Post by Guest Speaker on Jan 21, 2007 22:13:34 GMT 8
TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE TOURISM ON AN ECO-BASED MODEL – AN OUTSIDER’S VIEW
Like sustainable development, eco-tourism has become a much misused and misunderstood concept that has proven notoriously difficult to define, let alone implement. As the eco-tourism market has matured it has also become subject to a wide variety of interpretations.
The CFI has indicated that the existing tourism model – a model which , like Topsy, had just grown over the years, is starting to return fewer tourism numbers and receipts than in years past. This is attributed to the passing of the veterans, and the reduction in visitors connected with those veterans. Being a “Memorial Island” just isn’t going to be adequate any longer.
As a regular visitor to Corregidor, I recognize that there does need to be some form of re-positioning of Corregidor in the tourism market – though clearly I hope that it is a repositioning which remains entirely sympathetic to the History & Heritage of this precious piece of real estate.
Eco-tourism is “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (UNCED, 1987. Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report), Oxford, Oxford University Press).
Other sources describe it as "striking a balance between business and economic realities whilst conserving the natural environment. "
"Sustainable tourism is often seen as a cure for many of the social, cultural and economic ills of the 'undeveloped' world and for indigenous peoples in Western countries," noted Charles Sturt University anthropologist Dr Jim Birckhead has been quoted as saying at the opening of a program investigating this concept in the Asia-Pacific region.
"It has emerged as a fashionable concept in the early 21st century. The concept promises to use resources without consuming them, while benefiting conservation and local development - an integrated approach which reflects a 'bottom-up' decision making process, devolving planning and decision-making about tourism to the local community," he says.
The market positioning of Corregidor ands an eco-tourism destination (as an alternative to the war veteran/memorial Island tourism model) has created expectations both inside and outside the industry regarding its future. If these expectations are to be met, then the CFI needs to recognize that it has to sustainably manage its resource supply and demand relationships. This link between eco-tourism and sustainabilty is essentially what sets eco-tourism apart from its more mainstream, historical counterpart and yet at the same time it also creates a dilemma for the CFI.
However, Corregidor has problems (and opportunities) which most other wanna-be eco-tourism candidates do not have. Firstly, it has had a well developed market presence since the 1970’s. And secondly, it doesn’t have a local community.
It isn’t necessary for the CFI to re-invent the wheel here – the concept has already been examined in the Philippine context in a joint Department of Environmental and Natural Resources-Department of Tourism memorandum circular entitled ‘Guide Laws for Eco-tourism Development in the Philippines’ (signed in June 1998) which interprets ‘eco-tourism’ as: a low-impact, environmentally-sound and community-participatory tourism activity in a given natural environment that enhances the conservation of biophysical understanding and education and yields socio-economic benefits to the concerned community (Libosada, Jr., Carlos, T., 1998. Ecotourism in the Philippines. bookmark Inc. Makati, Philippines).
The inference therefore is that eco-tourism does not degrade the biophysical environment, nor dilute or destroy the traditional socio-cultural framework of local communities. In addition, it is intended to concentrate the economic benefits derived from tourism within a local populace who participate through and throughout the conservation and development process. These elements are highlighted.
The CFI shouldn’t be stressing, because their job is easier than most – they have a very limited primary community to satisfy, the primary community was shifted off the island in 1941. But that elimination of the primary community doesn’t mean that they need consider no one. The natural result appears to be that the secondary community- the secondary stakeholders – have stepped forward to be counted.
So they need to consider their responsibility to understand the desires of their secondary stakeholders – those stakeholders who represent veterans groups (both domestic and foreign), community educators, commercial concessionaires - and more recently the tree-huggers. These are groups which they should be courting, not criticizing. These disparate groups, with their differing perspectives, responsibilities and agendas, are what presents them with their challenge for the years to come.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association, the Philippine Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have already done the hard work, and it remains for the CFI to mould a master plan which will generate a form of tourism development that is:
1. Founded (rooted) in the secondary communities of Corregidor.
2. Based on sustainable resource management principles.
3. Economically viable within the wider tourism market.
4. Capable of integrating the needs of development with those of conservation.
By bringing together three main elements (stakeholders, sustainability and eco-tourism), their challenge is to address a fundamental issue which is important, not only at local, provincial and national levels, but also at the global scale (i.e. how to integrate development with conservation).
(Name withheld)
Like sustainable development, eco-tourism has become a much misused and misunderstood concept that has proven notoriously difficult to define, let alone implement. As the eco-tourism market has matured it has also become subject to a wide variety of interpretations.
The CFI has indicated that the existing tourism model – a model which , like Topsy, had just grown over the years, is starting to return fewer tourism numbers and receipts than in years past. This is attributed to the passing of the veterans, and the reduction in visitors connected with those veterans. Being a “Memorial Island” just isn’t going to be adequate any longer.
As a regular visitor to Corregidor, I recognize that there does need to be some form of re-positioning of Corregidor in the tourism market – though clearly I hope that it is a repositioning which remains entirely sympathetic to the History & Heritage of this precious piece of real estate.
Eco-tourism is “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (UNCED, 1987. Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report), Oxford, Oxford University Press).
Other sources describe it as "striking a balance between business and economic realities whilst conserving the natural environment. "
"Sustainable tourism is often seen as a cure for many of the social, cultural and economic ills of the 'undeveloped' world and for indigenous peoples in Western countries," noted Charles Sturt University anthropologist Dr Jim Birckhead has been quoted as saying at the opening of a program investigating this concept in the Asia-Pacific region.
"It has emerged as a fashionable concept in the early 21st century. The concept promises to use resources without consuming them, while benefiting conservation and local development - an integrated approach which reflects a 'bottom-up' decision making process, devolving planning and decision-making about tourism to the local community," he says.
The market positioning of Corregidor ands an eco-tourism destination (as an alternative to the war veteran/memorial Island tourism model) has created expectations both inside and outside the industry regarding its future. If these expectations are to be met, then the CFI needs to recognize that it has to sustainably manage its resource supply and demand relationships. This link between eco-tourism and sustainabilty is essentially what sets eco-tourism apart from its more mainstream, historical counterpart and yet at the same time it also creates a dilemma for the CFI.
However, Corregidor has problems (and opportunities) which most other wanna-be eco-tourism candidates do not have. Firstly, it has had a well developed market presence since the 1970’s. And secondly, it doesn’t have a local community.
It isn’t necessary for the CFI to re-invent the wheel here – the concept has already been examined in the Philippine context in a joint Department of Environmental and Natural Resources-Department of Tourism memorandum circular entitled ‘Guide Laws for Eco-tourism Development in the Philippines’ (signed in June 1998) which interprets ‘eco-tourism’ as: a low-impact, environmentally-sound and community-participatory tourism activity in a given natural environment that enhances the conservation of biophysical understanding and education and yields socio-economic benefits to the concerned community (Libosada, Jr., Carlos, T., 1998. Ecotourism in the Philippines. bookmark Inc. Makati, Philippines).
The inference therefore is that eco-tourism does not degrade the biophysical environment, nor dilute or destroy the traditional socio-cultural framework of local communities. In addition, it is intended to concentrate the economic benefits derived from tourism within a local populace who participate through and throughout the conservation and development process. These elements are highlighted.
The CFI shouldn’t be stressing, because their job is easier than most – they have a very limited primary community to satisfy, the primary community was shifted off the island in 1941. But that elimination of the primary community doesn’t mean that they need consider no one. The natural result appears to be that the secondary community- the secondary stakeholders – have stepped forward to be counted.
So they need to consider their responsibility to understand the desires of their secondary stakeholders – those stakeholders who represent veterans groups (both domestic and foreign), community educators, commercial concessionaires - and more recently the tree-huggers. These are groups which they should be courting, not criticizing. These disparate groups, with their differing perspectives, responsibilities and agendas, are what presents them with their challenge for the years to come.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association, the Philippine Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have already done the hard work, and it remains for the CFI to mould a master plan which will generate a form of tourism development that is:
1. Founded (rooted) in the secondary communities of Corregidor.
2. Based on sustainable resource management principles.
3. Economically viable within the wider tourism market.
4. Capable of integrating the needs of development with those of conservation.
By bringing together three main elements (stakeholders, sustainability and eco-tourism), their challenge is to address a fundamental issue which is important, not only at local, provincial and national levels, but also at the global scale (i.e. how to integrate development with conservation).
(Name withheld)