The environmental pressures of too many tourists have taken a heavy toll on paradise. As the industry becomes increasingly controlled by big companies, local people have seen their cultures commercialised - and their cut of the profits diminished.
So, is it still possible to have a good holiday and remain guilt-free? The answer is yes - especially for the independent traveller or people dealing with smaller tour operators that have link-ups with local communities.
Here are five places around the world where you can have a guilt-free holiday.
Thailand
Ko Yao Noi
It can be difficult to find the tranquillity that Thailand was once famous for. But Ko Yao Noi (Little Long Island) has kept out the nightly raves and neon sex bars.
The islanders have a healthy attitude to tourism, realising that it is useful to supplement their declining fishing incomes, without wanting to abandon their traditional means of livelihood.
Like many fishing communities in Asia, they are suffering the effects of illegal fishing by large commercial boats. Tourism is a way of raising funds for a motor patrol vessel and providing them with an alternative income if fishing stocks get too low.
Accommodation is in family homes, and visitors can immerse themselves in everyday life on an uncommercialised Thai island.
TVS-Rest (00 66 2 691 0437, fax: 00 66 2 690 2796, www.welcome.to/tvs organises three-day trips to Ko Yao Noi for £65, including boat trip from Phuket, accommodation in local homes (basic), food with the family and boat trips, and an English-speaking guide.
Cyprus
Akamas
Much of Cyprus has been overdeveloped, but the Akamas peninsula is a protected wilderness, perfect for a quiet, out-of-the-way holiday.
Conservation measures are aimed at ensuring that the picturesque villages of the Laona region are being developed to cater for visitors without losing their character.
The Laona project and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation have encouraged small-scale, rural tourism that can exist side-by-side with traditional farming. Derelict stone houses are being converted into small-scale craft centres, guest houses and tavernas.
The young people, who left in search of a better life in the tourist resorts, are beginning to return. The pace of life is still easy and, as the houses are set in working farming villages, you get a view of Cypriot life that has been almost totally lost elsewhere.
Sunvil Tours (020-8568 4499, www.sunvil.co.uk offers packages to Laona Project village houses from £500 a week, including car rental. Independent travellers can contact the Laona Project direct on 00 35753586 32 ccf@cylink.com.cy
Zambia
Kawaza
Few people get the chance to really experience African village life - watching a tribal performance and haggling over curios is generally as good as it gets. And the few tours that do visit villages are usually organised by outsiders.
Some communities have taken tourism into their own hands however. The villagers living near the South Luangwa national park - a popular safari destination - have set up the Kawaza.
You can tour local villages, watch tribal events, stay overnight in simple thatched huts (mattresses and mosquito nets provided). Bathroom facilities are simple but adequate.
You can talk at length with ordinary people. You can spend time with cotton farmers, learn local cooking, play football with the children or have a consultation with the traditional healer. The money is used for community facilities, such as education, sanitation and healthcare.
Kawaza Village (www.ftsl.demon.co.uk/KVTP.HTM) costs £20 a night including food and activities. Discovery Initiatives Holidays (01285 810621, fax: 020-738 1893 www.discoveryinitiatives.com and Sunvil Discovery (020-8232 9777, www.sunvil.co.uk include Kawaza village as part of their Zambian holidays. Best time to go: April-Oct.
Egypt
Basata
Basata is beautiful and intends to stay that way - an unspoilt bay scattered with bamboo bungalows. You can snorkel on the undamaged coral reef and take tours into the Sinai desert with local Bedouin.
Set up 14 years ago by Egyptian engineer Sherif Ghamrawy, Basata is run with Egypt's arid, fragile landscape in mind. It has its own simple desalination plant providing fresh water to the kitchen and bathrooms. The high saline by-product is used in the toilets and for construction work of the traditional Arabic mud houses where the staff live and food is kept. The architecture is perfectly suited to its environment - cool in summer, and holding the heat during the cold desert nights.
Basata costs £5 a night in a bamboo bungalow, £3 a night camping. Book direct on 00 20 62 500 481, fax: 00 20 62 500 480, basata@basata.com
Bolivia
Chalalan
Reaching Chalalan Lodge in north-west Bolivia involves a five-hour motorised canoe journey from the frontier town of Rurrenebaque down the Rio Tuichi and a 20-minute walk through the jungle. You stay in wooden, stilted cabins in a clearing on the edge of a lake. A large hut with hammocks slung across its balcony is used for dining and relaxing when the inevitable rain starts - this is the rainforest after all.
Chalalan was set up by Conservation International, which works with communities to establish ecotourism projects. Members of the local community are being trained as guides, cooks and lodge managers. In the long term, they will manage the project completely, and profits will be used for welfare needs as well as conservation.
Facilities are great - solar-powered showers in bathrooms tiled with local stone, excellent meals, day- and night-trips through the forest and around the lake with local guides.
Veloso Tours (020-8762 0616 info@veloso.com) offers five-day trips to Chalalan for about £480, including internal but not international flights, travel and accommodation in Rurrenebaque and Chalalan lodge, forest tours and food. Conservation International is at www.ecotour.org. Best time to go: May-Oct.
The Community Tourism Guide, published by Tourism Concern/ Earthscan (020-7753 3330) at £9.99, lists local tourism initiatives by destination. The Association of Independent Tour Operators The Association of Independent Tour Operators has a catalogue of smaller operators, many of which have signed up to "responsible tourism guidelines".
