ECOTOURISM RESEARCH AND OTHER ADVENTURES

This site is devoted to research and education about ecotourism, ethnic tourism, nature tourism, and heritage tourism, along with other geographic interests of mine. Much of what you'll find here is based on research I did from 1994-1996 as a graduate student in Geography at the University of Minnesota, but several links will take you to popular articles I have written on aspects of tourism. I haven't done any more ecotourism research since 1996. Instead, I've been busy developing educational Web-based games, simulations and learning modules with my company, Educational Web Adventures. Check out our educational activities about art, science, and history!

Amazon Interactive

Online games and activities about the Amazon and indigenous ecotourism development. Find out how rainy the rainforest actually is, and who lives there. Learn about indigenous agriculture in the rainforest. Play the Ecotourism Game.

Ecotourism Research

Indigenous Ecotourism in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Case Study.1996.
(This paper is based on research I conducted in 1995. I have not worked in ecotourism research since then, so please don't ask me about current trends in the field!)

• Outline and summary of the research project
• Resumen en español
• Section 1: The Community of Río Blanco, Ecuador
• Section 2: Ecotourism in theory and practice
• Section 3: Río Blanco's Ecotourism Project
• Section 4: The potential of Río Blanco's project as sustainable development
• Appendix: The field experience
• Bibliography

The Ecocenter as Tourist Attraction: Ely, Minnesota and the International Wolf Center. 1996.

• Outline and summary of the research project
• Section 2: Nature Tourism and the Ecocenter
• Section 4: Tourism in Ely, Minnesota
• Section 5: Visitorship to the International Wolf Center
• Section 6: Impact of the International Wolf Center on Ely Tourism

Popular writing on tourism

• Reinventing Skagway. A magazine-style article about tourism, history and irony in Skagway, Alaska. Researched and written in 1988.
• Indigenous culture and authenticity. This essay looks at Maori culture and tourism. It is an excerpt from Stalking the Wild Kiwi, my book-length travel essay about New Zealand. Researched and written in 1989-90.

Other geographically-oriented pages

• Stalking the Wild Kiwi. The first chapter from my travel essay about New Zealand and its natural and cultural history. 1991.
• Dags, or how to clean a freshly-sheared fleece. Another chapter from Stalking the Wild Kiwi. 1991.
• Deathsled. The first chapter from my novel-in-progress about a sleddog racer who stumbles upon dangerous doings in the Alaskan bush. 1993.

And more about me...

• My business, eduweb, develops interactive online learning modules on almost any subject.

A Starsky and Hutch Canon Compendium