Introduction
The Ecotourism
Emerging Industry Forum was broken down into seven dialogue
areas: Developing Infrastructure for Sustainable Tourism, Private
Sector/Public Sector Collaboration, Finance for SMEs, Communities
and SMEs, Marketing and Market Development, Interpretive Programs,
Triple Bottom Line Business Structures and Strategies each of
which resulted in a dialogue that was characterized by excellent
insights into the state of the art of developing ecotourism
as a sustainable development tool.
Participants discussed the projects they themselves had developed,
the challenges they faced, and the possibilities for improving
their results and the results of investment in ecotourism in
the future. Extra care was taken to involve the private sector,
which frequently does not take part in dialogues regarding ecotourism
at international forums. Because this was an on-line dialogue,
which was open for posts throughout a three week period in November
2005, there was an excellent opportunity for busy participants
to share their experiences without having to attend a traditional
event.
Developing Infrastructure for Sustainable Tourism
Participants found that ecotourism projects, as opposed to
larger sustainable tourism projects, are frequently solving
infrastructure problems in remote natural areas, at the lodge
level without the benefit of opportunity to plan at the regional
or destination level. It was remarked that "building green"
is a regional issue and that planning at this scale is essential.
However, it was noted that rural areas frequently do not get
the benefit of larger scale infrastructure planning, because
the taxes generated in rural areas will not provide the internal
rate of return governments need to justify building the infrastructure
required.
In the case of the Cree Village Ecolodge and the new Wa-show
James Bay Wilderness Lodge on native lands in northern Canada,
the project developers found they had to cope with solving infrastructure
issues without the benefit of local municipalities or with any
regional infrastructure program that was underway. In order
to meet sustainability goals, the project was forced to pay
a very high cost to obtain sustainable technologies without
the benefit of the economy of scale that could be achieved if
more projects were clustered in the area, or if the government
were providing sustainable technology solutions as part of a
larger program for the region.
Larger scale investments in sustainable tourism, such as the
current Inter-American Development Bank Investment in Tela,
Honduras have carefully linked sustainable infrastructure development,
with the development of mainstream tourism, working diligently
to ensure the footprint of the large-scale Tela development
is not a burden on the local, fragile environment of coastal
Honduras. Many environmental impact studies were done, and financing
for the project includes full scale sustainable infrastructure,
an Audubon certified golf course, and grants to the coastal
protected area adjacent to the development.
However, it was found by Megan Epler Wood as part of her USAID
consultancy in the Tela region, from which she was reporting
during the forum, that in fact this sustainable infrastructure
planning will not reach beyond the immediate dense development
zone, and that two important protected areas and a highly vulnerable
watershed were to be left unprotected, despite the fact that
they were found within the zone between the regional airport
La Ceiba and the Tela project. In the case of Honduras, the
watershed in this corridor is highly prone to flooding and erosion,
and the traditional communities have had little contact with
tourism to date. A spiral of uncontrolled development could
lead to communities selling land to speculators resulting in
poor land-use, undermining of local community livelihoods and
values, and watershed destruction. Unfortunately, the USAID
project on sustainable tourism in this area was discontinued
shortly after her visit due to budget cuts, and no further actions
were taken based on the report – despite government approval
and validation of its results.
The lessons here are that ecotourism and regional sustainable
infrastructure planning must be linked, and that sustainable
infrastructure planning must incorporate not only the areas
where dense tourism development is planned, but where high probability
"sprawl" corridors in fragile natural areas with
vulnerable local communities exist. Planning for sustainable
infrastructure at the regional level is still in its infancy,
with few projects taking such considerations into account. It
is therefore recommended to donors that ecotourism planning
be linked to larger integrated development planning programs
on a regional scale.
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)
It was concluded that experiences in the public-private development
of ecotourism and sustainable tourism are still limited –
except in the field of tourism marketing. Some outstanding examples
of public private planning in Canada with First Nations were
brought forward: The Quu'as West Coast Trail Society,
the Clayoquot Sound World Biosphere Reserve, and Haidi Gwaii,
Queen Charlotte Islands. It was pointed out that these successes
must be attributed to the sustained outreach and investment
by the Canadian government.
Experts working in transition economies noted, they must first
seek to foster the strength and quality of business development
practices to help ensure the business community is independent
and has adequate capacity before re-introducing prospects for
public involvement to ensure there is a proper balance between
the public and private parties, to make the PPP concept work.
NGO representatives suggested they can help facilitate a more
progressive relationship between governments seeking to attract
more investment to generate jobs, and companies that are seeking
tax breaks and concessions from government to improve profitability.
It was observed that middle ground objectives must be created
to make PPPs functional. Governments must increasingly seek
to meet the needs of industry by providing proper land-use planning
and adequate, sustainable infrastructure, while at the same
time leveraging private investment. The private sector needs
to manage "risks" in a new context, including not
only health and safety for clients, but also environmental protection
and local social welfare.
Finance for SMEs
A question was raised by FRI Ecological Services on why the
firm faced so much difficulty raising finance for their proposed
tourism project in Guyana despite the fact there was $5 million
available from donors. It was noted that the cost of working
with donors was far too high for small scale ecotourism developers
to consider.
It was mentioned that using a hybrid model of financing a private
sector project through traditional means, but allying with NGOs
or creating a NGO partner as part of corporate development to
raise grants to pay for external costs, such as environmental
conservation and social welfare, is a model that has been successful
for some companies, such as Rainforest Expeditions.
It was noted that because donors have asked private sector firms
to work using NGO models, many unrealistic ecotourism plans
have been developed that have resulted in failed enterprises.
Because donors have also financed NGOs to develop ecotourism
enterprises, there are many poorly managed ecotourism enterprises
now seeking to reorganize their ecotourism operations into private
business models.
A specific case in Central America was brought up where a leading
NGO was developing a business plan for expansion of their ecotourism
program requesting "investment" without offering any
rate of return. The NGO was dependent on ecotourism for its
operational costs, and was mixing the concept of donation without
return with investment which must have a return. The NGO's ecotourism
enterprise was being hindered from growth by poor business planning,
finance, and management systems despite the fact they had a
relatively successful operation. Their inability to separate
ecotourism business from their NGO management model was stifling
the potential of their ecotourism enterprise.
The overall approach of donors to provide NGOs with the funding
to develop enterprises was discussed, and most agreed that a
new more business friendly approach to ecotourism development,
which fosters small businesses directly, and does not hinge
on working with NGOs would be more productive
Financing community enterprises was also discussed, and Canyon
Travel, a small private sector firm noted they have had good
success financing community enterprises, creating a win-win
between the firm and their community partners. But this firm
also commented that it is still a challenge to maintain their
"ecovision" while trying to justify the higher costs
of operating in a remote location with community employment
agreements – when other competitors do not embrace the
same responsibilities or costs.
Overall it was clear that small businesses will need specially
designed financing from donors to meet all the objectives of
ecotourism while providing the appropriate business and marketing
models for enterprise success.
Communities and SMEs
It was agreed from the beginning of the forum that most participants
felt that donors need to support joint ventures between communities
and the private sector as the best option for fostering viable
enterprises. Nomadic Journeys and Tropic Ecological Adventures,
offered their examples of partnering with local communities
to develop viable, marketable on-going enterprises in their
regions.
However, it was noted that when business is established in sites
where poverty is high, infrastructure is poor, and ethnic differences
tend to be sensitive -- donors need to help business to be very
responsive to these issues.
One area of technical assistance to assist business that was
recommended is the advance profiling of social, political, and
livelihood strategies in communities before enterprise development
efforts are launched. It was also recommended that any training
programs offered should be done less in the class-room and more
on-the-scene.
An Inuit community tourism development example in Pangniitung
was provided which pointed out the benefits for local communities
of controlling tourism development through contracts with tour
operators and organized groups – while avoiding independent
visitors. Other guidelines offered were to provide communities
with an advance knowledge of the pros and cons of tourism, and
to develop a community strategy for tourism development that
invites the opportunity for private sector investment, with
on-going monitoring of the project.
Wildland Adventure's involvement with the Maasai Environmental
Resource Coalition led them to recommend community partners
that have strong leadership, and advisory decision making board,
and the involvement of tour operators from very early in the
project development process.
It was pointed out that community involvement in project development
takes considerable time and often consultants are not given
the time required.
This job is often given to NGOs who lack an understanding of
ecotourism project development, thereby not giving the community's
input in appropriately phased and designed project development
procedures. Even in Canada, it was noted that the time to develop
community-led project processes is rarely supported.
Community based tourism marketing support has often led to unsatisfactory
outcomes for the communities. It was agreed that it is insufficient
to establish websites on behalf of the communities without determining
how the community will manage visitor inquiries, bookings, and
the maintenance and up-dating of the website.
Overall, it was noted that community based tourism needs to
be planned like all businesses, with business planning, feasibility
studies, infrastructure planning and training. In addition there
needs to be additional time allowed and support from donors
for community involvement procedures, and operational support
once the enterprises are up and running for a reasonable period
of time. Rarely can all these development phases for community
based ecotourism start-ups be supported within a 3 year project
window, and this leaves many communities either improperly prepared,
inadequately involved in all phases of planning, or with insufficient
operations and marketing systems.
Marketing and Market Development
A question was asked at the beginning of this topic, how to
increase competitiveness and profitability of tourism SMEs in
high biodiversity areas? How do we effectively grow these businesses?
How do we encourage outbound eco/adventure operators to partner
and promote SMEs?
The consensus was that there needs to be stronger support of
market-based approaches that would attract business partnering
and reinforce supply chains, and bolster effective marketing
through existing supply chains – not by reinventing the
wheel and attempting to market outside existing market supply
and demand structures.
The question was raised if certification can be an effective
marketing tool. While most participants pointed out that there
is no evidence that certification leverages markets, and that
in fact consumers are almost entirely unaware of tourism certification,
it was pointed out that in Sweden an effective branding campaign,
Nature's Best, has both achieved market recognition and
helped bring accountability to the industry through certification.
This is being achieved through a public-private partnership
that has strong industry buy-in and is working as a destination
marketing tool. In other countries, most agreed that business
alliances, not certification, are needed to achieve improved
market reach for ecotourism. But many felt that ecotourism as
a term, though increasingly used by travelers, is still not
a term the industry embraces.
Internet marketing was found to be a challenge for some NGOs
and community projects, but most participants remarked that
it levels the playing field and is highly cost effective.
Overall the priority of understanding market channels, and
creating marketing systems that can bring together and ally
SMEs and their community partners on a regional basis to improve
cost-effectiveness of ecotourism marketing for each alliance
member was endorsed as the most likely tactic to create a viable
system for improving marketing effectiveness for ecotourism
companies.
Intepretive Programs
The pivotal nature of naturalist guides was raised immediately
as the leading "asset" that gives one ecotourism
company or project a market edge over another.
Other ideas such as geo-caching as a new tool for raising excitement
about visiting new areas and lesser known regions was mentioned
and other technology tools, such as creating a CD of local sounds
or developing a personalized GPS map of places each client visits
were suggested as interpretative program "value addeds."
It was pointed out that indigenous guides are often trained
by biologists and this can actually cause them to undervalue
their own knowledge of local plants and animals, in favor of
learning scientific names. It was suggested that indigenous
guides should be trained to value their own knowledge and to
share their own stories, legends and local names. It was pointed
out in response that some groups, such as birders, require scientific
names for educational purposes, but that most general ecotourists
do not.
Triple Bottom Line Business Structures and Strategies
Certification became the main topic of discussion in this
part of the forum. However, it was discussed not only as a tool
to foster best practice, but to ensure quality control. And
it was put into the context of its economic feasibility, contribution
to market access, and accessibility to micro and small enterprises
in developing countries.
Some parties felt more research is still required on the value
of ecotourism certification, while others pointed out that millions
of dollars of donor funds have been spent and that there is
still a divided opinion on its value. Participants pointed out
that to date certification has gained a foothold in only a few
localities, such as Australia and Sweden – noticeably
developed countries, with good tax bases, excellent infrastructure,
and a significant amount of heterogeneity in their business
tactical thinking. It was pointed out that experimenting with
this approach in developing countries where ecotourism is still
emerging as a business economy is risky. Participants pointed
out that when nations are poor and investment is scarce, attention
first needs to be devoted to competitive enterprise development,
job creation, and economic outcomes at the macro and local levels.
It was further noted that "best practice workshops"
which have become widespread in the developing world, via donor
support, are unlikely to result in outcomes of any lasting value
until businesses have profits.
The value of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) models that attract
private sector investment in community lodges with a return
on investment built in, joint operation programs, and transfer
of the property to the community at the end of the project are
still undergoing review. No project has yet transferred its
assets to the community as yet, as the model generally includes
20 or more years of joint operations before transfer takes place
and no project has yet hit the 20 year turn over date. These
projects have provided a good deal of security and long-term
business functionality to demanding projects in remote regions,
but may hit a difficult period when the time of transfer is
required.
The value of Corporate Social Responsibility reporting was discussed
and it was revealed that tourism as an industrial sector has
been slow to embrace the ideal of CSR reporting. While UNEP
invested considerable funds in reporting guidelines for the
tourism industry through the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI),
it was found subsequent to the forum via inquiry that few if
any tourism businesses have used the reporting guidelines according
to staff working at GRI.
While ecotourism certification should not be abandoned as a
tool to achieve sustainability, and quite a few participants
underwrote their thinking that it deserves considerable attention
and effort -- it is unlikely to produce results for years according
to excellent research on the matter quoted in the forum. It
therefore represents a highly risky investment in developing
country economies that should only be considered by donors after
a competitive, ecotourism economy has been established.
Final Recommendations
Sustainability requires the involvement of governments, business,
and NGOs. At present, donors have largely focused on funding
best practice of businesses, NGO technical support of local
enterprises and protected areas, and community enterprise development.
This supply side approach has not been fully connected to the
marketplace and as a result has not resulted in viable enterprise
development and has not adequately used the existing power of
private sector supply chains to create more vibrant ecotourism
economies around the world that could do much more to sustain
local communities and conserve local environments.
To create a strategy that will both facilitate investment in
sustainable tourism and foster greater sustainability on a larger
scale, donors will need to work directly with governments on
the provision of adequate sustainable infrastructure in order
to develop sustainable tourism and ecotourism on a regional
scale. At present ecotourism developers are largely working
without governmental or donor support to help them create an
economy of scale for their efforts.
While public private planning of tourism is still new and untested,
except in marketing, it appears that the careful involvement
of both the public and private sector in regional planning of
sustainable tourism could be a highly desirable means of developing
ecotourism in conjunction with more mass tourism simultaneously,
with investment returns for government, protection built in
for communities, and the potential of funding the conservation
of natural resources on a destination scale. The experience
of participants showed that regional planning is required to
make sustainable tourism a genuine output of donor programs
and that public private planning is likely to be the best tool
to achieve this.
It was agreed that financing for ecotourism programs needs to
be moved from NGOs to SMEs, and that SMEs should be given the
tools to finance and help develop community based tourism. It
was universally agreed that joint ventures between private sector
businesses and communities is the best model for achieving viable
community based tourism projects.
It was noted that businesses seeking to meet sustainable tourism
development models will need assistance covering the additional
costs of working with communities and developing the most environmentally
sensitive business operations. One type of technical assistance
recommended to assist business was the advance profiling of
social, political and livelihood strategies in communities before
enterprise development efforts are launched. It was also recommended
that training programs offer on-the-scene, practical workshops,
not classroom exercises.
Overall it was agreed that community based ecotourism development
requires all the same approaches as other businesses, but that
community involvement procedures make this process longer than
standard business development. Frequently there is not enough
time in a 3-year donor project to complete all the necessary
phases of community-based enterprise development. It is for
this reason that private sector partners are required, but they
must receive support to cover the costs of sharing all of their
business planning, management, operations, and marketing tools.
Stronger market based approaches that will attract business
partners and reinforce supply chains, and bolster effective
marketing through existing supply chains was recommended.
It was recommended that business alliances are considered
as a cost effective means at the local level to achieve more
effective marketing systems for ecotourism. It was recommended
that donors help SMEs ally with their community partners in
local, regional and international Internet marketing programs.
These alliances will need support to build the capacity to handle
bookings, customer service, web-site maintenance, and to ensure
local quality control mechanisms of all their partners are working
and in place.
Interpretive program development is a highly important component
of ecotourism that must be taken into account as part of ecotourism
enterprise development.
Ecotourism's triple bottom lines are well understood
to be social, environmental and economic. To date donor's
have largely sought to ensure these bottom lines are met by
funding certification and best practice workshops. While there
was no agreement on the value of certification in the marketplace,
it was pointed out that millions of donor dollars have been
spent on the question and that results indicate it takes over
10 years for investment in certification to result in more marketable
programs. It was pointed out that given the shortage of funds
for sustainable tourism development to date that other priorities,
such as enterprise development strategies that are market-based,
need to be given a higher priority in order to meet immediate
local needs. Other triple bottom line development practices
discussed, such as Corporate Social Responsibility reporting
and Build, Operate and Transfer programs are in their infancies,
but both appear to be promising tools which are at the experimental
stage.
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