Nature-based tourism in breadth and depth

Abstract

Revisiting Fennell’s (2000) taxonomy of natural resource-based tourism after a decade, we can see that whilst his conclusions remain valid and his illustrations illuminating, recent research has added both greater breadth and greater depth. In retrospect, three of the seven types of tourism in his two figures, namely whitewater rafting, mountaineering and jet boating, would now be treated as adventure tourism (Buckley, 2010a). Two, namely hunting and fishing, would be considered as consumptive nature-based tourism. Even catch-and-release fishing kills some of the fish caught, so it is consumptive; and if ecotourism is considered to include an ethical dimension, as argued by Fennell (2003), then catch-and-release also fails the ethical test. The remaining two categories are listed only as ‘hard-path’ and ‘soft-path’ ecotourism, with the terms taken, perhaps, from American outdoor recreation vernacular.