 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
1st
WORKSHOP ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM ZONES OF THE CARIBBEAN, May 4-5, 2002. Núcleo El Laurel, Universidad Central de Venezuela |
||||
| A preliminary
poll was taken during this workshop regarding the possible sustainable
tourism destinations of Venezuela, with participation from 70 representatives
of entrepreneurs, communities, public, private and social institutions;
whose objective was to exchange opinions on the selection criteria. The
workshop commenced with antecedents on the ACS convention, then each of
the indicators and their measuring instruments were described and all
participants were consulted on the viability of being declared Sustainable
Tourism Destinations. The experiences were principally associated with
organised communities, villages specialising in handicraft, indigenous
communities, in addition to which, experiences in National Parks and conservationist
groups were presented.
We believe that determining sustainable tourism destinations depends on the strengthening of local communities, the only guarantee that social, economic and environmental variables will be respected, which indicates a new kind of action on the part of public and private entities which, in addition to favouring social participation, grant power to the people over their own destination. When one human group assumes collective responsibilities, this not only guides the local development process, but also the cultural dynamism of the destination through its own festivities and celebrations, and what is more important, is the fair distribution of wealth derived from tourist activity. Planning the development process of sustainable tourism indicators should therefore be participatory, removed from technocratic schemes, and for this purpose, a methodology is being approved using very specific experiences in five of these destinations. These experiences begin with the corporate analysis of local organisations, followed by the establishment of prospective scenarios, while programmes and projects targeted at achieving the indicators put forward in terms of sustainability are specified. A self-help manual designed for this purpose, as well as cultural meetings among communities are two of the instruments selected for the planning workshops. The Sustainable Tourism Destinations that have been identified (map attached) present in many cases, environmental diversity, uniting for example, sun-beach and mountain destinations in some cases, mountain and plains or river beaches and forests in others. This promotes environmental diversity and better distributes the occupancy of destinations. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 1. Seek information
on indicators in each destination |
|
|
Association of Caribbean States ©
2007 |