A key tenet of ecotourism is that interacting with nature through tourism cultivates environmental awareness and responsibility. We examine this assumption by analyzing discourse networks and organizational networks that connect tourism and environmentalism in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Using a combination of interviews, field observation, and web‐based data, we ask: Is there an alignment of tourism and environmental discourse regarding human interaction with and use of coastal environments? Are there meaningful organizational ties between tourism and environmental organizations? We conclude that there is little indication that nature‐oriented tourism is working to produce substantial changes to our broader political ecology.