Eco-Experiencias El Salvador
Location
El Salvador is a country that suffered from a severe civil war. The country is undergoing an economic and cultural revival, and tourism is just entering into this dynamic. EcoExperiencias El Salvador seeks to use responsible tourism in rural areas to reinforce and help to revive traditional cultures, food, products, and to help conserve biodiversity in the region. It is seeking to reinforce indigenous crafts and cultural values which were virtually eliminated via massacres in the 1930s, and to support local worker cooperatives which have maintained strong rural values.
About You
Contact Information
Title
Ms.
First name
Megan
Last name
Epler Wood
Your job title
Principal
Name of your organization
EplerWood International
Organization type
Consulting
Annual budget/currency
Annual Budget/Currency
Mailing address
Telephone number
Telephone Number
Postal/Zip Code
802-865-3351
Country
United States
Email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
369 S. Union St.
City
.
State/Province
.
Postal/Zip Code
Country
United States
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists , Quality of benefit to residents for the destination , Quality of tourism management by destination leadership , Quality of stewardship of the destination.
Organization size
Small (1 to 100 employees)
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Tourism-related business
Year innovation began
2007
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Indicate sector in which you principally work
General destination stewardship/management.
Name Your Project
Eco-Experiencias El Salvador
Describe Your Idea
El Salvador is a country that suffered from a severe civil war. The country is undergoing an economic and cultural revival, and tourism is just entering into this dynamic. EcoExperiencias El Salvador seeks to use responsible tourism in rural areas to reinforce and help to revive traditional cultures, food, products, and to help conserve biodiversity in the region. It is seeking to reinforce indigenous crafts and cultural values which were virtually eliminated via massacres in the 1930s, and to support local worker cooperatives which have maintained strong rural values.
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation? Please describe in one sentence the kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
To bring the country of El Salvador into the sustainable tourism marketplace in a manner that respects local values, creates authentic experiences, and diversifies the rural economy.
Please write an overview of your project. Include how your approach supports or embodies geotourism or destination stewardship. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the map located on the competition homepage.
El Salvador is a country that suffered from a severe civil war. The country is undergoing an economic and cultural revival, and tourism is just entering into this dynamic. EcoExperiencias El Salvador seeks to use responsible tourism in rural areas to reinforce and help to revive traditional cultures, food, products, and to help conserve biodiversity in the region. It is seeking to reinforce indigenous crafts and cultural values which were virtually eliminated via massacres in the 1930s, and to support local worker cooperatives which have maintained strong rural values.
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
The project began by undertaking participatory, interpretive workshops to allow local working groups to create their own "stories" of who they are from a cultural, ecological, and social/political perspective. Our team then helped local tourism committees to translate their best ideas into the marketplace, via training on handling groups in a variety of environments, from mangroves, to off shore, to trails in volcanic zones, and a variety of other market and customer management training programs. The region was carefully demarcated into 4 distinct sub-regions - The Volcanoes, Route of the Flowers, Forests & Mangroves and the Western Pacific - to help each develop its own branding, while allowing the entire region to be marketed as a destination under the Ecoexperiencias El Salvador brand.
This is all presented on the website www.elsalvadorexperience.com. The project has sought to bring a whole new image to Western El Salvador for tourism - by working with tour operators from El Salvador, local community organizations, indigenous groups, local municipalities, and small scale environmental NGOs. This is grass roots, community-oriented sustainable tourism development on a destination level using modern market generating mechanisms.
Another distinct aspect of this program is that the primary market is domestic Salvadorans, who can easily travel to Western El Salvador. This project is introducing the cultural, geographic, and ecological aspects of the country primarily to its own people! And there has been a variety of Sunday newspaper spreads about the opportunities developed for tourism in Western El Salvador, which were unknown in the past.
Impact
Describe the degree of success you have had to date. How do you measure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact on sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How has it transformed or contributed to the power of place or demonstrated the sustainability of tourism? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
The project is being carefully measured in terms of the economic benefits it is generating in the rural destination points it has specifically targeted for sustainable tourism development. An economic baselines study was performed, and regular economic impact measurements are being made. We just completed our second economic impact study, and found that in 2 years revenues generated by tourism in the region have increased by $7 million. We are still finalizing this study, to accurately apply economic growth indicators from tourism to our project activities, but the growth is impressive. Each new tourism product being developed must meet sustainability objectives, which have been outlined by the project. A strong events program is underway in small towns which highlights local artisan work and local cultural festivals, particularly of indigenous people who have played a very active role in the project. All business and municipal projects are undergoing advance environmental impact analysis. Another fascinating part of our work has been performing business plans and architectural studies with coffee cooperatives. We have been very lucky to have 2 local architecture students join our team who have provided highly imaginative, yet practical desgns for our partners, all working closely with the landscape and local materials. The members of our partner cooperatives have had quite a journey working with our team, learning about how to present a low-key but quality product.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your work, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
The project began with participatory, interpretation workshops to allow local working groups from the community, business, municipalities, and conservation groups to imagine how they would like to be interpreted in the marketplace (or not if they chose). Local owners of both coffee and cattle cooperatives have worked closely with our team to develop tourism components of their businesses. One highly regarded cattle cooperative president told us that our process has created a model for the cooperative in planning new business activities on their property. They fully endorsed a tourism visitor center and small children's finca, which our young Salvadoran architecture team is designing, as a means to diversify their economic benefits to members, and also employ more youth and women.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
The Eco-Experiencias El Salvador project seeks to help travelers have a more diversified, rich, culture and nature experience that is rooted in the local, rural landscapes of Western El Salvador. Travelers are experiencing, many for the first time, the charm and hospitality of the warm Salvadoreños, bringing home memories and making connections which is helping to improve the image of El Salvador as a tourist destination and a place filled with adventure, nature and culture long undiscovered.
Describe how your work helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues.
Previously, there have been few materials prepared at all about local El Salvadoran cultural heritage for travelers. This projects providing the first, well-designed program to inform travelers about how to enjoy and understand El Salvador's rural culture and ecology. It will reinforce the existing good work that has been done to help travelers to responsibly visit natural landscapes. It is opening up new areas of the country that previously were unknown and unappreciated by their own citizens, and has been receiving regular Sunday paper coverage. Recently a whale watching tour in El Salvador was covered by Univision (see the Youtube Video above)- before now Salvadorans were completely unaware they could view migrating whales on their own coastline. Most of the products and heritage presented in our program are little known both locally and internationally.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
USAID is supporting the initiative until September 2009 with an extension to develop several new areas for local tourism development under the same brand. Business planning and supply chain development have led to a competitive, market-based program that will be largely self-sufficient due to growing interest in visiting all of the regions and products developed under this program, strong media interest, a growing well trained tour operator community, and increasing international interest.
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
The Eco-Experiencias El Salvador website, in its final form, will offer El Salvador sustainable tourism products for sale on commission and will be sold to an entrepreneur at the end of the project with all the product liaisons and supply chain in place.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
The project must continuously work with all local stakeholders to ensure that its efforts become part of the local development landscape.
What is your plan to expand or further develop your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
The plan is to bring Ecoexperiencias El Salvador to the rests of the nation. The project is already coordinating with a number of important national organizations, including the highly-regarding local foundation Fundemas, the National Sustainable Development Commission of El Salvador, and the largest, national conservation NGO, SalvaNatura. There was a national conference on ecotourism held in El Salvador in February 2008 and Fundemas already stated they will use this project as a model for further development at the national level.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Our local team, Raul Martinez and Ena Lopez have provided the majority of the work on the ground. Both are experienced with tourism. One is a former tour operator and the other worked for the Chamber of Commerce for Tourism. They have worked directly with a wide variety of stakeholders to bring the concept of sustainable tourism to the region.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
I am a long-time player in the ecotourism world as the founder of The International Ecotourism Society. This project was developed as part of an effort to create community-based destination development on a holistic level, respecting local cultures, and honoring the environment on a destination level. The local team have worked tirelessly to translate this vision into reality, creating all of the products based on local knowledge and know how.
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
EcoExperiencias offers several unique tourist experiences, all which are based on local knowledge and connections.
Guided tour of Nahuizalco: This colonial village is home to one of the most longstanding native communities and arts and crafts production sites in El Salvador. Nahuizalco has always been an iconic city yet it wasn't always organized for tourists. Through EcoExperiences a local committee is now managing tourism there and offers the unique experience of touring the village with a local guide. Travelers visit stands, go into shops to learn about the different arts and crafts, fruits and other food, all from a native person.
Prehistoric fish tour: This tour takes travelers to the El Cabildo Pond, whose muddy waters are home to a prehistoric fish known as the Tropical Gar (Atractosteus tropicus). The Tropical Gar dates back over 150 million years and still retains characteristics of the Mesozoic Era. The fish are visible on the surface of the water and resemble floating logs and they appear to “dance on the water”. They are reported to grow up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in length and live for up to 40 years!
Musical traditions and a Peoples' History in Izalco: The city of Izalco, completely off the tourist map, represents the largest indigenous community of the region. Today, Izalco has a mystical allure. It has retained its indigenous healing traditions and rituals that the Spanish conquerors once referred to as witchcraft. EcoExperiences can bring travelers to the La Vega family’s historic hacienda in the center of the colonial village to learn about their family’s centuries old roots. Neighbors of the La Vegas teach visitors about the ancient Pipil musical traditions and invite them to play along with this family’s own folk group on hand made instruments in the native tradition.
More unique "Eco Experiences" can be found on elsalvadorexperience.com
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
The project signed agreements with local tour operators asking each tour operator to commit to a sustainable tourism development agenda. Each tour operator is adopting at least one local attraction or business, or community product to help that project to develop as an attraction. By asking the tour operators to partner with the local attractions, we are building an innovative supply chain and supporting this via small scale trainings programs via local training bodies. We are then seeking partnerships with international tour operators interested in voluntours and other types of ecotourism programs. We are also seeking to partner with investors interested in small, scale ecological tourism development, and with the coffee industry, which has a very major role to play in El Salvador. We continue to seek more partnerships with coffee companies, conservation entities, and tourism companies.
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| ES Apaneca Guitar players.jpg | 157.12 KB |
| ES volcan izalco.jpg | 25.45 KB |
| ES Caimans.jpg | 6.01 KB |
| ES Dolfins.jpg | 7.24 KB |
| ES feria_juayua.jpg | 29.47 KB |
| ES nahuizalco.jpg | 48.04 KB |
| ES nahui hammocks.jpg | 185.74 KB |
| ES nahui necklace table smaller file.jpg | 294.04 KB |
| ES El imposible lookout.jpg | 54.91 KB |
| ES mercado_nahuizalco.jpg | 10.55 KB |
| ES tortugas.jpg | 33.69 KB |
| ES imposible sunset tower.jpg | 8.15 KB |
 | ArianeJ said: It is great to see an example of well thought out Post Conflict Tourism development. Tourism is a great way for countries that have gone ... about this Competition Entry. - 988 days ago read more > |
| meganew submitted this idea. - 995 days ago |
Comments
It is great to see an example of well thought out Post Conflict Tourism development. Tourism is a great way for countries that have gone through troubled times to rediscover their values, cultural and natural treasures and discover that they attract visitors from nearby and faraway.