BECOMING GREEN - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 177

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BECOMING GREEN
On our fifth day sailing, I woke up early to see the sun rise over Costa Rica. The captain
saw me standing at the bow of the ship and said, “Look down.” Just below the water's surface
a small school of dolphins swam alongside the ship, catching a ride in its wake. They un-
dulated and leaped. They flashed what looked like dolphin smiles, and at times it seemed
as if they were leading us. Then just as quickly they disappeared.
“They've probably gone to get something to eat,” said Dan Dion, the captain of the Sea
Lion.
Dolphins at starboard, brown pelicans dive-bombing into the sea and white hawks circ-
ling overhead were common on our eight-day voyage aboard the ship. On our daily trips
ashore we were disappointed if we didn't see capuchin or squirrel monkeys swing overhead
or a shy agouti—a rodent the size of a small lamb—munch in the undergrowth. Some-
times we circled rocky islands in inflatable zodiac boats, binoculars pasted to our eyes to spy
on birds fighting midair over food or nesting on the rocks, all to a deafening symphony of
squeals and cries.
Bill and I had come to Costa Rica to see “ecotourism” at one of its birthplaces. Eco-
tourism is a clunky name for a movement begun several decades ago to put the brakes on
industrial-strength tourism and return to a form of travel that doesn't spoil or disfigure a
country's landscape, people or society. When I first told friends I was writing a book about
the tourism industry, they assumed I would concentrate on ecotourism. In many people's
minds, ecotourism is to regular travel what local organic farming is to factory farming. And
they think it is sweeping the planet; it is not. In the most optimistic measures, ecotourism or
its sister practices of geotourism, sustainable tourism and responsible tourism make up no
more than 8 percent of travel. The reason is simple: its aims often clash with industry goals
for high volume and profits. And that makes it very difficult to pull off, even in Costa Rica.
To measure those differences and difficulties, Bill and I visited Costa Rica by ship,
aboard the National Geographic 's Sea Lion on a voyage organized by Lindblad Expeditions.
I wanted to compare an ecocruise with the commercial cruise we had taken aboard the
Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas in December 2009. During our cruise in March