CARIBBEAN NEWS DIGITAL



Geotourism Creator Calls on the Caribbean to Become More Competitive

Thursday, 04/03/2010
The man who originated the concept of geotourism, Jonathan Tourtellot, has said that the Caribbean tourism product will be a lot more competitive if its social fabric, ecology, architecture, cuisine, natural beauty, and its heritage are protected. Geotourism is described as “best practice” tourism that sustains, or even enhances, the geographical character of a place, such as its culture, environment, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.

Mr. Tourtellot said that if tourism is used to support, and not erode, these attributes, the Caribbean will have a competitive advantage.

“It provides market differentiation,” said Mr. Tourtellot, director and geotourism editor of National Geographic Traveler, a magazine published by the National Geographic Society (NGS) in the United States.

Mr. Tourtellot, also the director of the NGS’s Centre for Sustainable Destinations, said he was aware of the need to balance economic development with protecting the character of the Caribbean. However, he said it was not impossible to achieve this balance.

“It’s not a zero-sum game. You can do both,” he said, adding that if the Caribbean fails to protect its character, it will lose its pride in the short term and, in the long term, its ability to increase revenue from tourism.

Mr. Tourtellot will be the keynote speaker at the 11th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development, otherwise known as the Sustainable Tourism Conference (STC-11), which will be held in Barbados from May 9-12, 2010.

An exciting program of general discussions, workshops, and study tours is being finalized for the conference themed, “Keeping the Right Balance: Creating Opportunities Through a World Class Sustainable Tourism Product.”

The 11th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism is being organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) in collaboration with the Barbados Ministry of Tourism. It is part of the information dissemination and regional awareness component of CTO’s Strategy for Sustainable Tourism. It looks at how member states can design and implement sustainable tourism policies and programs, offering a regional forum for information exchange on the successes and pitfalls of national, regional, and international initiatives.

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Thanks Ms Todd. More encouragement.

There will be much to learn from those who have taken some of the steps towards sustainability and preservation that have been discussed on this forum.

Any reports/features from the conference posted here would be good.

ANNABEL T.•GEOTOURISM•MASTER PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

As far back as 2002, a thorough Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development was prepared and submitted for government implementation, after accepting about four years of inputs from prominent consultants in the tourism industry, parish councils, community, cultural involvement, and a range of governmental and environmental agencies.

Notable, as a part of the document, were the results of a Study on Cultural/Heritage Tourism Development, with contributions from such eminences as the architect, Ann Hodges, who has celebrated, in her work, updated versions of the Island's vernacular and 'breathable" wood architecture and has helped document historical trophy buildings.

Many of the same concepts and authentic incentives for development, which geotourism expounds were captured in that PLAN...its Strategic Vision is sweeping and its mandate, over a 10-year period, is supposed to be still in effect:

"The overriding aim of the Master Plan is to place the Jamaican tourism industry on a path of sustainable development. To achieve this aim, the Master Plan addresses five key objectives.
• Growth based on sustainable market position: To sustain a higher rate of growth, the industry must develop a sustainable market position based on Jamaica's Heritage.

• Enhancing the Visitor Experience: The current run down resorts must be made attractive, gaps in the product offer covered through mobilizing investment, the competitiveness of small hotels and non-hotel accommodations improved and the visitor experience made more rewarding and diverse through increasing the types and quality of attractions and other entertainment available.

•Community Based Development: Local communities must play a major role in defining, developing and managing the tourism experience.

• An Inclusive Industry: The Jamaican people should come to view the industry as inclusive, belonging to and benefiting them and the synergies between tourism and other industries should be maximized.

• Environmental Sustainability: The Environment is the Product. The industry must contribute to the preservation of the natural habitat.

The achievement of these objectives would transform the tourism industry from a narrow focus on sun, sand and sea, based on largely on all inclusive hotels, to an island wide industry that offers a diversity of accommodation and visitor experiences.
The focus of the product should be the Jamaican people themselves and their heritage, emphasizing that what makes Jamaica unique and most rewarding.
The sense of 'ownership' of the industry would be widened to include the wide range of large and small businesses in the accommodation and non-accommodation sectors that derive their livelihood from tourism revenues as well as the many communities that have a stake in tourism.

The industries relevance to Jamaica would go beyond earning foreign exchange and creating jobs to providing the economic rationale for economic and social development.
The industry would become the champion and enabler of sustainable resource use, leading communities and towns towards the objective of environmental sustainability.
In summary, policy makers and the population as a whole would come to view the industry as providing the means for the social and economic uplifting of the Jamaican people.

What Has Become of the Master Plan & Its Targeted Goals?
After this passage of time and the loftiness of its aims, many environmental groups and activists have found much in tatters.

"The Master Plan has been at the centre of criticism from some environmental lobbyists who have been contending that because of its poor implementation, the policy has failed to promote sustainable tourism development, especially in light of the risks presented by climate change. 'It is expected that they (the contracted consultants) would consider climate change and its impact on the tourism sector.'

The current Tourism Master Plan gives specific guidelines and makes recommendations on how infrastructural development in the industry should be pursued. It also recommends ways in which the tourism product can be improved while balancing environmental sustainability."

"But environmental lobbyists argue that in spite of its clear guidelines and recommendations, the Master Plan is still not playing the role it should in protecting the country's prime foreign-exchange-earning sector, because some of its recommendations are being ignored by public agencies that initiate, plan and monitor investment projects."

'We need to change our strategy'
"...Environmentalists are advising Government to seek alternatives to beachfront construction projects in order to protect the tourism industry from any fall-out from global climate change.

Several massive hotels have been constructed on the north coast over the last five years. But environmentalists argue that such activities are counterproductive, because rising sea levels as a result of climate change will affect vulnerable coastal zones.

"As a country, we will not be looking as attractive as we looked 14 or 15 years ago as a destination when we focused on sea, sand and sun. I think we need to look at a change in our strategy of what we are selling out there," advises Paula Hurlock, chairman of the Dolphin Head Trust.

Revision needed
"I know that our country has focused more on nature-based and community tourism, but we need to (review) that, because people won't be coming here for sand, sun and sea anymore."

It is a point Hugh Dixon, executive director of the Southern Trelawny Environment Agency, agrees with. He says Government must take the approach that aims at both sustaining the environment and generating income. He says Jamaica is in need of a product that offers a different experience from other destinations in North and Central America and its Caribbean competitors. Nature and community...

"A shift in gears to terrestrial tourism allows people to see the beauty of the landscape, and by so doing, you generate income in the small communities and preserve the landscape,"

www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080427/lead/lead5.html

Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Study on the Tourism Expansion Programme:
Regarding the rapid expansion of Foreign Hotel Construction & the Argument Relating to Un-Sustainability...Economically & by Environmental Degradation. It further reinforces the crux of matter documented in JET's film, Jamaica for Sale., which can't be repeated enough.

"It is not clear where the Government wants to lead the country, but creating 12,000 rooms by 2010 in sensitive zones is not sustainable according to its own research. It certainly cannot expect the country to gain from developments that deplete its natural beauty. More research needs to be carried out before and not after investors have already been courted, and the recommendations of the PIOJ study need to be applied now. More detailed Environmental Impact Assessments are needed to inform the consultation processes.

Policies also need to be strengthened and enforced and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) needs more legislative power to strengthen its role. Too often, foreign investors have breached environmental guidelines without consequence.

Clearly, the Government needs to be more responsible with its handling of the future of this country."

www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060924/cleisure/cleisure2.html

TRUE COSTS OF "OVERDEVELOPMENT"

"Jamaica is primarily a 'sun, sea and sand' destination and, therefore, the primary recreational activities of visitors include sun and sea bathing on the beaches. Tourists who visit Jamaica are, therefore, primarily involved in activities such as going to the beach, snorkelling, scuba diving and glass-bottom boating.

Jamaica's tourism product is dependent on the coral reefs and their associated ecosystems such as seagrass beds and mangroves. These ecosystems are, however, threatened by natural causes and human behaviour such as coastal pollution, rapid coastal development, over-fishing and global warming.

All parties involved (the citizens, the tourism industry and the visitors) have a vested interest in the management of the environmental resource base and an obligation to do their part to support this management.
If the environment is degraded all parties stand to lose - visitors will fail to come (or will be willing to pay less) and the countries will lose an important source of economic benefit. In other words the environment will produce reduced economic, ecological, and amenity benefits.

The Jamaican tourism industry accounts for 32 per cent of total employment and 36 per cent of the country's GDP according to many studies. However, based on some of the market failures ... are there more costs that are not being considered? Tourism has many hidden costs, which can have unfavourable economic effects on host countries such as Jamaica.

...For the all-inclusive tourism model, studies show that about 80 per cent of travellers' expenditures go to the airlines, hotels and other international companies, and not to local businesses or workers. In addition, significant amounts of income actually retained at the destination level can leave again through leakage.
For example, the profits gained by foreign-owned tour operators, airlines, hotels, are repatriated to their home countries. Estimates made for Third World countries range from 80 per cent in the Caribbean to 40 per cent in India.
In layman's term, on average, of each US$100 spent on a vacation tour by a tourist from a developed country, only about US$5 actually stays in the developing-country destination's economy.

...Super inclusive hotels do not encourage guests to venture outside the walls of the hotel and so most of the tourist's experience is limited to the entertainment as well as the sun, sea and sand activities available at that location. One could say that Jamaica the country is not the destination, it is actually the 'resort' that is the destination.
...The current market failure and the inability to truly integrate local tourism into the overall package will continue to result in a reduction of social welfare of Jamaicans. Many solutions abound and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There is The Sustainable Tourism Master Plan that has some limitations but can be used as a template for the diversification of the nation's tourism product."

(Peter Edwards, Marine Scientist & Environmental Economist: Jamaica Gleaner 2009•4•1)

Annabel...
Just a little bit more food for thought on your posting about National Geographic's Traveler magazine (edited by Jonathan Tourtellot), whose Center for Sustainable Destinations conducts an Annual Survey of Destination Stewardship,

In this 2009 Survey, it scores a single area, Pt Antonio, with a middling "59".
In a prior Survey, it scored:
NEGRIL(46):
• "The only benefits for locals are employment and the all-inclusive products are doing very little for the local economy. Negril is in serious trouble."
• "Negril is now just another tourist destination. They really don't understand sustainable tourism."

NORTH COAST: JAM. (42)
• "Poverty and corruption, enclave tourism, little economic benefit for locals, no environmental protection, lack of interest in true culture."
• "Well done in some areas, but strictly commercial with little regard for the environment."

National Geo's criteria and judging may be a little opaque, but never the less, its influence across the travel world carries weight and concern.

http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/destinations-rated/caribbean-text

Red Stripe, Yellow Curry, Green Hotels: Sustainable Tourism in Jamaica

www.emagazine.com/view/?2193

FROMMER's: Jamaica•Sustainable Travel & Eco-Tourism)

www.frommers.com/destinations/jamaica/0093020277.html