I think there is tremendous opportunity for tourism growth in Central America. I am interested in your ideas on where you will begin, what specific areas, and what type of tourists activities you would like to promote. Where will you go to conduct your research?
Jim, thank you for your interest and the opportunity to elaborate on the necessarily brief responses provided in the proposal with more in-depth information on our intended procedures and implementation. I will first respond specifically to each question individually, then address the more general context in which to consider these responses.
Q: Where will we begin?
A: Every project must start somewhere before expansion can even be considered; the pilot project that will gauge our effectiveness will fittingly begin in the place that first inspired this vision, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. I have traveled to this southwestern-most corner of the country three times and have established a vital web of contacts that will enable us to hit the ground running.
Q: What specific areas?
A: Beginning in Southwestern Nicaragua, we will work to cover the entire Pacific coast before extending our research and volunteer networks to rest of the country. Once an optimized working model for implementation has been developed in this pilot project, we will expand to Costa Rica - where I studied for 6 months, - and Panama and then to the rest of Central America. We will first concentrate our efforts on honing our project in Nicaragua, specifically along the Pacific coast where the tourism industry and its effects are most evident.
Q: What type of tourist activities will we promote?
A: We are intending to promote what we have called "Socially Conscious Travel," alternatively called "ethical tourism," which encompasses a broad range of activities from ecotourism, community service projects and the diverse spectrum of volunteer opportunities. Activities could include, but are by no means limited to: volunteering for local NGOs, helping out on community service projects, tutoring English at local schools, coaching soccer and baseball in after school programs, and even volunteering to help a fisherman sort the catch or a farmer on an organic, fair trade or small-scale farm. The idea is to promote non-traditional and up-and-coming tourism opportunities for alternative travel experience and deeper community engagement opportunities.
Q: Where will we conduct our research?
A: Our research will consist in networking all the alternative tourism (green & ethical) and volunteer opportunities in each region. This research will ultimately be catalogued in a user-friendly bilingual web database accessible to the public so that travelers planning vacations or backpacking routes can volunteer across central america in meaningful and culturally engaging ways.
With the specific questions addressed, I now hope to briefly contextualize these responses within the broader operational and philosophical framework of our mission.
Most travelers seek meaningful ways to interact and engage with their host communities without knowing how or where to look for such opportunities. Guidebooks and tourism agencies mostly highlight adventure activities or “cultural” sightseeing and places to eat, sleep or drink the night away. Despite the general desire of most travelers to explore the host community, there is no organized movement to facilitate that meaningful engagement. For those that go out of their way to seek such opportunities, there exists no free resource for socially conscious travel that might go beyond superficial cultural tourism into the true character of a place and its people.
Imagine browsing a website catered specifically to your travel destination that lists the opportunities to stay with home-stay families instead of at sterile hotels, that offers connections with local farmers, fishermen/women and tradespeople to help till the soil for a day or cast the lines or hammer the nails. Think of the social capital gained when a traveler volunteers a few hours a day for a week to tutor English at the local school or to coach a soccer team. The untapped free capital resource of volunteers will help to fill the void in understaffed local NGOs, a difference that could be the decisive factor in whether the organization succeeds or fails. The relief and energy that a fresh cycle of traveler-volunteers could bring to homeless shelters and soup kitchens could completely enliven a staggering community. The connection, in all of the aforementioned instances, is mutually beneficial. How better for a traveler to experience a culture than to participate in it rather than spectate its exoticism or commodify its distilled essence in a trinket souvenir. What better way is there to distribute the benefits of tourism to those in the community that were formerly adversely impacted than to bolster their non-tourist based business by working for it?
Comments
Hello Thomas,
I think there is tremendous opportunity for tourism growth in Central America. I am interested in your ideas on where you will begin, what specific areas, and what type of tourists activities you would like to promote. Where will you go to conduct your research?
Best of luck!
Jim
Ashoka's Youth Venture
Jim, thank you for your interest and the opportunity to elaborate on the necessarily brief responses provided in the proposal with more in-depth information on our intended procedures and implementation. I will first respond specifically to each question individually, then address the more general context in which to consider these responses.
Q: Where will we begin?
A: Every project must start somewhere before expansion can even be considered; the pilot project that will gauge our effectiveness will fittingly begin in the place that first inspired this vision, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. I have traveled to this southwestern-most corner of the country three times and have established a vital web of contacts that will enable us to hit the ground running.
Q: What specific areas?
A: Beginning in Southwestern Nicaragua, we will work to cover the entire Pacific coast before extending our research and volunteer networks to rest of the country. Once an optimized working model for implementation has been developed in this pilot project, we will expand to Costa Rica - where I studied for 6 months, - and Panama and then to the rest of Central America. We will first concentrate our efforts on honing our project in Nicaragua, specifically along the Pacific coast where the tourism industry and its effects are most evident.
Q: What type of tourist activities will we promote?
A: We are intending to promote what we have called "Socially Conscious Travel," alternatively called "ethical tourism," which encompasses a broad range of activities from ecotourism, community service projects and the diverse spectrum of volunteer opportunities. Activities could include, but are by no means limited to: volunteering for local NGOs, helping out on community service projects, tutoring English at local schools, coaching soccer and baseball in after school programs, and even volunteering to help a fisherman sort the catch or a farmer on an organic, fair trade or small-scale farm. The idea is to promote non-traditional and up-and-coming tourism opportunities for alternative travel experience and deeper community engagement opportunities.
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Thomas Mateo Simunovic
Q: Where will we conduct our research?
A: Our research will consist in networking all the alternative tourism (green & ethical) and volunteer opportunities in each region. This research will ultimately be catalogued in a user-friendly bilingual web database accessible to the public so that travelers planning vacations or backpacking routes can volunteer across central america in meaningful and culturally engaging ways.
With the specific questions addressed, I now hope to briefly contextualize these responses within the broader operational and philosophical framework of our mission.
Most travelers seek meaningful ways to interact and engage with their host communities without knowing how or where to look for such opportunities. Guidebooks and tourism agencies mostly highlight adventure activities or “cultural” sightseeing and places to eat, sleep or drink the night away. Despite the general desire of most travelers to explore the host community, there is no organized movement to facilitate that meaningful engagement. For those that go out of their way to seek such opportunities, there exists no free resource for socially conscious travel that might go beyond superficial cultural tourism into the true character of a place and its people.
Imagine browsing a website catered specifically to your travel destination that lists the opportunities to stay with home-stay families instead of at sterile hotels, that offers connections with local farmers, fishermen/women and tradespeople to help till the soil for a day or cast the lines or hammer the nails. Think of the social capital gained when a traveler volunteers a few hours a day for a week to tutor English at the local school or to coach a soccer team. The untapped free capital resource of volunteers will help to fill the void in understaffed local NGOs, a difference that could be the decisive factor in whether the organization succeeds or fails. The relief and energy that a fresh cycle of traveler-volunteers could bring to homeless shelters and soup kitchens could completely enliven a staggering community. The connection, in all of the aforementioned instances, is mutually beneficial. How better for a traveler to experience a culture than to participate in it rather than spectate its exoticism or commodify its distilled essence in a trinket souvenir. What better way is there to distribute the benefits of tourism to those in the community that were formerly adversely impacted than to bolster their non-tourist based business by working for it?
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