Ecotourism impacts in the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

Abstract

Ecotourism promotes responsible travel to natural areas, environmental conservation and the well-being of local communities. Eco-lodges are an important component of ecotourism ventures but an infrequently researched component of this fi eld. Considering their infl uence on the natural environment (design and operation) and local communities (employment practices and purchases), the success of ecotourism depends, in part, on the performance of eco-lodges. This project studies the effects of the Punta Islita (PI) eco-lodge on the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. An interdisciplinary nested-scale analysis, combining guest and household interviews with multi-temporal remote sensing analysis of forest cover change of the lodge and surrounding areas, is used to evaluate the environmental, economic and social impacts of ecotourism in the region. Our results show signifi cant positive contributions of the PI eco-lodge on forest cover, environmental conservation, and local economic incomes within the surrounding communities. For local livelihoods, the PI eco-lodge was seen as having positive social, cultural and economic impacts for nearly all societal variables for both employees and their neighbours. The PI eco-lodge was also perceived as reducing alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution, where conventional tourism on the Peninsula was shown to increase these 'societal ills'. Land value and product pricing were the few variables believed to have increased as a result of tourism on the Peninsula. For conservation, the PI eco-lodge property had the highest rates of reforestation within the Nicoya Peninsula and remains the scale most reforested in both forest cover change and total forest cover. In fact, at the landscape scale, we fi nd that the Pacifi c coast of the Nicoya, where the bulk of ecotourism occurs, has undergone reforestation, whereas forest interiors have been deforested. Historically, reforestation occurred as cattle ranching credit programs were halted by the government and households in the area left to fi nd better job opportunities. The PI eco-lodge, as a source of good employment, resulted in worker migration back to the surrounding area, resulting, in some cases, in increased deforestation. Overall, we feel that the PI eco-lodge serves as an example of successful ecotourism. However, increasing development in the region, in particular by standard hotel operations and large condo developments, seeks to capitalise on the region's natural beauty and may reverse land cover trends if they are not accompanied by adequate forest conservation strategies and stresses the importance of monitoring and assessing the impacts of accommodations tied to nature-based tourism operations.

Tourism stakeholder exclusion and conflict in a small island

“…Nor is there agreement on what a future strategy should seek to achieve and how. Such fundamental concepts are necessary for dealing with the challenges of tourism lifecycle management from development to decline and addressing the significant and diverse challenges which can face communities at different stages therein (Almeyda et al, 2010;Chapman and Speake, 2011;Canavan, 2014).…”

“…Similarly it fosters awareness of the benefits of the approach which may take longer to accrue, thus preempting short term opposition (Kontogeorgopoulos, 2005). Other benefits closely associated with sustainability and fostered by collaboration include monitoring of impacts (Almeyda et al, 2010), spread of conservation ethos (Hoyt, 2005), and exchanges of ideas and best practise (Go and Govers, 2000). Hardy and Beeton (2001) elaborate how the difference between maintainable tourism whereby the status quo is managed short term, in which stakeholder interests are presumed rather than thoroughly researched, and sustainable tourism, which involves the needs and requirements of all stakeholders to create a sense of ownership.…”

“…Innovative planning and management may also be enhanced through the creativity benefits of collaboration (Go and Govers, 2000;Byrd and Gutske, 2007). Collaboration likewise allows for more appropriate development plans to be established, which take account of and respond rapidly to local stakeholder needs, ambitions, and sensitivities (Tao and Wall, 2009;Almeyda et al, 2010). The involvement of host communities is thus a precondition for a sustainable industry (Tovar and Lockwood, 2008) and sustainability is most likely to be achieved where communities engage in decision making (Southgate and Sharpley, 2002).…”

“…As such, stakeholder collaboration at all levels of tourism planning and management is closely associated with successful implementation of sustainable development: that is to say development which at the most basic level means that the natural and cultural resources underpinning, are not degraded or overexploited, and which brings long-term, widely distributed, economic, social and environmental benefits to a community (Hoyt, 2005;Almeyda et al, 2010). Collaboration may foster management approaches able to rise to the complexities of implementing sustainable development (Tao and Wall, 2009).…”

Managing tourism decline: insights from the Isle of Man

“…Tourism may be an easy industry to establish in areas with limited 5 resources (Buhalis, 1999) and where the scope for developing or attracting other industries is restricted (Brown and Hall, 2000). For instance, tourism is geared towards unskilled labour with low barriers to individual entrepreneurship, thus allowing local involvement in and ownership of the industry (Almeyda et al, 2010).…”