PRT 230 - Ecotourism

Fall, 2012

Location: Aiken 110

Meeting Time: 11:30 to 12:45 p.m. – Tuesday and Thursday

Instructor: Office Hours:

Walt Kuentzel 10:00 – 12:00 Monday and Wednesday
[email protected] Or by appointment
308-H Aiken Center (656-0652)

Course Objectives: This course will explore the growing social phenomenon of nature-based
travel and sustainable tourism with a focus on travel to international destinations. We will
explore 4 major themes throughout the semester:

1) Tourism and contemporary social change

2) Ecotourism and social justice
3) Environment, social, and economic impacts of tourism
4) Ecotourism as a sustainable business model

Required Texts: (Available at the UVM Book Store).

Honey, Martha. (2008). Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (2nd
Edition) Washington, DC: Island Press.

Patullo, P. (2005) Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean. New York: Monthly
Review Press. 2nd Edition.

Course Reading Packet: Available on Course Web Page as Adobe Acrobat PDF files:
http://www.uvm.edu/envnr/rm230/

Office Hours: I invite and encourage you to stop in during office hours to talk about the course,
talk about travel and tourism, or talk about anything else on your mind. If the office hours are
inconvenient for you, feel free to schedule an appointment. If stopping by the office is
inconvenient, please contact me via email ([email protected]), or by phone. My direct
number is 656-0652.

Course Assignments

I. Book Report (15% of Grade) - International travel before 1940. Find a book that describes
someone’s international travel experience. It may be a book of your choosing, but the text must
have been written between 1860 and 1940. It also must be a first-person account, not an account
of someone else’s travel experiences. The book should describe travel to an “exotic” destination.
This means a non-European destination and non-United States destination - generally some
undeveloped region or third world region of the world. Please check with me about the title you
choose. (See me sooner, rather than later if you run into trouble.) Read the book and write a book
report that addresses the following questions:

1) Describe what they did, what they saw, and what they thought about what they saw. As
travelers, how did they portray or think about themselves and their accomplishments?

2) After reading the chapters from Boorstin, MacCannell, and Kuentzel, first, summarize
each writers’ ideas about the differences between historic and contemporary travel. Next,
how does the travel experience you read support the generalizations about travel made by
the three writers, and how does the travel experience contradict their generalizations? Be
sure to provide specific examples.

Parts 1 should cover about 3-4 pages, while part 2 should cover about 3-4 pages - 8 pages
(double-spaced) maximum.

Believe it or not, the UVM library has plenty of titles that would qualify. Below are some
examples with call numbers.

Bowman, I. (1920). The Andes of Southern Peru: A Geographical Reconnaissance along

the Seventy Third Meridian. London: Constable and Company, Ltd. GB 165.B7

Burton, R. F. (1876). Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo. London:
S. Low, Marston, Low, and Searle. Special Collections Rare Book DT479.B97

Dyott, G. M. (1926). On the Trail of the Unknown in the Wilds of Ecuador and the
Amazon. London: Butterworth. F3714.D76

Franck, H. A. (1917). Vagabonding in the Andes: Being the Narrative of a Journey

Chiefly Afoot, from Panama to Buenos Aires. Garden City, NJ: Garden City Publishing
Company. F223.F82

You can also find full-text books on line. For example, go to:
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
or the Amazon Kindle Store if you have a Kindle or Kindle app on your phone
and do a search on “travel.”
If you use an online source, be sure to cite the link in your paper.

There are a few types of books that are not acceptable. Stay away from novelists (e.g.,
Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa”). Also I will not accept books about travel to Antarctica or
to the Arctic. These types of people were more in the category of adventurers – not travelers.

II. Two Tests (15% each – one on February 27 and one on May 4)
III. Natural Capital Profile (5% of Grade) Choose one ecolodge project anywhere in the world
to profile. Find out everything you can about that ecolodge, and then write a 2-3 page summary
that describes how that project incorporates the four principles of Lovins et al’s natural
capitalism. Be specific! Don’t just say they have a biodigester or that they recycle. Describe how
that biodigester works and what is involved in their recycling programs. The more specific you
can be, the better your grade.

III. Community Conservation (10% of grade) – Chose one of the three following protected
areas: 1) Arusha National Park (Tanzania), 2) Pantanal San Matias Reserve (Bolivia), or 3)
Gaoligongshan Nature Reserve (Yunnan Province, China). Find out all you can about the natural
and social environment of the one selected protected area and its surroundings.

Pretend that each of these areas has been given to the Nature Conservancy, and they have asked
you to prepare a 10-year community conservation plan, with the goal of turning over complete
management authority at the end of the 10 years to local/indigenous people who live in the
region.

You will need to:

1) Briefly describe the natural and social environment of the area – landscape, climate,
unique characteristics of the region. Who and what lives and grows there?

2) Describe the specific initiatives (drawn from class and readings) that you will take to
involve communities in conservation of the area, and specific ways that these
conservation initiatives will benefit local people.

3) In describing the initiatives in #2, how will you incrementally prepare the local
population in the kinds of resource management and administrative expertise that is
required to conserve a natural area on their own? This should include a time-line for
training and development of institutional structures needed to manage the resource.

Your paper should be 3-4 pages double spaced.

IV. Impact Evaluation (10% of Grade) – Assignment description TBA.

IV. Ecolodge Plan - (20% of Grade). You will work in pairs to prepare an Ecolodge Plan.
Assume you have adequate (though not limitless) funding to build an ecolodge in a part of the
developing world of your choosing. Prepare a development plan that includes the following:

1) A description of the specific place you will build your ecolodge using the site
evaluation and planning (e.g., access, local communities, local building materials,
landscape, zoning) and site design guidelines (e.g., building placement, roads, plant
disturbance, drainage) from class and your readings. In addition you should discuss
architecture and principles of biophilic design.
 2) A specific description of the business practices and design features you plan to use. It
isn’t necessary to include artwork of your plan (but see Google Sketch-Up if you want to
provide visual effects). But provide a comprehensive description that demonstrates your
understanding of material input systems and closed-loop management systems.

a) Specifically, you should describe in detail material use and flow - aesthetics,
energy use, water management, waste management, and building technologies –
and the ways these are integrated into a green design system.

b) Then you should describe in detail business operation practices – e.g., buying,
hiring, investment of profits, employee training, community involvement,
customer service, etc.

3. An assessment of your ecolodge’s contributions to the surrounding community,

economic profitability and impact, and environmental stewardship. Convince me that you
would be doing more good than harm by building your ecolodge.

Your ecolodge plan should be a minimum of 10 pages double spaced (not counting charts,
drawings, or bibliography).

VI. Attendance and Class Participation - (10% of Grade)

Please Note: Because of the number of students in this class, I cannot accept assignments that
are submitted via email. I will need a printed hard copy of any assignments you turn in.

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

DATE TOPIC READING ASSIGNMENT ASSIGNMENT

August 28 Ecotourism: Putting
Sustainability to Work

August 30 What is Ecotourism? Wood, M. E. (2002). Ecotourism: Bring pictures

Principles, Practices and Policies for (Facebook pages)
Sustainability. p. 7-32. and souvenirs from
your international
travel experiences

Tourism in Modern Society

September 4 Traveler vs. Tourist: Boorstin, D. J. (1961) From traveler to
Tourism as a Pseudo- Tourist: The lost art of travel. Chapter
Event? 3 in: The Image, A guide to Pseudo-
Events in America. Pp. 77-117.
September 6 History of Travel You should be reading in your selected
book by early travel writers
September 11 Authenticity and MacCannell, D. (1967). Introduction
 Symbolic Representation and Staged authenticity. Intro and
Chapter 5 in: The Tourist: A New
Theory of the Leisure Class. Pp. 1-16
and 91-108.
September 13 Globalization and Rural Kuentzel, W. F. (2010) Hybridization
Communities and Development along the Rincon
River.

Ecotourism and the Global Tourism Industry

September 18 From Nature Tourism to Honey, M., (2008) Chapter 1 in Book Report
Ecotourism? Ecotourism and Sustainable
Development.
September 20 Alternative to What? Honey, M., (2008). Chapter 2 in:
Ecotourism and Sustainable
Development.
September 25 Putting Sustainable Honey, M., (2008). Chapter 3 in:
Tourism to Work Ecotourism and Sustainable
Development.
September 27 Natural Capitalism Lovins, A., Lovins, H., & Hawken, P.
A Road Map for Natural Capitalism.
October 2 From Values to Practice Natural Capital
Profile
October 4 Test #1
Ecotourism and Social Justice: Community Conservation
October 9 Origins Hulme & Murphree – Chapter 2 & 3
October 11 Protected Areas Outreach Hulme & Murphree – Chapter 9
October 16 Co-management Hulme & Murphree – Chapter 12
October 18 Devolution Hulme & Murphree – Chapter 11

The Impacts of Tourism

October 23 Intro to Tourism Impacts Online Reading Community
Conservation
October 25 Mass Tourism in the Patullo, P. Chapter 1, 5, 6
Caribbean – Intro
October 30 Economic Impacts Pattullo, P. Chapter 2, 3
November 1 Social Impacts Pattullo, P. Chapter 4 & 8
November 6 Environmental Impacts Pattullo, P. Chapter 5 & 9

Ecolodge Design
November 8 Biophilic Design Kellert, S. Chapter 5 in Building for Impact Evaluation
Life.
November 13 Site Planning & Design Online Reading
November 15 Building that Minimizes Online Reading
 Biophysical Impacts
November 20 & 22 – No Class. Thanksgiving Break
November 27 Material Inputs: Energy, Online Reading
Water, Traditional
Materials
November 29 Closed Loop Systems – Online Reading
Waste Management
December 4 Integrated Design: Online Reading
Putting it all together
December 7 Test 2 - 1:30 in Aiken 110
December 11 Final Ecolodge Plan Due

Other Important Information:

Academic Support Programs (ASP); www.uvm.edu/~aspprogs. ASP includes ACCESS, the

Learning Cooperative, and TRIO/Student Support Services (SSS).

ACCESS: In keeping with University policy, any student with a disability who needs
academic/classroom accommodations should contact ACCESS. ACCESS coordinates
reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. They are located at A170
Living/Learning Center, and can be reached by phone at 802-656-7753, or by emailing
[email protected]. Visit their website at http://www.uvm.edu/access.

The Learning Co-op offers a variety of resources such as Supplemental Instruction, Writing
Center, subject-specific tutoring, etc. Whether you are excelling or having trouble with a class,
the Learning Co-op is a valuable resource.

ASP also includes TRIO, a spectrum of services for eligible first-generation or limited-income
students.

UVM Official Policy on Religious Holidays: Students have the right to practice the religion of
their choice. Each semester students should submit in writing to their instructors by the end of
the second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester.
Faculty must permit students who miss work for the purpose of religious observance to make up
this work.

UVM Academic Integrity Policy: Offenses against the Code of Academic Integrity are deemed
serious and insult the integrity of the entire academic community. Any suspected violations of the
code are taken very seriously and will be forwarded to the Center for Student Ethics & Standards
for further investigation.

Cutting-and-pasting from internet sources (without proper citation) is plagiarism. Instances of

this type of plagiarism are not hard to find, and I do check. So, here’s what I expect. The words
you turn in should be your own. If you use text from the internet in the body of your
assignment, it 1) must be enclosed in quotation marks, and 2) must be properly cited in your
document. Failure to do so will result in an “F” on the assignment, and in extreme cases can
mean an “F” for the course.

Computers in the Classroom

I do not ban computers from the classroom (yet!). However, I do offer a couple of observations
about computer use during class:

1) It’s your money. Each 75-minute class session costs about $47 for in-state students and about
$120 for out-of-state students. You must decide for yourself if access to Facebook, YouTube, or
Ebay, etc. during class is worth that kind of money to you.

2) Research in cognitive psychology shows that multi-tasking on high-effort mental tasks (like
learning) significantly lowers performance. Over the past two semesters (when computer use in
the classroom has exploded), we have noticed a negative correlation between computer use and
class performance. Test score distributions in classes typically show a normal curve. Recently,
test score distributions have skewed a bit toward the D and F range, and classroom computer use
tends to be the reason.

Learning to focus is a really important life-skill, and computers in the classroom don’t help.