Alternative Tourism

The alternative forms of tourism combine tourist products or separate tourist services different from the mass tourism by means of supply, organization and the human resource involved.
 These are rural, ecotourism, adventure (biking, horseback riding, snowshoeing, ski mountaineering, rafting, diving, caving, climbing), thematic tourism – connected with the cultural and historical heritage, the esoteric, religion, wine, traditional cuisine, ethnography and traditional music and handicrafts.
 Sustainable tourism is a new category and is a continuation of the conception for sustainable development which was launched at the conference in Rio in 1993. It is a result of the concerns to the protection of endangered regions on the planet as a whole and in particular the tropical woods. However, it treats urban and rural regions, cultural and historical heritage as well and consequently has broader coverage than ecotourism.
 Sustainable tourism’s objective is minimizing tourism influence on the local environment through promoting its conception to tourists before and during their holiday as well as provoking nature conservation practices ever since the conception stage in the outgoing sector.
For the past few decades some forms of tourism have been becoming more popular, particularly:
 Adventure tourism: tourism involving travel in rugged regions, or adventurous sports such as mountaineering and hiking.
 Agritourism: farm based tourism, helping to support the local agricultural economy.
 Ancestry tourism: is the travel with the aim of tracing one's ancestry, visiting the birth places of these ancestors and sometimes getting to know distant family.
 Cultural tourism: includes urban tourism, visiting historical or interesting cities, and experiencing their cultural heritages.
 Ecotourism: sustainable tourism which has minimal impact on the environment,
 Gambling tourism, e.g. to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Macau for the purpose of gambling at the casinos