Ecotourism, a niche form of tourism focusing on nature, wildlife, and education, is a product of the global environmental movement in the 1970s. By the early 1990s, ecotourism, along with similar nature-based and adventure tourism, had become among the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry worldwide, and remains so today (Society, 2012). Ecotourism-style travel to the delicate Antarctic region, the only place on earth without a permanent human population, has also grown rapidly since the 1990s, and continues to grow in terms of numbers of tourists as well as diversity of activities undertaken.

Susan J. Lewis - Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Energy andEnvironmental Policy, Faculty of the University of Delaware.