Ecotourism and sustainable development: Management strategies of Rocky Mountain National Park

Citing various reliable sources on ecotourism and sustainable development, the current research presents standard and well accepted definitions of ecotourism and sustainable development and attempts to determine the area of sustainable, ecotourism. The research also seeks the inherent notion of ecotourism and sustainable development that was encapsulated as early as 1916 during the establishment of National Park Service (NPS) in the Park Service Organic Act, 1916. The research also strives to examine and analyze the management strategies of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) in developing ecotourism and sustainable operations in the park. In doing so, background information derived from literature review, NPS Management Policy Guidelines and Directors' Orders have been referred as standards. Then the research also presents a summary and analysis of some Best Practice (BP) case studies in the field of ecotourism and sustainable development and compares them to the current management strategies of RMNP based on the feedbacks received from the concessionaires and management. It is believed that the conclusions drawn and recommendations made following a thorough research procedure would be beneficial to the RMNP for developing future management strategies for sustainable ecotourism development.