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Wild getaways: Can luxury wildlife tourism really benefit nature?
Summary
Luxury ecotourism might seem paradoxical, unsustainable even. But unforgettable, indulgent experiences that prioritise wildlife conservation are topping bucket lists as more travellers seek to be one with nature
On the banks of the Kabini, about 250km southeast of Bengaluru, between Nagarahole Tiger Reserve and Bandipur National Park, the landscape is a mix of grassy shore, shrubbery and swathes of dense forest. The gently flowing river is the lifeline for the region and is revered by the local communities. Evolve Back Kuruba Safari Lodge tries to blend in with the surroundings with its rustic walls and cane-reinforced straw roofs inspired by the indigenous Kadu Kuruba tribe, while the colours and textures are drawn from the landscape.
Flanked by two national parks that form a part of the ecologically diverse but also sensitive Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, and watched closely by environmentalists, the resort is at pains to wear its sustainability measures on its sleeve. The group, Orange County Resorts & Hotels Ltd, published a “Responsible Tourism" charter on its site, more than 15 years ago, listing its “waste, water and energy conservation initiatives", and engagement with the local community. It supports the Karnataka forest department’s anti-poaching measures, participates in animal census activities and helps with clean-up initiatives in the surrounding areas and forests. It is not just what’s on paper but physical evidence of these initiatives (rainwater harvesting, solar panels, locally grown ingredients, social initiatives) are visible all over the property and outside.
Once considered niche and elitist, luxury ecotourism is not just booming in India but also increasingly mainstreaming, in line with trends worldwide.
Luxury ecotourism is a sub-sect of eco-tourism focused on providing not just high-end and lavish travel experience but also access to rare and exclusive encounters, while minimising environmental impact and actively engaging with the local communities. Typically, this is aimed at well-heeled but discerning travellers who value conservation and sustainability.
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As affluent travellers shun mere indulgence and search for rare, immersive experiences that combine exclusivity and impact, there has been an explosion of products that merge exceptional encounters and meaningful contribution to the environment with luxury. These range from trekking to spot gorillas in Rwanda to reef conservation in the Maldives, tortoise rewilding in the Galapagos to Amazonian experiences in Brazil. According to a 2024 report by Allied Market Research, millennials and Gen-Z form the predominant customer base for luxury ecotourism. They tend to prefer unique, sustainable and ethical travel experiences.
In India, owing to restrictions on interaction with wildlife, luxury ecotourism veers largely towards eco-conscious safari lodges, conservation-driven resorts and renewable energy-powered settings. There are initiatives in India where guests can volunteer/visit rescue centres but these have mixed reception. Controversial media around related facilities haven’t helped: case in point—the Netflix series Tiger King, a true crime documentary series about a controversial big cat conservationist, private zoos and animal sanctuaries. Diving and snorkelling to see underwater marine life is less restrictive but come with a set of pre-requisites and protections baked in.
There is high-stakes commerce at play here: previously dismissed as a tiny sliver, the global luxury ecotourism market is estimated to be growing at over 15% and expected to top $300 billion by 2030, according to business consulting firm Grand View Research. Closer home, Indian ecotourism is estimated to reach $15.5 billion in 2025 and expected to grow at over 10% to touch $41.5 billion in 2035, according to market research and consulting firm Future Market Insights. Clearly, these are not numbers to sneeze at, and stakeholders are waking up to the implications of these figures.
Balancing greenery and guilt
“We see a commitment to sustainability among Indian travellers," says Santosh Kumar, digital travel marketplace Booking.com’s country manager for India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia. “Our annual Sustainable Travel Report indicates 95% of Indians consider sustainable travel important, with 93% wanting to travel more sustainably in the next 12 months; 74% of Indian travellers believe they are the best version of themselves when they travel more sustainably and consequently, take this positivity home with them. Furthermore, 62% feel guilty when making less sustainable choices, reflecting a growing awareness and desire for responsible travel."
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On the ground, service providers are privy to this rise in real time. “There has been an increase in client requests that seek off-the-grid experiences," says Loveleen Multani Arun of Bengaluru-based Panache World, a boutique travel solutions company. “Wildlife retreats, especially, have seen a sharp uptick in demand. The Indian traveller has started to appreciate sensitivity in construction of lodges/resorts and how much the lodge respects the destination or the ecosystem of the area. This increase is coming from all sections and age groups—from families with young children as well as the elderly; from travellers on a tight budget (around ₹5,000 per day) to luxury spenders (upwards of ₹40,000 per day)."
But the segment is still quite small when compared to the number of Indian travellers as a whole. “There is definitely more awareness when compared to even five-seven years ago," says Shoba Rudra, founder and partner at RARE India, a community of exclusive ‘non-hotels’ across India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. “As far as the number of people seeking vacations based on sustainability or eco-living, and actually booking it, the numbers are still not high enough to be impactful. The booking market is still price-based and sustainability is still a narrow concept," she says.
Though ecotourism is small, it was enough to warrant attention. A global effort to define and establish some guardrails was initiated in 2002 when the UN declared that year as the International Year of Ecotourism. WTO, the UN’s tourism wing, termed ecotourism as “all nature-based forms of tourism in which the main motivation of the tourists is the observation and appreciation of nature as well as the traditional cultures prevailing in natural areas", and also specified that it should “minimise negative impacts upon the natural and sociocultural environment". Soon after, luxury ecotourism began to establish itself.
Clearly, for travellers such trips are more than indulgence and ego trips. Tourism industry insiders say the demand surged after covid, when travellers started looking for experiences that took them into wide open spaces and closer to nature. Alongside, they also sought the trifecta of exclusivity, authenticity and purpose. They sought out raw natural beauty, untouched landscapes, meaningful engagement with local communities and contribution to the conservation efforts. All grounded in comfort.
“A few years ago, we stayed at a luxury eco-resort in Coorg for the first time and were very impressed with the experience," says Priya Rajagopal, a former project manager at a multinational technology company based in Bengaluru. “We liked some of the thoughtful things like use of local materials, their farm-to-table initiative and connection with the local community. It was also a learning experience for us. Conservation and sustainability were these abstract concepts in the head but some of these initiatives made them real. Since then, we have stayed at a few more places in other parts of the country and the experiences have been largely heartening," she says. Her stays have inspired her to adopt a few practices, such as reducing plastic waste as much as possible, especially for water.
Arun says travellers are embracing such trips because they are seeking meaningful escape in a way. “They also want to truly make connections with people and local communities. They want their children to appreciate the ‘back-to-our-roots’ stories and want to expose them to practices that one wouldn’t see in urbanscapes," she says. “The level of offerings from such properties in India has improved tremendously and that makes people more comfortable stepping into rural landscapes knowing they will still have luxury facilities."
Take the case of Pugdundee Safaris, which has seven small lodges across Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (three more are on the way) and prides itself for its bespoke wilderness experiences. “We wanted to provide an authentic wildlife experience where you’re up close in the jungle. There are no manicured gardens or paved paths (in the resort)," says Pugdundee’s co-director Manav Khanduja. “Once you’re in any of our lodges you get the feeling that you’re in the middle of a forest. A lot of animals reside nearby and transit through the grounds, including big cats and smaller mammals," he says of their rooms priced at ₹20,000-30,000 per night for two people. More than 70% of their staff, including managerial and key positions, are from the surrounding areas; food and ingredients are sourced from local farmers; and more than 70% of lodge services and procurement needs are met locally. According to Pugdundee Safaris, 50% of their visitors are from India.
“We’ve divided our sustainability into three parts: how we treat our environment (rewilding, environmentally sensitive climate conscious construction, rainwater harvesting, growing local food and solar plants to meet 70% of energy requirements); how we address the social aspect by providing meaningful employment to locals and skill development; and how we govern the two through reporting structures in sustainability implementation," Khanduja says.
Among the several little things the group does is a ban on single-use plastic (guests are given refillable water bottles with water stations scattered across properties), providing bamboo toothbrushes and straws and plant-based packaging for takeaways. “Most of the food is grown in the kitchen gardens or sourced locally. We stay away from exotics, there are so many things that are grown and available locally and we serve only those. For me, getting great organic food is luxury rather than food that is imported from Thailand or Spain," says Khanduja.
The other side of luxury
However, any form of luxury has to always be viewed with caution, especially when it concerns the environment. “For me, luxury means a very high level of experience that is based around experience itself and is not on the luxury of living in a high-end accommodation," says Rakesh Mathur, honorary president, Responsible Tourism Society of India (RTSOI). Formerly Ecotourism Society of India, RTSOI was set up following a directive from the Union ministry of tourism after the UN adopted the Cape Town declaration on responsible tourism in 2002.
“If it means a high-end experience backed with comfortable living then I’m all for it. When I say comfortable living, I mean a comfortable bed, clean hygienic accommodation and good local food. But if it means providing high-end luxury of star quality in these sensitive areas just for the sake of it, RTSOI is not for it. If you are throwing six additional cushions on the bed and importing food—lamb from New Zealand, caviar from Russia and foie gras from France—then that is not luxury ecotourism. Because the energy, carrying and environmental cost of this is very high," explains Mathur.
Conservationists view luxury ecotourism with a healthy dose of scepticism. “There are very few providers who are really committed to ecotourism in the real sense," says Bengaluru-based K.R. Keshava Murthy, a functional area expert in ecology and biodiversity, and a conservationist. “Even entities like Jungle Lodges and Resorts (a quasi-government upscale eco-tourism provider in Karnataka) have to deal with overcrowding in the resorts. In such a scenario, it is damaging to the environment and to biodiversity," he points out.
Biodiversity conservationist Seshadri K.S., who is a fellow at ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment) in Bengaluru, says he is suspicious of most nature-based tourism entities. “The biggest problem is of equity. Most ecologically sensitive areas have minimal resources (water and food) and the issue is how these resources get distributed and used," he says referring to the fact that often local communities are denied access to them. The other issue he points out is that nature is “commoditised and trivialised", and ultimately many places have very little that is geared towards nature. “Carrying capacity (the number of people a forest or a natural area can sustainably support) is a complex issue and nobody really has a great understanding of it, so people get away with minimal or arbitrary requirements," he says.
Both Murthy and Seshadri flag issues of impact, waste production and disposal, and conservation of precious resources, but feel the biggest problem is the lack of proper regulation and monitoring. Guidelines are plenty but they hardly serve as guardrails. “Of course there are examples of companies which prioritise ecology, environment and engagement with local communities, but these are exceptions rather than the rule," Murthy says.
Seshadri points out that regulation and monitoring are imperative. “Even with them, compliance is problematic. Self-regulation works in some cases, but it becomes a casualty in the face of the bottom-line. Even after large-scale disasters like in Uttarakhand (2013 flashfloods) and Wayanad (2024 landslides), we don’t seem to have learned anything," he says.
In contrast, there are the optimists, who consider luxury ecotourism as reshaping the travel industry by setting new standards for responsible and sustainable tourism practices. Better still, it is seen as a vehicle to boost the local economy and usher development. Take the example of Costa Rica, home to rare and ecologically rich cloud forests. Though the country has just 0.035% of the earth’s area, it has almost 5% of its biodiversity. The country has used this richness to shape conservation with community development, and redefined the country’s tourism economy in the process. Every year around 70,000 visitors to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve get up close with this unique ecosystem with the help of local guides and their visits fund initiatives across reforestation and education that are bound to have implications for future generations.
In India, the segment is still nascent and not so organised. Even though the numbers may be quite low, it is indeed influencing the way travellers choose all aspects of their travel—destination, accommodation, transportation and experience, eventually leading to a significant shift towards more eco-conscious travel. Kumar says their surveys indicate that 48% of Indian travellers find sustainably labelled accommodations more appealing, which prompted the platform to launch a programme for sustainable journeys.
No matter how good the intention, scepticism abounds, even around the concept itself and questions arise whether luxury truly aligns with sustainability. Some would argue that the term luxury ecotourism is paradoxical, that inherently luxury cannot be sustainable and that any trade-off is a false positive. While doubts are valid, it is also true that the landscape of luxury travel, especially when connected with conservation, has been evolving rapidly. New and improved ways of assessing and measuring the impact of these practices has ushered in significant accountability.
Mathur is among the cautious ones. “The fact that promoters think they will first provide the luxury and then neutralise doesn’t feel right in my view because there is the environmental cost of providing the luxury and then there is an additional cost, whether it’s energy or something else. Even neutralising involves consumption of energy and resources to offset, and you’re again using energy and resources so I don’t think there is any logic in saying that ‘let me do something and then I’ll try and neutralise it by doing something else.’ I don’t buy that argument," he says. “Having said that, our members are committed to sustainability and do their best to provide the best experience with the least cost to the environment."
Rudra feels the segment is not yet mature to be fully altruistic. “Since tourism burns up the maximum amount of fossil fuels, luxury ecotourism is itself a contronym. The argument that tourism offers jobs, helps crafts and local economies is not entirely true as in most cases it is exploitative and wasteful both for the communities and the planet. A good example is the cruise industry," she says.
Arun however has a more optimistic outlook. “Ecotourism might not have been sustainable in the past, but as more conscious millennials and Gen-Z come of age, I foresee a greater demand for this segment. They are willing to pay a higher price for sustainable hotels and authentic experiences."
Where responsibility lies
Khanduja has a more pragmatic take. “We have to accept that we’re going to consume, and that we are going to pollute. So the challenge is how to make sure that the pollution is as less as possible," he says. Contrary to popular belief, Khanduja insists there’s an ethical and financially viable way to go about it. “There is a definite cost to sustainability, but in most cases it is economically viable too. For example in Tadoba, in Maharashtra, where electricity costs ₹20 per unit, we save substantially by generating electricity through solar power. I feel that budget places cannot be really eco-friendly because putting up a solar plant involves a fair amount of investment. Sustainability needs some amount of investment initially but you get your returns for it (depending on the location, it can vary from 3-7 years)."
Arun says the properties that are truly eco-sensitive are trying to capture metrics on how they are using the local resources, or positively impacting it, including how they are re-greening the adjoining lands. She cites the example of Kunwar Ram Pratap Singh of Chambal Safari Lodge in Uttar Pradesh, who has done a lot of work for reforestation and habitat regeneration with awareness programmes and community involvement.
Kumar says his platform is increasingly laying strong emphasis on sustainability initiatives by supporting partners through educational resources and other tools. Since transportation, a fossil-fuel guzzler, is a big chunk of travel, the platform has a section on sustainable transportation including focus on electric and hybrid vehicles and tagging lower emission flights.
Where does the responsibility lie? Do travellers have to demand sustainable options or are providers responsible for setting up sustainable products and hope customers will embrace them? Undoubtedly, the segment is far from mature. “There is clear disparity. Whilst there are so many properties that are following cutting-edge practices towards sustainability, there are clones or faux-sustainable properties that use a lot of jargon, wanting to be counted in the same segment," says Arun, an industry veteran.
“The audience at large may get swayed by what they read online and they have no way of knowing one from the other. Many a time, the lower (package) rate wins," says Arun.
For travellers, the solution lies in doing one’s homework, including reading about certifications, testimonials, asking questions of the provider and looking for transparency. “There is a lot of work being done by consortiums, curating lists of sustainable properties and training luxury travel advisers to carry this message to clients," says Arun.
Rudra, whose RARE platform has a large section on this, is blunt: “There is some good work being done by operators and resorts, especially those working in wildlife, forests and adventure segments. Unfortunately, the minute you label yourself as luxury, everything reverts to the standard connotations of luxury which are unnecessary and excessive."
Over the last few years, Arun says she’s experienced a few places that stand out for their sustainable initiatives. “I was recently in Chunda Shikar Oudi near Udaipur, which gives an innate sense of the place. At Kanha Jungle Lodge and Kipling Camp, guests are won over with the simplicity and how they integrate the local communities. Evolve Back properties in Karnataka and CGH properties in Kerala have had their hearts in the right place much before sustainability became a buzzword," says Arun.
Shifting ground
The luxury ecotourism segment is also shaking up thinking, especially in places where reinvesting in the environment is integral. This challenges the traditional notion of luxury as consumption, and reimagines it as conservation.
In a 2024 research paper published by four economists of Italy’s University of Florence titled The Marriage Between Luxury Hospitality, Ecotourism, and Social Initiatives: A New Business Model from Italy, the researchers concluded that “many hotels worldwide have started implementing green management practices and adopting new business models… and not only demonstrate that it is possible to combine sustainability and luxury but also to depict a new form of business model that integrates social and environmental dimensions."
Simultaneously, the key might also lie in redefining luxury to mean exclusivity combined with authenticity and responsibility. “We all look at luxury in different ways," says Khanduja. “A lot of people will say they love manicured gardens and fountains and that is luxury. But for some of us a beautiful forest, clean water, clean air and clean food is luxury."
