Conservation has a multitude of meanings and ideological positions. Protected areas have been changing continually for multifarious reasons. Periyar Tiger Reserve is one tropical protected area, located in south India, existing for more than a century, and hence is a showcase of many management-linked problems that necessitates integrative and reconciliatory management solutions. A study was made in PTR to compare three management strategies, one based on strict conservatism and the other two based on ecotourism. The study had two main intentions (1) to find out which is the most socially acceptable strategy, and (2) which is the economically desirable and feasible strategy. The fieldwork (in 2005) consisted of social surveys (more then 2000 respondents), contingent valuation among 15 stakeholder groups and in-depth interviews among 13 stakeholder organizations, with very high response rate. The methodological analysis proved the chosen results as reliable and robust. The order bias was non-significant. Strategy 1 that advocates strict conservatism was summarily rejected by the decision analysis based on stakeholder perceptions. Strategy 2 (present management scenario) was less socially preferred than strategy 3 (scientific development of ecotourism and allows sustainable NWFP production inside and outside forests). A cost-benefit analysis revealed strategy 2 as economically less advantageous compared to strategy 3. The all-encompassing strategy 3 was the final choice of the decision-making analysis. How strategy 3 would fit into the social fabric in the fringes of tropical protected areas is testified. The modelling aspects of ecotourism are discussed. The practicalities of ecotourism as a tool for bringing conservation gain are explicated. Its role in addressing subsistence and commercial forest dependence is elucidated. Along with ecotourism, benefit transfer at national level and global level is argued to be essential (based on gainers and losers at local, state, national and global level analysis) for the future management of tropical protected areas and to foster them as economic centres in rural landscapes in the tropics. This may take the agenda of conservation from policing to incentive-linked policies and consequently from landscape to the mindscape of the society, to meet the millennial challenges. The results have policy implications m management of tropical protected areas in future where recreation management needs infusion of science to advance beyond a practitioner's concept. Environmental impact studies are needed to explore further whether the chosen strategy is ecologically feasible.