The booming tourism sector encourages individuals to travel to experience new customs and celebrations, meet new people, learn about civilizations, and travel to discover nature, adventures, wonders, and societies. Tourism development aims to increase and maintain business by attracting tourists to a particular area. Ecotourism is tourism that supports local community benefit production, nature conservation, and tourism-related activities. It also enhances community safety and protection in protected areas. Few well-researched and synthesized accounts provide the most recent advancements and trends in ecotourism research regarding research gaps, geographic distributions, research approach applicability, research context, and subject themes. In the developing world, there are still unresolved issues concerning the economic and environmental implications of ecotourism, planning, development, management challenges, and residents' attitudes towards ecotourism.
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The booming tourism sector encourages individuals to travel to experience new customs and celebrations, meet new people, learn about civilizations, and travel to discover nature, adventures, wonders, and societies. Tourism development entices a destination to expand and maintain the tourism industry. Environmental sustainability is a forward-looking effort to conserve sociocultural legacy and natural resources to safeguard environmental ecosystems while promoting human health and economic prosperity (Baloch et al., 2023).
Tourism represents one of the most rapidly expanding industries, providing more than 10% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (UNWTO, 2017). According to Baloch et al. (2023), Twenty- five million foreign visitors in 1950 increased to 166 million in 1970, 1.442 billion in 2018, and according to projections1.8 billion by 2030. Although their effects on the environment are controversial, iconic locations serve as milestones for the development of tourism. The study used multiple regression and clustering to analyze certain variables for the years 2000–2020 to highlight the sustainable tourism attractiveness aspects in the most popular travel locations worldwide. With destinations divided into four clusters: C1 (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK), C2 (Mexico and Thailand), C3 (USA, China), and C4 (Turkey); the study found a rather high degree of sustainable variability. The industrial and construction sector, social insecurity, inflation, and the growth of transport services are unsustainable variables in all destinations (Haller, A. 2023).
In Pakistan, long stretches of desert steppes, pristine, green natural landscapes, abundant biodiversity, undeveloped seashores, and archaeological legacy are only a few instances of how the environment is sustainable and how happy the locals are to have visitors. The development of tourism and the sustainability of the environment are interrelated concepts in this context, and as a result, the quantity and these innovations directly impact the quality of sustainable and green tourism (Hassan et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2021).
When sustainable development gained traction in the 1980s, ecotourism was born to direct tourism profits toward development and conservation. Despite the “win-win” concept, academics and industry professionals disagree on the definition and benefits of ecotourism (Stronza et al., 2019). Ecotourism is visiting relatively undeveloped natural areas to admire the surroundings, learn about the species, and experience local cultures in their natural habitats while preserving the environment (Khanra et al., 2021). Lu & Stepchenkova (2012) described ecotourism as a type of tourism that supports outdoor recreation, environmental protection, and the creation of positive social and economic effects. In protected regions, ecotourism also enhances local communities and protection.
The definition of ecotourism is “responsible travel to natural areas that involves interpretation and education, sustains the well-being of the local people, and conserves the environment” (Baloch et al., 2023). A well-defined set of principles, such as “environmental conservation and education, cultural preservation and experience, and economic benefits,” form the foundation of the idea of ecotourism (de Grosbois & Fennell, 2022).
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines ecotourism as ecologically conscious travel to natural areas to appreciate and enjoy nature (as well as any associated historical or contemporary cultural features) that support conservation, have minimal impact on the environment and enable the local population to participate actively in the local economy (Baloch et al., 2023). Moreover, according to Blangy & Wood (1993), responsible tourism to wilderness regions upholds locals' quality of life and protects the ecosystem. “Environmental preservation and education, preservation of culture and experience, and economic rewards” are just a few of the concepts that underpin ecotourism (de Grosbois & Fennell, 2022).