Is there a market for this type of sustainable travel in the tourism industry?

There is a market for this type of sustainable travel, although it is not large.  Sustainable Tourism Association of Hawaii members are providing ecotours to Hawaii’s visitors daily.  If all of the more than 8 million visitors to Hawaii each year wanted to do ecotourism, however, we soon would not have anything left to see. Natural and cultural resources are very fragile and many people do not understand the impacts large groups of people have on a resource. Ecotourism and sustainable travel are considered niche markets.  The people who want to lay in the sun and drink mai tai’s might also love to shop, so they can utilize the paved areas, while leaving the natural areas to those who deeply appreciate nature and want to learn more details about the environment. We hope that our visitors recognize that Hawaii is a mass tourism destination, not an ecotourism destination.  We would never want Hawaii to be an ecotourism destination entirely, unless we could control the numbers of visitors and the impact to the resources.