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More is not necessarily better.
- Conversation
Can we have sustainable transportation when there are so many
automobile commercials?
- Conversation
We know that tourism creates serious problems -- environmentally,
culturally, politically -- so we immediately jump to conclusions:
"this is bad so let's make it right." And because
all the "sustainable tourism" initiatives come from
the more powerful to the less -- as usual -- we enforce our
solutions. Often with the assistance of the World Bank, the
European Union, USAID and the rest of the powerful donors -
who also come from the "patch it up so our show can go
on" mindset. But do we really understand the problem? Are
we really prepared to listen to those on the ground? How deeply
are we prepared to understand our hosts REAL needs and accommodate
them -- their way? This may be the only way that new tourism
can emerge, and we certainly need it!
- Valere Tjolle
Globalize yourself
- Popular expression
Think Globally, Act Locally
- Popular expression
Although we have told one another on bumper stickers and at
environmental conferences that we must 'think globally and act
locally,' we tend to drift toward mega-solutions. Rather than
get busy, we introduce new terms such as 'sustainable' to apply
to any perceived solution that catches our fancy. Instead of
looking to community, we look to public policy. We hold a global
conference in Rio.
- Wes Jackson, Becoming
Native to This Place
The guides who have been trained couldn't find work in tourism
so they left. One is working in the United States. Another guide
works at the water plant.
- Tourism official, Mexico
Built to last till time itself falls tumbling from the wall
... Built to last till sunshine fails and darkness moves on
all ... Built to last while years roll past like cloudscapes
in the sky ... Show me something built to last and something
built to try
- Grateful Dead
It has been the larger organizations (international, bilateral,
and large non-profits) who have hired me as an ecotourism consultant,
not the communities themselves. I can imagine that there are
many of us on the consulting side who would love to have the
external funding to work with a community over a longer period
of time to inform, learn and maybe even join the community and
participate in its future. But there are few sources of funding.
The scale of operations and the profit margins at the community
level are pretty small, so I don't expect that to change any
time soon. One obstacle to consulting at the community level
is identifying the entity that will hire, supervise, and pay
the consultant. Many community efforts are really collections
of several separate small-scale entrepreneurs. There may not
be a community chamber of commerce or tourism association with
a budget for hiring consultants at the startup phase.
- John Shores (2005, Re-Imagining
Ecotourism in the Americas Conference)
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