Here is an extract from the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism adopted by World Tourism Organization, within is defined Ecotourism. At the end you will find a link to the whole text and oppinions (in spanish)
Article 1: Tourism’s contribution to mutual understanding and
respect between peoples and societies.
1. The understanding and promotion of the ethical values common to humanity,
with an attitude of tolerance and respect for the diversity of religious,
philosophical and moral beliefs, are both the foundation and the consequence
of responsible tourism; stakeholders in tourism development and tourists
themselves should observe the social and cultural traditions and practices
of all peoples, including those of minorities and indigenous peoples and
to recognize their worth;
2. Tourism activities should be conducted in harmony with the attributes
and traditions of the host regions and countries and in respect for their
laws, practices and customs;
3. The host communities, on the one hand, and local professionals, on
the other, should acquaint themselves with and respect the tourists who
visit them and find out about their lifestyles, tastes and expectations;
the education and training imparted to professionals contribute to a hospitable
welcome;
4. It is the task of the public authorities to provide protection for
tourists and visitors and their belongings; they must pay particular attention
to the safety of foreign tourists owing to the particular vulnerability
they may have; they should facilitate the introduction of specific means
of information, prevention, security, insurance and assistance consistent
with their needs; any attacks, assaults, kidnappings or threats against
tourists or workers in the tourism industry, as well as the wilful destruction
of tourism facilities or of elements of cultural or natural heritage should
be severely condemned and punished in accordance with their respective
national laws;
5. When travelling, tourists and visitors should not commit any criminal
act or any act considered criminal by the laws of the country visited
and abstain from any conduct felt to be offensive or injurious by the
local populations, or likely to damage the local environment; they should
refrain from all trafficking in illicit drugs, arms, antiques, protected
species and products and substances that are dangerous or prohibited by
national regulations;
6. Tourists and visitors have the responsibility to acquaint themselves,
even before their departure, with the characteristics of the countries
they are preparing to visit; they must be aware of the health and security
risks inherent in any travel outside their usual environment and behave
in such a way as to minimize those risks;
Article 2: Tourism as a vehicle for individual and collective fulfilment.
1. Tourism, the activity most frequently associated with rest and relaxation,
sport and access to culture and nature, should be planned and practised
as a privileged means of individual and collective fulfilment; when practised
with a sufficiently open mind, it is an irreplaceable factor of self-education,
mutual tolerance and for learning about the legitimate diff e re n c e
s between peoples and cultures and their diversity;
2. Tourism activities should respect the equality of men and women; they
should promote human rights and, more particularly, the individual rights
of the most vulnerable groups, notably children, the elderly, the handicapped,
ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples;
3. The exploitation of human beings in any form, particularly sexual,
especially when applied to children, conflicts with the fundamental aims
of tourism and is the negation of tourism; as such, in accordance with
international law, it should be energetically combatted with the cooperation
of all the States concerned and penalized without concession by the national
legislation of both the countries visited and the countries of the perpetrators
of these acts, even when they are carried out abroad;
4. Travel for purposes of religion, health, education and cultural or
linguistic exchanges are particularly beneficial forms of tourism, which
deserve encouragement;
5. The introduction into curricula of education about the value of tourist
exchanges, their economic, social and cultural benefits, and also their
risks, should be encouraged;
Article 3: Tourism, a factor of sustainable development.
1. All the stakeholders in tourism development should safeguard the natural
environment with a view to achieving sound, continuous and sustainable
economic growth geared to satisfying equitably the needs and aspirations
of present and future generations;
2. All forms of tourism development that are conducive to saving rare
and precious resources, in part icular water and energy, as well as avoiding
so far as possible waste production, should be given priority and encouraged
by national, regional and local public authorities;
3. The staggering in time and space of tourist and visitor flows, particularly
those resulting from paid leave and school holidays, and a more even distribution
of holidays should be sought so as to reduce the pressure of tourism activity
on the environment and enhance its beneficial impact on the tourism industry
and the local economy;
4. Tourism infrastructure should be designed and tourism activities programmed
in such a way as to protect the natural heritage composed of ecosystems
and biodiversity and to preserve endangered species of wildlife; the stakeholders
in tourism development, and especially professionals, should agree to
the imposition of limitations or constraints on their activities when
these are exercised in particularly sensitive areas: desert, polar or
high mountain regions, coastal areas, tropical forests or wetlands, propitious
to the creation of nature reserves or protected areas;
5. Nature tourism and ecotourism are recognized as being particularly
conducive to enriching and enhancing the standing of tourism, provided
they respect the natural heritage and local populations and are in keeping
with the carrying capacity of the sites;
Article 4: Tourism, a user of the cultural heritage of mankind and
a contributor to its enhancement.
1. Tourism resources belong to the common heritage of mankind; the communities
in whose territories they are situated have particular rights and obligations
to them;
2. Tourism policies and activities should be conducted with respect for
the artistic, archaeological and cultural heritage, which they should
protect and pass on to future generations; particular care should be devoted
to pre serving and upgrading monuments, shrines and museums as well as
arc h a e ological and historic sites which must be widely open to tourist
visits; encouragement should be given to public access to privately-owned
cultural property and monuments, with respect for the rights of their
owners, as well as to religious buildings, without prejudice to normal
needs of worship;
3. Financial resources derived from visits to cultural sites and monuments
should, at least in part, be used for the upkeep, safeguard, development
and embellishment of this heritage;
4. Tourism activity should be planned in such a way as to allow traditional
cultural products, crafts and folklore to survive and flourish, rather
than causing them to degenerate and become standardized;
Article 5: Tourism, a beneficial activity for host countries and communities.
1. Local populations should be associated with tourism activities and
share equitably in the economic, social and cultural benefits they generate,
and particularly in the creation of direct and indirect jobs resulting
from them;
2. Tourism policies should be applied in such a way as to help to raise
the standard of living of the populations of the regions visited and meet
their needs; the planning and architectural approach to and operation
of tourism resorts and accommodation should aim to integrate them, to
the extent possible, in the local economic and social fabric; where skills
are equal, priority should be given to local manpower;
3. Special attention should be paid to the specific problems of coastal
a reas and island territories and to vulnerable rural or mountain regions,
for which tourism often represents a rare opportunity for development
in the face of the decline of traditional economic activities;
4. Tourism professionals, particularly investors, governed by the regulations
laid down by the public authorities, should carry out studies of the impact
of their development projects on the environment and natural surroundings;
they should also deliver, with the greatest transparency and objectivity,
information on their future programmes and their foreseeable repercussions
and foster dialogue on their contents with the populations concerned;
Article 6: Obligations of stakeholders in tourism development.
1. Tourism professionals have an obligation to provide tourists with objective
and honest information on their places of destination and on the conditions
of travel, hospitality and stays; they should ensure that the contractual
clauses proposed to their customers are readily understandable as to the
nature, price and quality of the services they commit themselves to providing
and the financial compensation payable by them in the event of a unilateral
breach of contract on their part;
2. Tourism professionals, insofar as it depends on them, should show concern,
in cooperation with the public authorities, for the security and safety,
accident prevention, health protection and food safety of those who seek
their services; likewise, they should ensure the existence of suitable
systems of insurance and assistance; they should accept the reporting
obligations prescribed by national regulations and pay fair compensation
in the event of failure to observe their contractual obligations;
3. Tourism professionals, so far as this depends on them, should contribute
to the cultural and spiritual fulfilment of tourists and allow them, during
their travels, to practise their religions; 4. The public authorities
of the generating States and the host countries, in cooperation with the
professionals concerned and their associations, should ensure that the
necessary mechanisms are in place for the repatriation of tourists in
the event of the bankruptcy of the enterprise that organized their travel;
5. Governments have the right – and the duty - especially in a crisis,
to inform their nationals of the difficult circumstances, or even the
dangers they may encounter during their travels abroad; it is their responsibility
however to issue such information without prejudicing in an unjustified
or exaggerated manner the tourism industry of the host countries and the
interests of their own operators; the contents of travel advisories should
therefore be discussed beforehand with the authorities of the host countries
and the professionals concerned; recommendations formulated should be
strictly proportionate to the gravity of the situations encountered and
confined to the geographical areas where the insecurity has arisen; such
advisories should be qualified or cancelled as soon as a return to normality
permits;
6. The press, and particularly the specialized travel press and the other
media, including modern means of electronic communication, should issue
honest and balanced information on events and situations that could influence
the flow of tourists; they should also p rovide accurate and reliable
information to the consumers of tourism services; the new communication
and electronic commerce technologies should also be developed and used
for this purpose; as is the case for the media, they should not in any
way promote sex tourism;
Article 7: Right to tourism.
1. The prospect of direct and personal access to the discovery and enjoyment
of the planet’s resources constitutes a right equally open to all
the world’s inhabitants; the increasingly extensive participation
in national and international tourism should be regarded as one of the
best possible expressions of the sustained growth of free time, and obstacles
should not be placed in its way;
2. The universal right to tourism must be regarded as the corollary of
the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay, guaranteed by Article 24 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7.d of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
3. Social tourism, and in particular associative tourism, which facilitates
widespread access to leisure, travel and holidays, should be developed
with the support of the public authorities;
4. Family, youth, student and senior tourism and tourism for people with
disabilities, should be encouraged and facilitated;
Article 8: Liberty of tourist movements.
1. Tourists and visitors should benefit, in compliance with international
law and national legislation, from the liberty to move within their countries
and from one State to another, in accordance with Article 13 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights; they should have access to places of transit
and stay and to tourism and cultural sites without being subject to excessive
formalities or discrimination;
2. Tourists and visitors should have access to all available forms of
communication, internal or external; they should benefit from prompt and
easy access to local administrative, legal and health services; they should
be free to contact the consular representatives of their countries of
origin in compliance with the diplomatic conventions in force;
3. Tourists and visitors should benefit from the same rights as the citizens
of the country visited concerning the confidentiality of the personal
data and information concerning them, especially when these are stored
electronically;
4. Administrative procedures relating to border crossings whether they
fall within the competence of States or result from international agreements,
such as visas or health and customs formalities, should be adapted, so
far as possible, so as to facilitate to the maximum freedom of travel
and widespread access to international tourism; agreements between groups
of countries to harmonize and simplify these procedures should be encouraged;
specific taxes and levies penalizing the tourism industry and undermining
its competitiveness should be gradually phased out or corrected;
5. So far as the economic situation of the countries from which they come
permits, travellers should have access to allowances of convertible currencies
needed for their travels;
Article 9: Rights of the workers and entrep reneurs in the tourism
industry.
1. The fundamental rights of salaried and self-employed workers in the
tourism industry and related activities, should be guaranteed under the
supervision of the national and local administrations, both of their States
of origin and of the host countries with particular care, given the specific
constraints linked in particular to the seasonality of their activity,
the global dimension of their industry and the flexibility often required
of them by the nature of their work;
2. Salaried and self-employed workers in the tourism industry and related
activities have the right and the duty to acquire appropriate initial
and continuous training; they should be given adequate social protection;
job insecurity should be limmited so far as possible; and a specific status,
with particular regard to their social welfare, should be offered to seasonal
workers in the sector;
3. Any natural or legal person, provided he, she or it has the necessary
abilities and skills, should be entitled to develop a professional activity
in the field of tourism under existing national laws; entrepreneurs and
investors - especially in the area of small and medium-sized enterprises
– should be entitled to free access to the tourism sector with a
minimum of legal or administrative restrictions;
4. Exchanges of experience offered to executives and workers, whether
salaried or not, from different countries, contributes to foster the development
of the world tourism industry; these movements should be facilitated so
far as possible in compliance with the applicable national laws and international
conventions;
5. As an irreplaceable factor of solidarity in the development and dynamic
growth of international exchanges, multinational enterprises of the tourism
industry should not exploit the dominant positions they sometimes occupy;
they should avoid becoming the vehicles of cultural and social models
artificially imposed on the host communities; in exchange for their freedom
to invest and trade which should be fully recognized, they should involve
themselves in local development, avoiding, by the excessive repatriation
of their profits or their induced imports, a reduction of their contribution
to the economies in which they are established;
6. Partnership and the establishment of balanced re l a t i o n s between
enterprises of generating
and receiving countries contribute to the sustainable devellopment of
tourism and an equitable distribution of the benefits of its growth;
Article 10: Implementation of the principles of the Global Code of
Ethics for Tourism.
1. The public and private stakeholders in tourism development should cooperate
in the implementation of these principles and monitor their effective
application;
2. The stakeholders in tourism development should recognize the role of
international institutions, among which the World Tourism Organization
ranks first, and non-governmental organizations with competence in the
field of tourism promotion and development, the protection of human rights,
the environment or health, with due respect for the general principles
of international law;
3. The same stakeholders should demonstrate their intention to refer any
disputes concerning the application or interpretation of the Global Code
of Ethics for Tourism for conciliation to an impartial third body known
as the World Committee on Tourism Ethics.