The holiday season is just over. Many of us would have encountered advertisements with words like “eco hotel” and “eco tours” to lure us to experience “nature’s lap” or “wilderness”. You might think such businesses are nature friendly. But they could turn out to be quite the contrary. It would be wise to keep in mind that such endeavours could put pressure on natural and civic resources. Your tourism experience might not impart awareness on the threats to natural and cultural heritage. The local community might regard your pleasure trip as an intrusion. If the buzz words in travel ads mean something, then they need to be defined, discussed and monitored by tourism, cultural and environmental policies, and not be another camouflage for a business aiming at a high-value niche market. Few states in the country have attempted to look at the thin line between conventional and eco-tourism. Like several well-intended policies that turn counter-productive, eco-tourism is failing to accomplish its purpose. To add to the concept-practice mismatch, there is no universally accepted definition of eco-tourism.