A human ecological approach to tourism interactions

Building on the previous work of Budowski, Murphy and Butler, this paper develops a conceptual framework that examines tourism industry relationships from a human ecological perspective. In particular, predation, competition, neutrality and symbiosis are used to illustrate that tourism industry stakeholders (i.e., various types of tourism, operators, local people, and other land users) value and use resources differently and, in doing so, place varying levels of pressure on each other and the resource base. Human ecology is identified and discussed as a field of research that holds potential in strengthening our understanding of tourism's human ecological interactions.