Today, ecotourism is a major tourist activity around the world. It is based on environment potential through which suitable utilization and conservation of sites under management practices including considering accurate planning, potential, and peoples’ preferences are realized. The present study was conducted to determine people’s recreational preferences using questionnaires to evaluate the ecotourism potentials (recreational activities that choice in questioner by visitors) for site selection and land use planning, and to analyze the functional relationships among zones in the MianKaleh wildlife sanctuary, south of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran and Golestan Provinces of Iran. Recreational preferences of people were found to be bird watching, swimming, camping, sightseeing, horse riding, and boating. Multi Criteria Evaluation was used to assess the ecotourism potential. For land use planning, the Multi Objective Land Allocation function included environmental suitability maps, zone weighting, and a set of desirable areas for each zone. Post processing functions (filters, zone size, and distance to other zones) and functional relationship diagrams were applied to amend the zoning maps. The functional relationship diagram concept was applied to the amended maps for optimizing access and identifying the relationships among zones. Overall, the results revealed that MCE and MOLA methods are capable of evaluating and zoning the wildlife sanctuary. Furthermore, post-processing and functional relationship diagrams were effective in selecting recreational sites. The results of this research revealed the recreational potential of MianKaleh wildlife sanctuary. Land planning for ecotourism can now be implemented using the results of this study that will upgrade the conservation status in the area.

This study was a baseline with quantitative data of marine litter along the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. The objective of the study was to quantify marine litter and its association with human activities in this estuarine gulf. A total of fourteen sandy beaches were cataloged by the degree of urbanization, tourism intensity, beach cleaning programs, and tributary rivers as possible drivers of marine litter presence. The items of the marine litter were separated and weighted by type. Analysis by the clean coastal index (CCI) and multivariate statistics were applied to find spatial patterns in marine litter in the gulf. On beaches with the highest touristic activity, cigarette butts and straws were the main components. Locations with river plume influence, less frequent cleanup, or waste cans showed more bottles, plastic parts, and sanitary waste than beaches in other conditions. A beach in a fisherman town had recently utilized plastic bags, household goods, and boat parts in the marine litter. A wildlife refuge beach showed only small plastic and coffee foam cup fragments that came with currents from other points in the estuary. River basin management, solid waste disposal programs, and environmental education to avoid single-use items combined with correct waste disposal are needed to reduce marine litter in tropical countries focused on ecological tourism.

In the Pacific region, community engagement, participation and empowerment are key to effective and sustainable marine resource management at the local level. With the prevalence of a local marine tenure systems and the widespread decline of coastal resources, communities need to be part of the solution to facilitate recovery. A novel marine monitoring toolkit was developed in Vanuatu with the participation of community resource monitors to inform local management actions. The Toolkit includes simplified versions of established monitoring methods for marine habitats and resources to achieve a balance between robust science and methods appropriate for communities. Key to its success is that it was developed in response to community needs using a participatory approach and implemented through a series of training workshops with local environmental leaders. Of particular note, the Toolkit includes a standardised process for communities to use monitoring results instantly, without the need for complex data analyses or external support. Using the Toolkit, communities are able to adapt their traditional management to address immediate and medium-term issues in their local marine environment. The observed benefits of the Toolkit include increased local awareness through community-led environmental outreach, increased ownership of and motivation for local monitoring and management, implementation of local management actions, expansion of traditional marine managed areas, and new local ecotourism initiatives to generate revenue to support environmental stewardship.

The impact of marine ecotourism on reef predators is poorly understood and there is growing concern that overcrowding in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) may disturb the species that these areas were established to protect. To improve our understanding of this issue, we used acoustic telemetry to examine the relationship between human activity at the Molokini Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD) and the habitat use of five reef-associated predators (Caranx melampygus, Caranx ignobilis, Triaenodon obesus, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, and Aprion virscens). During peak hours of human use, there was a negative relationship (R2=0.77, P<0.001) between the presence of bluefin trevally (Caranx melampygus) and vessels in subzone A. No other species showed strong evidence of this relationship. However, our results suggest that during this time, the natural ecosystem function that the reserve was established to protect may be compromised and overcrowding should be considered when managing MPAs.

Environmental plastic pollution constitutes a significant hazard to marine turtles, human health and well-being. We describe a transdisciplinary approach to draw together findings from diverse disciplines in order to highlight key environmental pollution problems and their consequences, together with social marketing-based strategies to address the problems. The example of plastic pollution and impacts to marine turtles illustrates the severity of the problem. Wildlife tourism and sustainable tourism activity have not focussed on specific behaviours to change and have had minimal impact on subsequent human behaviour regarding environmental issues, indicating the need for new strategies. Social marketing principles offer promise, but there is a need to investigate the utility of various theoretical foundations to aid the design and implementation of interventions. We offer insight towards using sophisticated multi-method research to develop insights into behaviours and segmentation-based strategies, that can aid the identification of barriers to, and enablers of, sustained behaviour change.

Litter presence was assessed on the entire Cuban coastline, and includes 99 beaches from all Cuban regions, during field work carried out in 2012 and 2015. A standard method verified in several countries was applied, which classified beaches for nine types of litter into four grades (A-excellent to D-poor). Almost half of the Cuban beaches obtained excellent cleanliness scores, although many needed to be better managed. In this baseline, the most common types of residue were general litter (8% grade D and 35% grades B/C) and potentially harmful litter (<68% with grade A). Resort beaches and those with international visitors showed the best litter management. Tourism Impacts seems to be related to visitor origin therefore choices to develop sustainable tourism in rural and village beaches (64%) appears low, if beach cleaning gross investment is focused on resort beaches (24%). Finally, this paper highlights geographical distribution and types of litter patterns.

Angra dos Reis can receive up to 1.3 million tourists in the summer season. The lack of an adequate sanitary system makes sewage contamination a growing concern in Ribeira Bay, Angra dos Reis, Brazil. This study aims to investigate the seasonal variation of faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and abiotic variables in Itanema cove situated within Ribeira Bay. Despite the seasonal population increase (>80 individuals) and the absence of an integrated sanitary system, our results indicate that Itanema is still a stable estuarine environment. From 2017 to 2019, the mean salinity was 27.91, pH was 7.82, and water temperature was 25.01 °C. However, the FIB number was 10⁵, suggesting the absence of sewage treatment in Itanema's outfall. Following current conservation status, baseline studies are mandatory for background references of endangered coastal areas such as Itanema cove. These studies are crucial for future governance decisions and sustainable tourism implementation in Angra dos Reis.

The Coastal Scenery Evaluation System was used to analyze the landscape of touristic beaches at the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, using a checklist with 26 physical and human parameters. The beaches are divided into classes ranging from 1 (extremely attractive natural site) to 5 (unattractive urban areas). The data reflects the natural and anthropogenic characteristics of the coastal Noronha scenery, which have international relevance and are between classes 1–4. Class 3 and 4 beaches are associated with anthropogenic factors/parameters. Seasonal sedimentary stock variation has also contributed to the differences in classes between the seasons at some beaches. The results of this study are useful to create new perspectives for sustainable development based on the singularities of this touristic resource – the landscape. The Fernando de Noronha Archipelago depends on its landscapes for tourism. Therefore, government policies should seek the sustainable management of its beaches, so as to ensure the protection of natural and cultural resources.

We investigate the impact of renewable energy and green practices (RE), transportation services and infrastructure (T.S.), GDP growth (GDP), and forestry and natural resources (AFF) on the sustainable tourism development in the Eastern European Countries (EECs). The study employed cross-sectional dependence and and CIPS unit root test to check stationarity along with the dynamic common correlated effect (DCCE) model proposed by Chudik and Pesaran (2015) to test parameters for ensuring robustness. The outcome of DCCE method suggests that renewable energy (RE), Transport Services (T.S.), Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (AFF), and economic growth (GDP) have a significantly positive impact on international tourism in the sampled countries of Europe. Our findings could be insightful for policymakers and understanding the impact of renewable energy and transportation services on tourism development, and thereby help in taking appropriate policy measures in the sampled countries.