Supply-Side Perspectives on Ecotourism in Northern Thailand

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-17-2010

Publication Title

International Journal of Tourism Research

Department

International Political Economy

Abstract

This study provides a supply-side perspective on ecotourism by exploring the ways in which travel agents and tour operators in Chiang Mai, Thailand conceptualise, prioritise and furnish ecotourism. Although travel agents and tour operators serve as crucial intermediaries between tourists and destinations, the ecotourism literature has largely ignored the ways in which retailers and suppliers of tourism experience approach and define ecotourism. Using quantitative data gathered from 300 travel agents and tour operators, this paper illustrates that the conceptualisation of ecotourism among agents and operators in Chiang Mai is expansive, flexible and, in some ways, internally contradictory.

Volume

12

Issue

5

pp.

627-641

ISSN

1099-2340

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