Whilst the term ecotour was first coined half a century ago, it did not gain significant currency in the academic tourism literature until the 1990s (Weaver and Lawton 2007). Though a much-contested concept in a technical sense, it has found considerable favour in political debate, albeit often in ways which do not mesh well with scholarly definitions (Weaver and Lawton 2007).
In recent years, a number of parallel or similar terms have also gained in popularity. These include product-based concepts such as nature-based tourism, management-based concepts such as sustainable tourism, and socially-based concepts such as responsible tourism. It has recently been claimed (McKercher 2010) that ecotourism is in decline; and whilst these claims have been criticized on scholastic grounds (Buckley 2010), it remains an open question whether ecotourism terminology has been superseded .