Santa Fe, land of water. Gaucha Culture
Tourism in Chaco Santafesino has the goal of improving life conditions in the northern communities of Santa Fe (the poorest area in the province), promoting productive diversification and the creation of local values using the native forest and other natural resources in a sustainable way; promoting a process of concerted territorial order in the region of “Chaco Santafecino”, from an integral view of conservation and taking advantage of biodiversity, social participation and struggle against poverty.
For this reason we have developed a program for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the region of “Chaco Santafecino”, promoting a vision of social and economical ...
About You
Contact Information
Title
Title (e.g. Mr. Ms.
First name
ernesto
Last name
Gamboa
Your job title
Director
Name of your organization
Sustainable Tourism EVT
Organization type
Organization Type
Annual budget/currency
Annual Budget/Currency
Mailing address
Mailing Address
Telephone number
Telephone Number
Postal/Zip Code
Country
Argentina
Website
Email address
Alternative email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
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Street Address
-
City
-
State/Province
Santa Fe
Postal/Zip Code
-
Country
Argentina
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists , quality of tourism management by destination leadership .
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
Living culture, Nature, Culinary or agritourism.
Name Your Project
Santa Fe, land of water. Gaucha Culture
Describe Your Idea
Tourism in Chaco Santafesino has the goal of improving life conditions in the northern communities of Santa Fe (the poorest area in the province), promoting productive diversification and the creation of local values using the native forest and other natural resources in a sustainable way; promoting a process of concerted territorial order in the region of “Chaco Santafecino”, from an integral view of conservation and taking advantage of biodiversity, social participation and struggle against poverty.
For this reason we have developed a program for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the region of “Chaco Santafecino”, promoting a vision of social and economical ...
IDB/Fomin
Si perteneces a un pais de Latinoamerica y el Caribe tienes la oportunidad de presentar tu iniciativa para acceder a fondos para innovaciones en turismo sostenible del BID/FOMIN (para mayor informacion leer la seccion sobre la oportunidad BID/FOMIN en la pagina principal del Desafio).
Deseo postularme.
Si perteneces a un pais de Latinoamerica y el Caribe tienes la oportunidad de presentar tu iniciativa para acceder a fondos para innovaciones en turismo sostenible del BID/FOMIN (para mayor informacion leer la seccion sobre la oportunidad BID/FOMIN en la pagina principal del Desafio).
Consumidores (viajeros), Grupos comunitarios autóctonos, Atractivos naturales y culturales.
Indica cuales de estas tematicas cubre tu innovacion (elige todas aquellas opciones que apliquen)
Planificación y Gestión de destinos, Innovación y diversificación en el desarrollo de productos turísticos.
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.
Conservation and sustainable use of native forest as well as struggle against poverty in rural communities of the region of “Chaco Santafecino”
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.
Tourism in Chaco Santafesino has the goal of improving life conditions in the northern communities of Santa Fe (the poorest area in the province), promoting productive diversification and the creation of local values using the native forest and other natural resources in a sustainable way; promoting a process of concerted territorial order in the region of “Chaco Santafecino”, from an integral view of conservation and taking advantage of biodiversity, social participation and struggle against poverty.
For this reason we have developed a program for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the region of “Chaco Santafecino”, promoting a vision of social and economical progress for its population and struggle against poverty, associated to the defense of the native forest.
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
The Province of Santa Fe has historically been an agricultural producing province, with a strong predominance in the production of commodities and based on the understanding of natural environment as an antinomy of progress. That is why tourism in “Chaco Santafecino” promotes sustainable use of the forest as an incentive to promote conservation, adding an intangible value to the natural medium.
In the province of Santa Fe this would be the first community experience in which tourism plays a central role in local development and promotes the conservation through activities like flora and fauna observation, trekking, cyclism, photographic safaris and the appreciation of local culture.
The Project takes place in a natural unique environment given the fact that it is located in the region of southern “Gran Chaco Americano”, which is the second largest forest region in America. In it, a unique culture in the country has developed, based in forest exploitation and extensive stockbreeding which makes it very particular from its architecture up to its life style.
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?
Up to now the proposal has surpassed the phase of planning and set in motion, generating a Fam Tour with observers from France, that evaluate the insertion of the project in established tourist sales agencies, as well as the quality of the offered services. Five stockbreeders are involved in the proposal, of which two already received the first tourists. Besides, a new NGO' s which is nationally renown and linked with conservation in the general proposal, has joined the initiative. By means of the support of the breeders that maintain their original activity but introduce tourism as an elemen of diversification of their economy, involving the improvement of life quality of people that work with them in their lands, generating opportunities for their families and their descendants and avoiding rural exodus, guaranteeing the conservation of the areas inside their grounds.
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 local residents are the ones that have made possible the development of this project since they develop it. The proposal develops in the grounds of local owners, with the active participation of the locals. For this reason it offers them training activities, mainly in environmental interpretation, tourist customer services and first aids. Through all the project´s phases, the development guidelines were established by means of the active participation of all the people involved (land owners, local artisans, rural workers and intermediate organizations) through the work in workshops.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
The relation with the local population is carried out through a direct contact with the providers of services that are the same locals, bearers of the culture, through genuine experiences, since the service provided do not modify their traditional activities, but carry out an opening or invitation to share their activities with the tourists. Because it is not a setup, tourist perceive this, and this is a guarantee of quality in the sense of authenticity.
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.
The tourist activity develops in an area of environmental conservation sharing the local customs with those who carry them out daily. When a process of education is formulated through the empirical and direct experience, this lives in the person´s mind forever. The tourist shares a moment in the life of the locals, as a guest and host; in this way the culture and local environment is valued through a non commercial relation, but a cultural interaction where even feelings of friendship can be involved.
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.
The initiative began with a project financed by the Fund for the Americas and the Foundation “Hábitat y Desarrollo” Habitat and Development; with a total investment of $ 226,230 ($ 118,880 donated by the Fund), the remainder was generated by the Foundation and the Group of Sustainable Tourism as a counterpart. Among the counterparts, we value the transfer of technology carried out by, National Parks, and the “Direction Departementale de la Jeunesse et des Sports (DDJS)” Departement Direction of the Youth and Sports, that offers the prize "envie d'agir _ Defi Jeune", to the contest for initiativas of youths, and to which a French volunteer has applied, Vincent Duret. Currently, the Agency Sustainable Tourism EVT emerges from the Group of Sustainable Tourism as a tool for the commercialization of the proposals and this is integrated by a group of five people, two of them work on a salary basis and the remainder at risk like associates (Ernesto Gamboa, Vincent Duret and Laura Pittau)
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
It is, once the period of planning and insertion are surpassed since it will serve as diversification of the current productions and does not intend to be the basic living income of the zone. Sustainable Tourism is one of the tendencies of tourism that have greater growth on a worldwide basis. The European markets as well as Americans, emphasize the growing desire to relate to nature and to get to know other cultures. In Argentina the tourist activity linked to nature has come to occupy an increasingly important position in the visitor´s preferences.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
With the launching of a successful example, the barriers begin to disappear, since today the largest barrier is the incredulity of many actors, especially in the political circles, about the potential of the activity, in spite of clear signs of growth in the country and in the Province of Santa Fe. For this reason the work is mainly at an institutional level so as to gain experience through time; in this sense various advances have been achieved, as the recategorización of the Tourism in the government charts, in provincial and district levels. The leading and active participation of the Province of Santa Fe, in Tourist Counsil of the Tourist National Secretary. And the presence in the main fairs to national level, where the Province of Santa Fe is being recognized as an emerging destiny.
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 plans to expand the project are:
Short-term:
Involving land owners, leaseholders or cooperatives that produce in the undertakings that form the local network of extension, monitoring and training to generate the transfer of technology and replicate the model in the area of influence.
Medium term: Strengthen the most compromised actors so that they become successful examples.
Long-term:
Promoting the successful experiences by means of transparent and democratic technological transfer.
The Story
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
I was born in Venezuela and was raised in Argentina. I inherited a passion for this activity from my father, who travelled through all of South America on foot, three times, and from all his adventures, teachings and stories, all of which fascinated me. The one which has impacted me the most is one that defines the real escence of traveling; he used to tell me “after all my travelling experiences and getting to know people from all social classes and different cultures, I realized that we all laugh at the same jokes and cry for the same reasons; in the end, we all have the same joys and sorrows”…
All of my life I believed in tourism as a tool for the transformation and approach between cultures, that can bring down prejudice and false stereotypes that people generally have towards other cultures. I worked for many years in the Foundation “Habitat y Desarrollo” (Habitat and Development) as Coordinator of the private reservations network, searching for concrete goals for the conservation of the region of the Argentinean “Chaco Húmedo”, in direct contact with stockbreeders, who did not think as possible the application of forest certifications, environmental services, carbon coupons etc. Motivated by my vocation for tourism, I had the possibility to work in a Project sponsored by the American Fund, where I could use tourism as a tool for the proposed conservation, that was adopted by producers, because our country is experiencing a significant growth in this matter.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
I have a degree in Tourism from the Economics University of the Litoral, with the best grades of my class. I am President and Founder of the Tourism Entrepreneurs Chamber of the Province of Santa Fé. I am a teacher in the carreer of Tourism of the Catholic University of the Province of Santiago del Estero - DAR, Director of the Sustainable Tourism Group, Ex President of the Association of Tourism Professionals of the Province of Santa Fe and I have been registered in the Tourism Friends Register of the National Secretary of Tourism.
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
The proposal is to provide the tourists with a genuine experience of contact with the Argentine “Gaucho”, learning the traditional labours of the farm and sharing life experiences, given the fact that in the north of the province of Santa Fé the stockbreeding activity is still carried out extensively on pastures and natural fields in the old fashion way.
Firstly, the local culture is valued correclty because it is not a setup for tourists. Secondly the direct contact with natural areas which have been privately kept, will permit to interpret how profitable productive activities can live together in a sustainable with nature and its biodiversity. Thirdly this contact with nature is carried out based on a proposal of lodging that generates the minimum ecological track on the landscape, because the camping facilities have all the comforts of security and hygiene, and at the same time it is inmersed in a natural environment that generates the sensation of being aisolated in time and space.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
The most beneficial alliances to diffuse this experience would be the ones that are linked with networks of agents or NGO´s, dedicated to the promotion of responsible tourism in the markets, which transmit this type of proposals such as the European markets. Also the promotion of the destiny through specialized media, would help the proposal since it is a an emerging destiny. Another action would be the insertion of the destiny in renown sales agencies with stable tourism clients. Finally the identification and contact with funds for the training in techniques of interpretation, quality, tourist customer services, and replication of the proposal in the region.
 | 161 weeks agoErnesto Gamboa said: Estimados, Les agradezco a todos sus comentarios de apoyo y especialmente por seguir teniendo confiaza y fe en la región ya que ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 161 weeks agoGuadalupe Gamboa said: Ojala puedan conseguir llevar a adelante su trabajo, doy mi apoyo a ustedes chicos, y ofrezco mi ayuda en lo que necesiten ya que estoy ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 161 weeks agoLAURA PITTAU said: Espero que salgan seleccionados asi el norte de Santa Fe tiene una oportunidad. Saludos Tu about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 161 weeks agoAurelio Tolossa said: Muchos años viviendo en el norte de Santa Fe, una zona castigada y olvidada por los gobiernos de turnos, con muchas posibilidades, y una ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 161 weeks agoClaudia Gonzalez said: Sería muy bueno que apoyen éste proyecto, el Chaco Santafesino es una zona agraciada por la naturaleza y cultura pero muy abandonada por ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 164 weeks agoPatricia Breuer Moreno submitted this idea. |
