Ecotourism part 4

Currently, ecotourism is the fastest growing sector within tourism in general. What that means is that ecotourism is becoming a force to be reckoned with because tourism is such a huge service industry. That being said, there are some problems in the industry. Because of the diversity of flora and fauna and the beauty of Costa Rica, this has become a huge part of the economy. The stability of the government here also attracts visitors more so than other central american countries. It is also pretty close to America, a 4 hour flight from Atlanta, so tourists do not have to adjust to a significant time change or any major culture shock. A lot of people speak english (although definitely not all, like tour books lead people to believe), and the higher standard of living also attract tourists. There are over 1 million tourists/year that visit Costa Rica producing over $1 billion in revenue. Most of the tourists come from North or South America, although Germany and Spain also provide a decent amount of tourists. All this ecotourism, which is sustainable and healthy in somewhat small doses, has begun to get overcrowded in Costa Rica due to the 6% increase in tourism numbers each year. Some national parks have been littered in and animals are used to humans feeding them, thus changing the whole ecosystem. Also, there is some greenwashing done by high end hotels and other resorts that are near ecologically interesting tourist attractions. These hotels claim to be good for the environment or different than normal hotels but in actuality they are just as bad for nature. Often times there is a lack of enforcement by rangers in the national parks, and closed areas areas are sometimes intruded on by reckless guides that don't care about doing damage to the environment and just want tourist money. All this tourism has both helped and hurt the economy. It helps by bringing tourists to spend money here and transferring money from wealthy countries to third world locales where many people are living in totally different ways compared to developed nations. Some bad things are that local people who only speak spanish can be exploited or ignored by tourist companies and left to their own business, not getting part of the economic pie that tourism bakes. The attraction that tourists go to see may interrupt the natural cycle of things surrounding a peasants home in the countryside by driving by in big buses and littering, but nothing is done to compensate them.