Is Ecotourism Really Economic Development?

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as, "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people... The tourist industry netted nearly $500 billion in 1999, but to whom did the money go? Certainly not to local craftspeople and merchants, who sell their wares, often hand crafted over many weeks, for a fraction of what their time would be worth in a tourist's home country. Certainly not to the thousands of native guides who have given farming for their families to take a few paltry dollars from stingy tourists."