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The collaboration between the company All Ways Travel and the
community of Anapia Island of Lake Titikaka is an initiative
that proves the mutual economic and social benefit of such industry/community
partnership. In one hand, the private investment in ecotourism
product of the two partners at the beginning of the project:
a 3-staffed small local tourism business and a self-subsistence
economy community.
By combining the good will of travellers and tour guides, and
the motivation for self-improvement of local people, the series
of educational and business workshops have been implemented
without need of foreign funding.
Only five years after its inception the ecotourism initiative
has provided the community not only with tourism influx but
also with palpable benefits such as a library and books, two
playgrounds for children, painted and repaired schools and small
business development opportunities. More over, native Aymara/Spanish
speaking local leaders have been empowered and they are directly
participating of ecotourism events around the world. These native
and local leaders are able to explain by themselves the meaning
of concepts such as sustainability, and ecotourism development
and planning. Most importantly, from their perspective as indigenous
people, they explain eloquently their expectations of improving
their education, health and environment with the income generated
by tourism.
PARTNERSHIP
To date, the he company All Ways Travel is a dominant local
tour operator in the area of Lake Titikaka providing job opportunities
to 23 bilingual tour-guides, 24 community-operated motorboats,
12 local transportation companies (buses-vans), four native
local ecotourism coordinators/guides, five full time employees
and two part-time employees. All Ways Travel measures its success
by its capacity to cover suitably its operational costs, to
generate local jobs contributing to the local economy of indigenous
communities instead of capitalizing in self-owned infrastructure
(boats, buses, hotels etc).
As any tourism company, All Ways Travel started its operations
in 1996 with great start-up challenges such as a crowded market
and tough competition with extremely low prices. The choice
for a competitive strategy was limited to either cutting off
prices or differentiating the company's tourism itineraries.
AWT opted for a differentiation strategy and started to introduce
innovative elements to the conventional tours and to develop
new ecotourism products. Innovative elements such as cultural
exchange activities, the involvement of local communities and
tourists in the ecotourism initiatives, and an efficient operational
capacity soon became an important competitive advantage for
AWT in relation to the mass of other conventional local tour
operators in the area.
The community of Anapia Island has a permanent population of
less than a 1000 people. They belong to the ethnic group of
Aymaras and their native language is also called Aymara. However,
men and women are also fluent in Spanish. The community has
an precarious economy of subsistence, their economic activities
are farming, fishing, livestock and some minor trade.
The ecotourism project in Anapia Island started in February
of 1997. By that time, the island was not even included in the
tourism map of conventional tourism itineraries. The influx
of tourists on the islands in 1997 was zero people. The ecotourism
development project started with the implementation of opened
consultation forums with the local community.
Local people, travelers, tour guides and the tourism authorities
were invited to express their point of views about tourism development
in the area. After the consultation period, capacity-building
workshops were implemented.
The local people were advised and encouraged to create small
business (i.e. homestays, food providers, tour guides, sailboat
renting, and motor boat renting). The discussions and forums
emphasized the importance of understanding the risks and opportunities
of ecotourism development on the island.
The project has been implemented only with the investment of
time, expertise, limited capital and good will of the travel
agency staff, travelers, tour guides from the city and the local
community members. Because of it soundness and demonstrable
positive outcomes, the Peruvian Government Board of Tourism
has contributed to the marketing of this new ecotourism project.
In addition, word-of-mouth and references from the volunteer
travelers have also been key to position the new product in
the market, and of course the recommendations of most popular
tourism handbooks.
OUTCOMES
From been ignored in the tourism market for so many years
while neighboring island communities received tourism visits
since 20 years ago, the cultural exchange program of the community
of Anapia Island is today well-known and renowned as an authentic
cultural exchange experience among the international, national
and local tour operators. In only five years of tourism visits,
the community has been able to build, with the help of tourists,
a library on the island. This library is slowly being filled
with donated books. Young students from England have put together
two playgrounds for the children of the island, and other tourists
have helped repairing and painting the schools and provided
English classes.
Tourism is increasingly becoming an important business in the
community. To date, we have 20 houses ready to host travelers,
10 motor boats providing transportation, 20 sailboats, 4 natives
guides, and the women's association provide food and prepare
traditional picnics for the groups of tourists. Tourism leaves
a 20.00$ income per family per tourist visit compared to the
3.00$ income for the same service in the traditional touristy
islands.
Most importantly, the project has empowered the local people
and they are able and willing to express their voice and impressions
on ecotourism development. They can explain their vision of
sustainable ecotourism and understand that quality of tourism
visits may bring much more benefits than quantity of tourism
visits.
In February of 2002 during the regional preparatory workshop
for the World
Ecotourism Summit, the ecotourism project of Anapia Island
was observed as a motivating case study of a community-based
tourism initiative. Furthermore, the local native coordinator,
Mr. Jose Flores, was designated to represent the voice of South
American indigenous people in ecotourism issues in the Ecotourism
Summit held Quebec City in May 2002.
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