Sustainable tourism minimizes impacts on ecological processes, natural and cultural heritage, and biodiversity while building environmental and cultural awareness and respect. Sustainable tourism promotes financial benefits and empowerment for local people while providing a positive experience for both the visitors and hosts. These experiences raise the visitor’s sensitivity to the host area’s political, environmental, and social climate.

Goals

• Maximize the economic benefits of tourism while minimizing negative social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
• Promote the restoration and preservation of natural and cultural treasures by demonstrating the economic benefits of destination geo-tourism.
• Institute a more regional, collaborative approach to venue development.
• Develop a tourism “product” consisting of sustainable development activities and achievements.

Strategies

• Inventory existing ecotourism, civic tourism, cultural and historic tourism, and adventure travel businesses.
• From this inventory develop a list of activities and attractions that could add to the currently available offerings.
• Identify and champion existing sustainable activities.
• Identify or form an entity that would act as a regional nexus and portal for sustainable tourism resources and products.
• Establish tourism business alliances to develop multidestination programming.

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