WHAT OPERATORS SUGGEST
Frank Segieth: I recently attended
the COP-8 in Curitiba about the Convention
on Biological Diversity. Much is said about the important role
of ecotourism in the context of conserving biodiversity and in the
context of "bridging" the gap between biodiversity and
poverty. Few things are done in concrete to reach this goal.
We work together with a local NGO from the state of
Paraná (south of São Paulo) called SPVS,
the partner organization for Brazil of Nature Conservancy in the
United States.
They principally care about conservation issues in
the Paraná particularly in the very poor coastal area of
Guaraqueçaba but as they recognized that solving conservation
issues is impossible without solving social issues, we convinced
them to start thinking of ecotourism as a tool to close that gap.
They applied for funds from the government, the funds are released
and now they are starting to work on an ecotourism project in the
Guaraqueçaba region where we are softly involved. Aside from
building up an infrastructure, training, guides etc. the largest
problem from my point of view is marketing and communication in
order to attract international ecotourism to visit this area.
What from my point of view really would be important (and very simple)
in order to strengthen (responsible!) ecotourism activities in remote
places like Guraraqueçaba where biodiversity meets poverty,
is that the organizations working toward conservation and biodiversity
(UNEP, World Bank and others) evaluate local promising ecotourism
companies and involve them in their action plans. The minimum I
expect is that these organizations dedicate a page that link to
exterior sites -- responsible ecotourism tour operators and their
projects.
Unfortunately, always when I tried to address this issue I receive
a standard answer: "We don't include commercial sites."
This position does not help biodiversity and conservation.
CONNECTING WHOLESALERS AND SUPPLIERS
There are a number of disconnects -- gaps between
wholesalers and suppliers.
Says Richard Edwards: If there was 1/10th as much
time spent on facilitating the connection between existing ecotourism
suppliers (or suppliers that could be ecotourism if it they saw
the benefit) and wholesaler clients, as is spent on "training"
people in-country on how to start an ecotourism business, those
businesses would have an exponentially better chance of succeeding.
They would have open communication channels with the people who
know the market best and would be able to better balance their environmental
offerings with the service levels necessary to meet consumer demand.
RELATED FEATURES
Tourism
Marketing Survey Results
Marketing
Ecotourism on the Web
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