Abstract
Ecotourism is not a universally defined concept and the literature gives several definitions for it. However the most known and widespread is the one provided by The International Ecotourism Society (TIES, 2004) as “a responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people”. Ecotourism is also often described as a conservation and community development tool (Stem, Lassoie, Lee and Destiler, 2003) generating money in an ecologically and socially friendly way (Koens et al., 2006).
Hetzer (cited in Buchsbaum, 2004) identified four major concepts of responsible tourism: minimizing environmental impacts, respecting host cultures, maximizing benefits to local people and maximizing tourist satisfaction. Costa Rica, located in Central America, is considered as the birthplace of ecotourism development (Makwana et al, 2008) taking advantage of the worldwide emergence of ecotourism in the 1970's – 1980's, (Kotler et al, 2005) and the dissatisfaction of mass tourism (Buchsbaum, 2004).
