Soft ecotourism: The substitution effect

This article examines the emergence of the “soft‐ecotourism” market and measures the extend of familiarity with ecotourism and the willingness of resort travellers to substitute, partially or totally, their vacation with an ecotourism experience. education, income and age are positively associated with ecotourism, while women and singles are a more in favour towards a substitution to ecotourism. The study indicates that there is confusion as to what constitutes ecotourism and the authors suggest that tourism agencies should be more actively engaged in explaining ecotourism to their potential clients.