Rapid expansion and growth of ecotourism is a remarkable event. It is encouraging to note that ecotourism grew from a niche product, representing an extreme, idealized form of nature tourism, into a buzzword used to promote the country and a whole variety of tourism products.

Sri Lanka is an ideal tourist destination to grow in the area of ecotourism.The popularization of the ecotourism concept resulted in a rapid expansion of ecotourism operators, specialist eco-travel tour organizers and agents, eco-lodges, and in a significant advance in governments have to introduce ecotourism policies.

The growth of ecotourism resulted from two major factors.Firstly, tourists have become more interested in experiencing in natural environment and have grown dissatisfied with traditional, crowded tourist centres and resorts.Secondly, ecotourism has been assisted by improved infrastructure, an increased number of tour operators, widespread publicity, and recognition by many governments.

Tourism is an important sector to develop to derive the economic benefits fro the people of the country. There is a growing acceptance of links that exist between protection of ecosystems and economic opportunities emerging through tourism. These opportunites must be developed to find employment opportunities for the youth as well as to make valuable contribution to the national economy.

Increased interest in natural areas provided the authorities with a powerful incentive to protect the environment, as well as with the income from tourism to pay for conservation of environment. A part of the the revenue coming from the tourists must be utilized to protect the environment.

Many environmentalists and managers of tourism industy and nature reserves turned to ecotourism as a source of revenue for protected areas. This was part of a general realization of the need to improve the sustainability of all tourism.

Ecotourism now has become a product which has great demand from tourists all over the world. As a result, industry and governments, on the other hand, concentrate more on ecotourism as a product which has a potential market, whereby the image of a unique or pristine natural environment appeals to a growing sector of the international tourism market.

Tourists specially from european countries prefer to see the environment rather than commercial cities. The serene atmosphere cannot be found in the cities from which the most tourists are coming from.

In the present scenario, from a marketing perspective, ecotourism is sold as a specialty product, appealing largely to an up market, highly educated, and affluent traveler. Ecotourism, thus interpreted, may be ecologically based but is not always ecologically sound.