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Ecotourism consists of visiting destinations with protected or uncontaminated areas and includes not only nature but also culture, i.e., communities and ways of life untouched by waves of globalisation.

It is a growing niche in the travel industry as holiday-makers are seeking to become greener to respond to both the rise of green awareness amongst travelers and the wish to discover untouched places almost opposite to the urban environments of most. Part of ecotourism is of course green-friendly activities that work towards maintaining a place's ecosystem. It is a crucial part of the eco-holiday and includes recycling, water conservation, energy efficiency and green transport. So ecotourism refers to both a destination and the green experience that goes with visiting it.

It has several purposes besides offering alternatives to mainstream holidays and increasing green awareness as it also helps land conversation through financial support and gives more political voice to communities to protect their lands. So it helps making the world greener and the greener the world is, the more ecotourism can be created; a symbiotic relationship is thus created and this wheel has been constantly turning since the 1980s.

Although no international certification program exists yet to accredit a place or agency as ecotourism, it is definitely developing and a few national ones are already in place as in Costa Rica, Australia, Sweden and Kenya. This is now crucial given the fact that some venues call themselves eco-friendly when they are not, such as a large resort located in a natural environment which only contributes to deteriorating the surrounding bionetwork.

A survey done by ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) found that holiday-makers that focus on being eco-friendly automatically gain a competitive advantage over those which do not and one third of holiday-makers strongly want a system of green grading stars. According to the same survey, about 20% of travelers today are ready to pay more for a holiday organised by an eco-friendly company, an impressive rise compared to the 2% of last year. And the demand keeps growing. In light of this rising trend, a following article will present the most interesting green places to visit in the UK.