for products
& services in the US. The findings examples seem all to indicate that the green
market size was exaggerated in the 1990s and the report argues
that there is a discrepancy between consumer ideas and consumer
purchases, which it dubs the "Green Market Gap". Predictions were
wrong, the report argues, because surveys were always focusing on
consumer intentions, rather than actual purchases. The authors then go
on to include
the ecotourism "market" as one of these sectors where demand
estimates had been exaggerated by those interpreting statistics
gathered by world tourism bodies. The mistake in this case, authors argue, was that
the growth in arrivals, in so-called new "ecotourism destinations" such as
Costa Rica and Belize was equated with the growth in ecotourism and the "green beliefs" of tourists, whereas,
according to the authors, most of these tourists were bereft of eco
ideals. In 2003 the Report's authors
surveyed a select group of Eco-operators in Ecuador, and asked them
about their views on the green beliefs of their tourists. 12 Ecuador Eco-operators
replied that the majority of
their clients were not motivated by green beliefs. The report also
arrives, somewhat tangentially, to the conclusion that "only" 100,000 US travellers in 2002 could
be classified as true ecotourists, i.e. making travel choices based on
their eco beliefs. The authors believe that the "Gap"
matters. We are less sure, paraphrasing Tennessee Williams, "a
Gap is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature
replaces it with". Download this interesting, well-written
report, at:
http://www.eplerwood.com/reports.php
The Greek and green island of Lesvos is a birdwatchers paradise,
with most sea birds attracted to the salt pans of the Gulf of Kalloni,
famous all over Greece as a salt and sardine producing area, and many
north European migrant birds stopping over during Spring and Autumn
during their journey to and from Africa, as the area is on one of the
main migration routes. The authors are experts on Lesvos, and this
small specialist guide (71 pages) which summarises some of their other
writing on the Island, is suitable for holiday-makers staying in the quiet
resorts of Vatera or Polychnitos villages (Nr. 1 in the same series
is a volume on Skala Kallonis, just across the gulf). The format is
handy to carry while walking (something that many a walking guide
forgo), it has many good quality, indexed, colour pictures,
table of contents, one foldout walking map of the area, matter of fact
writing-style. We hope that future editions of the guide will be
printed on recycled, paper, with more detailed walking maps, and
perhaps some deeper cultural and natural local coverage, at the
expense of the car tours on the rest of the island. Overall, a good
effort by the Editor, Ms Dimitra Balkizas, a pro-active hotelier in
Vatera. We look forward to Nr 3 in the series. ISBN:
960-87892-0-6.