Lessons from the East: Rethinking Urban Mass Ecotourism from a Contemporary Sustainability Perspective

Abstract

Recent events including the pandemic have prompted reflection on the future of sustainability in tourism. It necessitated ‘proximity tourism’ – effectively, staying closer to home and discovering the proximate environment, the only tourism allowed for the mass of people. A form of proximate tourism, mass urban ecotourism, can sound like contradiction in terms twice over - neither ‘mass’ nor ‘urban’ in the western imagination and literature shaped by that outlook. This in part resides on a Western view of ecotourism (and human / nature relationship), shaped by a tradition of romanticism that seeks respite from modernity in solitude or in remote settings. This paper argues that mass urban ecotourism deserves far higher attention in the West. The pandemic might have necessitated urban mass ecotourism, but in the aftermath, it can be viewed as an inclusive and democratic form of leisure for the masses that also renders therapeutic benefits. Drawing from Asian philosophical and practical traditions, this paper suggests possibilities for the development of a mass, urban ecotourism that addresses both sustainability and the leisure needs of the masses. It also makes the case for western tourism planners and academics to take on board some important perspectives derived from eastern traditions.
Keywords: Mass urban ecotourism, Eastern Philosophies, Proximity tourism, Shengtai Luyou’, Shinrin Yoku