Then Alternative Tourism is emerged, and of course, it is not new.

It has been introduced in the early part of the nineteenth century. It is an alternative form of tourism to the least desired or most undesired type of tourism, or essentially what is known as mass tourism. However, like many appealing alternatives, there are both problems and costs, and benefits associate with the alternative which will be discussed later. ALTERNATIVE TOURISM is a process which promotes a just form of travel between members of different communities. It seeks to achieve mutual understanding, solidarity and equality amongst participants. (Holden, 1984, p.15: cited in Smith & Eadington, 1992. P.18) Nowadays, all travellers who do not undertake a normal type of vacation are lumped together under the general heading of alternative tourism. Some really do appear to suggest that anything other than mass tourism should be graced with the alternative label (de Kadt, 1990). Alternative tourism is applied to tourism which does not damage the environment, is ecologically sound, avoids the negative impacts of many large-scale tourism developments undertaken in areas which have not previously been developed. Secondly, alternative tourism is thought to consist of smaller scale developments, or attractions for tourists which are set in villages or communities and organized by them Alternative Tourism can be referred to many other names, for example, Soft Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Green Tourism, and so on.1

For some people, a week on a cruise ship or all-inclusive beach resort is pure torture. Others prefer museums and a posh hotel over a hike through a national park. Ecotourism? Sounds like a great way to get a snake bite. For others however, absolute heaven.

The point of course is to illustrate that diverse catalysts compel us to travel. Different reasons motivate different people to leave home and explore the world. With that expressly in mind, here are five types of alternative tourism:

http://www.journal.au.edu/abac_journal/may99/article4_f.html

Disaster Tourism

Disaster Tourism is somewhat of a paradox. In the name of self-preservation after all, most people flee from natural disasters. A slim, intrepid minority however, prefer to fling themselves in the eye of the storm, as it were, or show up to observe the aftermath. Less aid workers and more storm chasers, these adrenaline fiends just like to watch. Some notable disaster tourism sites include South Asia and South East Asia after the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004, New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf Coast post-Hurricane Katrina, and the 2010 Eyjafjallajkull eruption in Iceland.

Dark Tourism

The name is self-explanatory but to expound further, dark tourism is travel to some of the most somber and grim historical points of interest on the planet. Think sites of unspeakable horror, like the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland, Khmer Rouge Killing Fields of Cambodia and Robben Island off the Cape Town coast. Other noteworthy dark tourism destinations include Ground Zero in New York City, the American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy and -Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Rwandas Murambi Genocide Museum, Goree Island off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, Ghanas Cape Coast Castle and the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool also embody this austere, yet vital and significant, type of travel. Ghost Tourism

A fascination with the supernatural drives some people to travel in search of the paranormal. Behind many a famous landmark is a great ghost story and indeed, popular tours in places like Dublin, St. Augustine, Florida, Quebec City and Brisbane explore historic, haunted city quarters. Offshoots of ghost tourism include proverbial ghost towns, from barren mine, mill and railroad towns across America, Canada and Australia to notorious places like
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Jonestown, Guyana and Chernobyl, Ukraine. Salem, Massachusetts, of infamous witch trial fame, and parts of Transylvania also fit the bill. Slum Tourism

One of the most controversial types of travel involves tours of vast urban slums in places like Rio de Janeiro, Soweto, Mumbai, Manila, Cairo and Mexico City. Shanty tourism or poverty tourism is certifiably questionable and on the ethical borderline when the experience is utterly passive. If however, visitors engage in some kind of community outreach or volunteer program, the collective positive impact falls beyond the realm of mere slum tourism. From the favelas of Rio to Orangi Town, Karachi, Khayelitsha township in Cape Town to Cit Soleil, Port-au-Prince, the major slums of the world do manage to lure tourists. Is slum tourism inherently good or bad? The answer is complex and elusive. Ultimately, if areas of dire poverty incur some immediate net benefit, the pros may outnumber the cons. If however, this alternative form of travel veers on cheap voyeurism, then we can safely call it like it is: inhumane. Pop-Culture Tourism

Pop-culture tourism, unlike some other types of travel, is by definition, harmless fun. Simply put, it involves destinations with indelible connections to popular books, films, television shows, music, major events or a particular celebrity. Countless fans of The Beatles who flock to Liverpool hotels safely fit the description of pop-culture tourists. Vulcan, Alberta, so named in 1915 after the Roman god of fire, shot to cult-like prominence decades later because of Star Trek. The diminutive Canadian town now ranks as a famously kitschy sci-fi pilgrimage point.

Other significant pop-culture destinations include the town of Burkitsville, Maryland (of Blair Witch Project fame), the Tatooine Star Wars sets of Matmata, Tunisia and last but not least, parts of New Zealand that evoke Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings visions of Middle Earth.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, youre likely already familiar with the Eureka. You can see its white and orange frame just about every morning and afternoon, hanging in the skies near San Francisco, casually drifting over the busy city a thousand feet up, like it has all the time in the world.

The casual observer may confuse the Eureka with a blimp. But you dont have to be an expert to realize it isnt. Blimps are pudgier, smaller, harder-to-maneuver balloons mostly used for sports coverage. The Eureka is long, thin and can turn on a dime, like a sleek sky shark. And it has only one purpose: air tourism.

Run by a company called Airship Ventures, the Eureka is one of only three functioning Zeppelins in the world or, to be more precise, a $15 million Zeppelin NT (for New Technology). At 246 feet long, it is also the worlds largest airship, and slightly longer than a Boeing 747.

When I first hopped on the Eureka, in 2009, Airship Ventures was a struggling two month-old startup. After 2008, it seemed an odd moment to launch a helium-based tourism company who in that economy could afford $950 for a two-hour sunset cruise in the twelve-berth cabin, or even the $199 for half an hour?

But that champagne-sipping, cheese-nibbling sunset cruise over the Golden Gate kept passengers coming from the Bay Area and beyond. Airship Ventures thrived, particularly with sponsorship from companies such as Farmers Insurance and Pixar (which used the Zeppelin to promote Up).

Initially based in NASAs Moffet Field, near the Googleplex (and with a great view of it), Airship Ventures now also runs the Eureka out of the Oakland Airport. It takes regular flights, chartered and otherwise, down the coast to LA, the OC and San Diego. It has shown up on the Colbert Report. The company is mulling the purchase of another Zeppelin.

And perhaps the biggest compliment of all: Goodyear is retiring its famous blimp and ordering a fleet of three Zeppelins doubling the worlds fleet. The Goodyear Zeppelins will also do air tours around America starting in January 2014.

So is this a flourishing business model? Airship Ventures is the first to admit that Zeppelin travel is not going to replace the airline industry in getting people from Point A to Point B as fast as possible. Quite the opposite. Its about being unhurried, and floating above a beautiful city, chatting with the pilots and flying close enough to take fantastic snaps. Who wouldnt want to do that?