Rural Accommodations

Transformative Learning - Inspire

2011-03-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Dr. Sakena Yacoobi – Executive Director, Afghan Institute of Learning

This was the final presentation of the ATWS in Scotland. It followed the title Inspire, and it was a breathtaking intervention with a lot of emotion and value. Truly inspiring!

Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women-led NGO she founded in 1995. Established to provide teacher training, education and health services to women and children, over 7 million have benefited from AIL’s programs to date. Sakena’s vision of a healthier Afghanistan evolved after watching her mother give birth to 15 children, only to have 5 children survive. Under Sakena’s leadership, AIL has established itself as a visionary organization which works at the grassroots level and empowers women and communities to bring education and health services to poor rural and urban girls and women, as well as other disenfranchised Afghans. AIL was the first organization to offer human rights and leadership training to Afghan women in the 1990s. AIL supported 80 underground home schools for 3000 girls in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. AIL was first to open Women’s Learning Centers for Afghan women—a concept now copied by many organizations throughout Afghanistan. Dr. Yacoobi has received multiple recognition-of-service awards in Afghanistan.

Who she is:

Not much more can be said to this introduction. She was the first in her family to be able to go to university in the US, when she finished and wanted to go back to Afghanistan but the border was closed. When she finally was able to go back to her house, she created a learning center for women, which was illegal at the time.

She told some stories that she has to live through, this is an example:

One day while travelling as of any other day she got stopped by a line of armed men with riffles. When she saw the line of men in the middle of the road that she travelled every day, she was very afraid for her life and those on board the truck. The young men aged between 16-22 years wanted her to get out of the vehicle. The people inside requested for her to stay but she knew they were all in danger if she did not do what they said. Finally when she confronted the men they told her that they wanted education and they would stop her every day until she accepted, they knew that she had a school. She said she will try to look for a solution, even though the school was for women and that she had no means to take care of them. When she got to the school the phone rang and it was from the aid program, she explained what had happened to her that morning and they told her they would take care of them too. Finally next day when she was stooped she told them she would teach them to write and read but on the condition that they would come every day, clean and behave correctly. After 4months in the program they had learned to read and write and today they are their guides and protect her.

This is a true story and shows the feelings and how everybody wants to learn and be educated. They wanted to improve their life and change, education as a means of transformation and growth.

Another story was that of a young girl who wanted to go to school to read. She was told by her parents that the only way to go to school was if she woke up at 4 o’clock and did her labor before leaving every morning. For the first 4 months she did not speak a word but from the work she was doing by knitting she could pay his brother to do her work at home and take care of her 3 children. By the age of 22 she had become the leader of the local center with 300 women under her training, and people come and ask her for advice. She has become an important figure in her village and people come to her for advice. She is in the local council and is spreading the word to other areas.

This is an example of how empowerment of women thorough education can lead to development.

Finally she told us that her main aim is to make the world and the afghan women aware that they are individuals and that they can do anything they set to do. She is doing a great work in developing a women liberal right movement in Afghanistan and creating leader in that country. Empowering women in a very complicated country.

Best is to listen to her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e8yJ9obOpA

Do you think it´s an inspiring story?

After hearing this incredible story that I feel charged up with positive energy and feel to continue with our mission of achieving sustainable development in the region of la Vera through the promotion of responsible tourism.

Nurture – Transformative Learning

2011-03-04T03:46:00.000-08:00

This presentation follows the series of the World Summit Adventure; the speaker was Keith Bellows - Editor in chief of National Geographic Traveler. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Canadian citizen, Keith Bellows, 58, was named editor-in-chief of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER magazine in January 1998 and a vice president of the National Geographic Society in March 2000. Under his stewardship, the magazine has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards, won more than 60 Lowell Thomas Awards for best travel writing (it has been named best magazine eight of his 11 years and this year won as best magazine and best website), and eight Folio Awards for Best Travel Magazine. As a tip of the hat to new media, TRAVELER has won an iTunes People’s Choice Award for Best Podcast of 2006, for which Bellows wrote two scripts. Its “Intelligent Travel” won a 2007 Travvie and a 2009 Lonely Planet Award as best travel blog.

Keith has lived in Scotland among many other destinations. He began his speech by addressing that his readers are our customers. And put forward the idea of “Nurturing the future” (we have to pass or comfort zone every day). Some of the facts he introduced:

35 % of US congress men have no passport, no data on US inhabitants.

He believes that travelling can be a learning experience and can lead to life changing experiences opening the mind of the traveller. Travelling is true life learning, learn the needs of the people, and learn from different cultures and from the world. These learning opportunities should be targeting the kids and young people in order to learn from local and from other cultures.

"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled." (Prophet Mohammed)

It’s time to teach children to travel and they will travel to learn.

There is not a great offer for children travel, mainly is included in the parents holidays. It’s time we begin to target this audience and help to develop remote regions and maintain cultural heritage while educating children about other cultures and ways of living. The Guide is essential for creating a unique experience for children.

If you want to know the future, ask a kindergarten teacher.

In the future we must create specific offers for children, young people and for the growing market of retirees. Identify other travelers who are growing in number and demand associated with them.

It seems necessary that we begin to focus on tourism to these new market niches. (Young and retirees):

Do you think this is a suitable strategy?

Enjoy a day with our friends the donkeys on the Shire.

2011-02-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

Donkey Trail.

Do not miss the opportunity to enjoy one of the donkey trails in the Shire of la Vera with an animal in danger of extinction which we must preserve.

The donkey is one of the oldest “man-companions”. In the recent past they were used for all kinds of tasks. Its qualities are innate sobriety, prudence, integrity, fortitude and calm. Remember patience and peace. The donkey is the symbol of the friendly nature.

A series of educational activities have been generated from the donkey’s world; such as observing both the natural environment and the environment they live.

Among other things, it is offered to visits to the stable, direct contact with animals as well as active participation in the feeding and care of these.

One of the joys that this wonderful animal has given us is the possibility to experience special feelings with the involvement of the whole family, from children to adults.

Remember patience and peace will accompany you on this journey through the shire of la Vera.

Luis Yanes

Quad Adventure in the Shire of La Vera

2011-02-09T03:28:00.000-08:00

Quad

For motor and nature enthusiasts we have the possibility to enjoy a very entertaining Quads routes in the Shire of la Vera.

Take advantage from a unique perspective of our beautiful landscapes. Your partner, family, peer or business groups, all have a place in our quad tours through the region “Comarca de la Vera”.

We have different types of routes and durations. Say which option is the one you like and come and enjoy a wonderful natural environment and the warmth of its people. Visit the river gorges, Pyrenean oak forests, roman bridges, and traditional ways of life (Cabrera, etc ....), birds, flora, and how to use a quad to favor nature and not to destroy it (responsible).

The only condition is that you must be in possession of driver's license and enjoy!

Transformative Learning - Cooperate

2011-01-26T05:11:00.000-08:00

In this seminar of the Adventure Travel World Summit held in Scotland we had the opportunity to listen to John Sterling of The Conservation Alliance. (http://www.conservationalliance.com/)

John has spent the past 17 years in the conservation field, and has been involved with The Conservation Alliance since 1996. The Conservation Alliance is a group of 170 outdoor industry companies that work together to protect threatened wild places throughout North America.

Outdoor Business is giving back to the outdoors: Business shares, produce of a year.

We will look at two events with 30 year difference.

In 1989, The Conservation Alliance was co-founded, by Patagonia, REI, The North Face and Kelty, to encourage other companies in the outdoor industry to give money to environmental organizations and to become more involved in environmental work

The 4 major companies came together to protect their habitats, the wild places.

In the US NGO are very important in looking for funds and making companies contribution to environmental or conservation issues.

In 2009, Obama signed 2 million acres of US as a conservative measure.

This came about after the project designed by the conservation alliance in collaboration with many private companies and local people. Individuals and companies have collaborated in this initiative, looking for areas worth protecting and the conservation alliance has been looking for the funding and putting pressure on the administration resulting in the signed by president Obama, showing the strength in numbers.

Report puravera Adventure Travel World Summit Scotland_2010

2011-01-26T05:02:00.001-08:00

This document includes meetings, agreements, strategic alliances with tour operators, conferences, training received, among others.

We recommend its reading to all our stakeholders interested in improving their environmental, social and economic performance!

Some of the items include:

Best practices for sustainable tourism
Combining the best of traditional and Social Marketing
Emerging Destinations
Among others.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Report puravera world_summit_scotland_2010

View more documents from PURAVERA.

Puravera Eco-routes 4x4

2011-01-24T01:39:00.000-08:00

Eco-routes 4x4

One of the best ways to get to know the Shire of la Vera and its different habitats as oak and chestnut forests, meadows, mountains, among others; is through a 4x4 route.

You can discover with our Eco-trails in 4 x 4 vehicles, some of the fascinating places in our region, in a relaxed way while listening to the wise interpretations of a guide who will lead the activity and test the cold waters of our river gorges (when weather allows).

Our eco-routes are aimed at groups of friends, business, families, associations, etc. For half a day we will tour our region, carefully and slowly to capture the essence of the shire “Comarca de la Vera”. From the young to the elder we can all enjoy the nature.

Enjoy the Spanish province with the greatest woodland area with PURAVERA.

More information: web: www.casasruralesenlavera.com E-mail:info@puravera.es

Luis Yanes

Visual Story Telling – Producing & Publishing Quality Video on a Dime.

2011-01-14T04:55:00.000-08:00

Speakers at this session in the Adventure Travel World Conference include;

· Chris Noble – General Manager, WorldNomads.com

· Davin Hutchins – Founder and CEO, NOMADSLAND.

More information about the speakers on this link: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/)

Quaity Video on a Dime.

Use video as a differentiator / inspire.
Story telling is key.
Use tweets, Facebook, press releases. (combine efforts

HD Video is now under 1.000 Dollars. Editing distributing has become affordable.

Signature Videos:
4 or 5 minutes
Multiple versions (for T.V., for Youtube, spot, event, etc.)
Story telling is key, emotional video, tell an experience, and make people feel part of.

Problem with current videos:

Week stories, week interviews, week characters.
Need to plan, look for the most suitable story, promote and boost the best features.
Amateurish video (no budget) bad quality can be understood if it’s done by our clients, with a certain camera.
Be authentic, genuine feeling; try to express an adventure a unique experience.
Video tell a story, emotion, interview staff, and look for a unique story.
Try to capture the attention in the beginning, tell a story and the impact on the ending!
Hotel – Pictures might be better, stationary.
PPP (People, Planet, Profit) – reduce carbon footprint, unique person, trip experience.
Soft selling, no not be commercially aggressive. Just mention is a great place and is brought to you by us!

Dragonfly Expeditions & Nomads Land, example of video, storytelling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sozYI8yhgUY

World Nomads also showed a video of a development project in Costa Rica, but it’s still not available as its part of a series of documentaries: I leave a link to their website where there are many example videos:

YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldNomadsTV
Website: http://www.worldnomads.com/
Collaborating with Nat Geo Adventure: http://www.natgeoadventure.tv/au/Channel.aspx?Id=387

Planning: (type of travel stories)

Story of the new or good
Story of the people
Story took place in an ecosystem, environment, surrounding
Story of trekking, activity
Story of the founder, traveller’s information, staff.

What camera to buy:

Sony, hard drive, extra batteries, computer backup. (1.000 $).
Canon Camera with HD (1.000 $).
Revel T+I HD videos 19x20 full HD.
Different outlets, products – same video can be edited to be used in different events, platforms. The important is to record in high quality in order to be able to modify, use different segments, versions, for website, YouTube, sell your product or promote the destination, among others. (B-B, B-C, Episodes, etc.)

Camera characteristics:

Flipcams- take it with you in helmet (small for adventure stories, where a conventional camera is difficult, quality is not that good but viewer understand so it’s no problem, can even be given to tourist for capturing special moments.
Audio: use external audio (directional, etc. pump audio, license music)
Flash memory or hard drives (local Audio Band)
Lighting (very important, (information available at the ATTA´s Hub).
Battery life (charge and buy extra for whole day shooting).

Use strong characters

Use interviews (anchor interviews 30 minutes). Unite questions between the ones interviewed so that you can move from one to another character. Use personal, historical, mechanical, transitional, philosophical or whatever ideas that are the strong and differentiating characteristic of the company, destination.

Script writing

Transcribe everything; write what to do, create a paper cut, what you are going to do! One page is about two minutes of filming! Record short scenes never more than 10 seconds (the less time and more diverse the better).

Editing:

Never more than 20 seconds (except interview)
Ideal is 4 to 5 seconds!
Tools

o Windows – Adobe premiere, Sony vegas, movie maker.

o Mac: Final cut studio, final cut express, Imovie.

Always good to have B-role: this is material of scenery, beautiful features, sunsets, landscapes, visitors, film for the editing for crafting the story, set the mood. (always well categorized will aid with professional teams, will reduce costs if you can give this material)
½ of the budget is for editing, 1 day shoot takes two days editing!

Video Hosting:

Think of Ipad, Iphone, Mac! Make them available for all platforms.
YouTube; Free / HD / Mobile compatibility /

o Mediocre analytics, views, referring rate, sharing engagement

Managing Expectations:

YouTube; do not expect to get all your visits from this channel alone, use leads, from blog, promotion in order to get significant impact and views.
Do something to ignite the video!
Singular vs Collective voice (me, me, me / us, us, us) conservancy spirit, us believe more people do it in our community destination. Promote more videos.
These are just tools, it requires good marketing (conventional) connect tell people. Mix of traditional and social marketing is vital.
Promote interactions, What do you think?, ask for comments, send video, share.
New conscious / broad audience.

Distribution:

Google displays, ads, ad-words, Facebook adds.
Email, Facebook, YouTube, connet the different means of communication, marketing.
Happy if a visitor is in the website for 5 minutes.
Facebook 1 ½ minutes.
Think of users with small screen i.e. IPhone.
We have the first 10 seconds to draw them and keep them! Reach media.

In conclusion, we identify that the realization of commercial and advertising travel videos can be done at a relatively low cost and with a professional finish when we plan properly.

CRASH COURSE –Social Media – Digging Deeper … beyond Awareness Building

2011-01-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

At this session at the Adventure Travel World Summit in Scotland 2010; we had the opportunity to meet Scot Adams president of Birchbark (http://www.birchbarkmedia.com/) and Kathy Dragon founder and CEO of Travel Dragon (http://traveldragon.com/). For more information on the speakers, click on the link. (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/)

Scot Adam president of Birchbark Media, a marketing and PR agency, has been helping to market and develop outdoor tourism businesses for over a decade. His passion for outdoor experiences and entrepreneurial determination has allowed him to excel his field. He is the main speaker in the presentation and takes us through the whole process.

The course begins by presenting the idea of the fast growing potential of social media. Some of the key figures include;

Facebook figures:

o 2004 – 1 Million users.

o 2009 – 350 Million users.

o 2010 – 500 Million users.

Twitter: Over 50 Million twits a day.
Youtube: has more than 24 hours of video uploaded per minute.
Google: shows 20% daily new keywords.

What hasn’t change is the need to have a strategic reason for doing social media.

Still need to sell a value, what it is, what you give and how do you differentiate from the competition.
Need to be transparent, authentic, human (Relationship, be yourself)
Give and don’t sell!
Listen and ask and do not tell.

Kathy Dragon puts out what’s growing interest on social media at the moment.

· Trip advisor – trip friend: Initiative with Facebook worth to have a look. It combines the recommendation of trip advisor with Facebook friends so that the opinions from trip advisor can be selected from your Facebook friends. Now the opinions in which you rely can be only from people who you know and therefore reducing the possible bad publicity from competitors or opinions from people unknown.

Google Images: is growing quickly and with new features, important to carefully tag and name all our pictures so that it can be indexed by the search engine.
Facebook “Like” new feed optimization, algorithm

o Feeds

o Places

o Groupon

Presentation on the Hub –

o Edde Rank Algorith

o When posting, wait for interactions, wait until people connect, different people interacting is better,

o Post diverse, fotos, links, questions, do not post constantly!

Facebook Places

o Is going to take over Foursquare and Gowala

Google image: improving search overhaul, put URL always (traffic to your website)
RSS feed.
Social media is beginning to be used as a guide, especially twitter is very linked with events and can be a very informative tool for up to date information.

Scott continues with his presentation with; why do you need Social media?

Maintaining relationships with clients.
Forming new relations.
Brand Building.
Promotion.
Managing disasters.

Promotions have become measurable. Use promos as dig or stumbleuoponit.org. Facebook can use wildfire for promotion, 2 people travel trip, group deal. Use Facebook and video promotion are some of the ideas proposed during the session.

Offering

Collect data.
Engage fans (gifts).
Facebook adds, free, try it (69$ led to 400,000 interactions).
Creative offer, look in the hub post link.

Measure

The main tools include Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Flickr but we have to look where our customer are. Do a Google search blog, twitter, Facebook and look a t the left panel in Google that has a lot of features. www.google.com/Insights/search (Keywords)
Look for influencers or anyone who is sharing your content. Add this website add icons for like, tweet and share to our website. Use shorter link (short URL). YouTube, also there is Vimeo for higher quality or flick tv.
How many followers are re-tweeting, we need to look for quality not quantity. Engagement – How often people engaging. Business page on Facebook. Youtube statistics on when are people leaving. Twitter analytics tools very interesting.

Conversion.

How to measure

Just ask where you arrive in the web-page to the customer, good feedback to trace the most effective mean for each company.

Free tools include; Social metrics addict.

Group Exercise.

We are a Backpacker Company that is present in Facebook and twitter.

Goals:

How to inform social media
Find people that like it
Establish the influencers

Design a strategy for new or existing products, how to attract people.

Get the buzz
Who are the influencers (Adprosumers)
Make content (select the right people. Market analysis
What is different about us!
Viral Video- post video of what we offer different to the competition.
Flip video and the camera!
Look for ADPROSUMERS
Look for LEADERS

Assignment: We are putting a new product on the market (tent) and we want to use social media marketing.

Contest on youtube, video.
Who is your consumer, how do they use social media, target wright people through the wright means.
Use other platforms, coordinate,
Story telling: When my backpacker saved my live – come and shoot our video.
Instead of video write a story which will be later put as a video.
Outside magazine credibility.
Take it to a concert, event (I.e. take the tent to try it) where you can record different experiences.

Include information about destination or product in videos:

Re-tweet, re-feed it.
Identify.
Gives prices.
Advocacy.
Encourage people (From each group).
Post on their blog.
Include information of sector in the blog.
Always respond in company language.
Mistakes or errors, do not debate, be transparent honest.
RSS feeds.

As a conclusion we need to remember that these are tools are not a strategy, so we need to define it before we embark on social media.

Sustainable Tourism Best Practices: From theory to Action.

2010-12-21T03:16:00.000-08:00

This session focused on real case studies on best practices for the promotion of sustainable tourism. How to achieve the theoretical goals and how to carry out these practices in the real world:

Some of the speakers in this session included;

Erika harms - Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org / www.gstcouncil.org/
Mandip Singh Soin FRGS Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, UK. http://www.ibexexpeditions.com/
Lennart Pittja, Pathfinder Lapland http://www.pathfinderlapland.se/
Federico Solano – Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org)
Natasha Martin – Xola Consulting (http://www.xolaconsulting.com)

You may find more information about the speakers in the following link: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/).

At the beginning the idea that there is a growing threat from mass tourism was put forward. The middle class population of china and India is growing dramatically and tourism is a fast growing market in these regions. These middle class people will be travellers in the near future and we have to target them and be careful with the consequences that will result. One of the key issues that we need to address is to harmonize and group the different certifications of:

Green tourism.
Ecotourism.
Cultural tourism.
Adventure travel.
Community tourism.
Sustainable tourism.

The GSCT is developing a global standard on sustainable practices in tourism:

The Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria.

Erika Harms is the Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. In this role, Ms. Harms manages and oversees the implementation of activities under the framework of the GTSC, a cutting edge initiative that provides a clear set of standards, protocols, processes and measurements for how businesses can better the planet and practice sustainable tourism.

She set out to explain the process of elaborating the guide which has been summarized into 37 criteria and some of the goals that have been achieved include;

Created a platform for information exchange and the feedback process.
Maximize and promote collaboration of all the stakeholders
Cultural aspects of different communities
Reduce negative impacts, (not only economic but also environmental and social)
Develop the local economy,

The criteria is set to mark a minimum level, is used as a guideline, it’s a baseline accredited standard, it certifies the certifiers. It is based on the 4500 existing standards and more than 50 certifications. It’s been a long consultative process where all stakeholders have given their input.

There are four main actions or principles in which the indicators have been structured. The indicators will be defined locally, from the global principles or guidelines.

A. Demonstrate effective sustainable management.

B. Maximize social-economic impacts.

C. Minimize the cultural negative impacts.

D. Minimize the environmental negative impacts.

Implement criteria trough the Global Sustainable Tourism Council

Sets out to transmit, communicate, expand the criteria, best practices
Educate about the sustainability principles
Generate and increase market share
Increase public awareness.
Collaboration between tour operators, hotels, transport and all the key stakeholders.

After the introduction of the Criteria we have some practical examples form the speakers.

Starting with Mandip Singh Soin FRGS; who likes to be described as a Mountaineer, Explorer, Eco-tourism & Adventure Travel Specialist and Motivational Speaker.

Mandip is the only Indian to be awarded the Ness Award by the Royal Geographical Society, UK, for mountaineering and polar expeditions and encouragement of youth exploration. He is the Founder President of the Ecotourism Society of India and a Judge for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards for the World Travel & Tourism Council.

After more than 30 years in the Himalayan doing diverse expeditions, he has been being doing diverse project for the development of remote areas. He focuses on identifying the local issues, it is vital for the sustainable development to use the local knowledge and it´s key to empower the local population and understand what their real needs are.

The second speaker was Lennart Pittja of Pathfinder Lapland; a Sami person from Sweden who started his business as a small family company in 1995. Their philosophy includes:

"We work close with nature and are proud of our origin and our history. We wish to spread knowledge about Sami culture, but also how to enjoy being close to animals and nature. For reasons of sustainability and "Natures Best" we always find new trails, a way of not leaving marks behind us".

Vägvisaren - Pathfinder Lapland's products are certified as "Natures Best" by the Swedish Eco-tourism Society, one of the first systems in the world for Eco-tourism certification.

He focuses on 6 pillars:

Education culture
Local economy
Environmental impact
Conservation
Create responsibility, respect from guests to their culture
Quality, reliable.

The success factors that he has identified include;

Right Staff
Government Support
National Label
Stakeholder process
Practical tool
Local and social content (Create rural value for visitors)

Visit Sápmi, has developed Sustainability Criteria including Social and Cultural Aspects of the Samis.

Tourism Community Management plan.

Lennard works normally with small groups, 5 or 6 days journeys in the Lapland sami region. The trip is to guide the reindeer between Sweden and Norway. (Sapmi: area or land, Sami is the person) Their parents and ancestors where reindeer herder and wanted to keep their traditions and cultural heritage. Visitor can experience being reindeer herders for the spring Migration.

Next speaker was Federico Solano who brought the approach from the Rainforest Alliance. The programs they are developing in order to certify organizations with the rainforest alliance badge. The programs include agriculture, forest and now they are beginning with the tourism one. The main goal s of the tourism program includes;

Improve operations, become more sustainable in the whole process
Build business awareness and increase in numbers.
Create global standards that can be compared in different locations.
GSTC are a guideline for companies to follow if they want to improve their behavior, become more transparent and responsible for their operations.

Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria as backbone of Training Manuals:

Best management goals of sustainable tourism.
Tool for operators.
Best Management Guides for communities.
Heritage based tourism (UN Guidelines).

www.sustainabletrip.org

For the last 8 years they have been looking at 100 inbound and 500 outbound tour operators. Now they are in the process of creating a blog where they will share the experiences.

GSTC helps to:

Create a common language worldwide.
Strengthen organization through its tools.
Increase benefits to organizations and local communities.
Establish partnerships, connect stakeholders.
Accomplish their mission: which is to conserve and broaden sustainability issues to more population, increase awareness.

What do you think of this tourism criteria, could you be interested in been certified in sustainability issues?

This certification is a guideline and all indicators and action differ from location to location but the principles are global. Do you think this is a correct approach?

Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism – Case Studies.

2010-12-09T02:29:00.000-08:00

The Crash Course Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism took place in the Alvie, Morlich & Glenmoore room. It was organized by the Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org/), which was represented by Federico Solano.

Federico has worked in the tourism industry since 1994 focusing in the marketing field in different areas such as hospitality, airlines, travel agencies and car rentals. He joined the Rainforest Alliance ´s Sustainable Tourism program in 2004. During his time in the Rainforest Alliance, Solano has coordinated projects in several Latin American, North American and European countries, and supporting sustainable tourism by helping offer and demand to adopt responsible practices towards the environment and local communities. His dedication in promoting sustainable tourism to consumers and the tourism industry has led to multiple strategic alliances with local governments, international organizations and private industry.

More information on speakers: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/)

The session began with a small presentation of the Rainforest Alliance. The organization sets to create best practice guides (Forest, coastal environments or anywhere). They create these tools to aid companies in different areas around the world to increase their sustainability strategies and efforts. It provides tools and a work structure which has been adopted in many different areas with a lot of feedback to improve these tools.

They provide a certification for sustainable practices in tourism, through this guideline. We are aware that as nobody is perfect, therefore no business can be 100% sustainable but this program aids companies in order to work in the direction of sustainability and implements these types of strategies. They look for win-win situations where business and local communities benefit from the developments and give back to the community some of the industry incomes in order to preserve the natural and cultural heritage.

They also have an agricultural, forestry programs among others. The agricultural is the second biggest, a figure is for example of the British tea consumed, and 50% is certified by the Rainforest Alliance. In terms of the tourism program it is growing rapidly and has various programs, some targeting companies and best practices, the sustainabletrip.org organization which educates travellers, or the green travel program.

After this initial presentation there is a panel of companies that will debate some of their actions and activities that they have carried out in order to try and increase demand for their sustainable products and practices.

Enrique Umbert of Mountain Lodges of Peru http://www.mountainlodgesofperu.com

Enrique experience has been a learning process towards sustainability. He focused on this idea of comfort versus sustainability in terms of managing expectations. We must understand that we are selling emotional comfort and quality. He educates the visitor and explains why things are done in a certain way. He transmits what are the benefits to the environment and local population of carrying the operations in the way they do.

Veronica Napuri Peirano of Tucano Reps. Peru http://www.tucanoperu.com

She works in a rural community in Peru which is self-sustained, (agriculture, fishing, school). She focuses on local development but through community integration. The local people are the ones who identify their needs, for example a small playing area for the children, a greenhouse with vegetables so that they don’t have to travel so much to trade. For example: The visitors are the ones who learn the language of the local inhabitants. Shows a great job of conservation of ancient cultures and how this community continues to live in the traditional way and it is they who have the control to continue in this manner or introduce products and services of the "new world."

The program plants trees in the rainforest and there is a strong commitment to keep this community intact and living in their traditional ways.

Randy Durband of Travcoa http://www.travcoa.com/ Robin Tauk & Partnerts www.robintauck.com

Randy has been part of the World Travel & Tourism Council, and now manages his has his own organization with other partners. HE put forward the idea that there is a clear change towards more sustainable practices and especially in tourism sector. There are EU guidelines, carbon emissions reduction Schemes and programs, surveys show there is a societal change occurring. People are becoming more aware of our impacts on the environment and there is an increase in people and tourist who look to reduce their ecological footprint. There is the greening of suppliers as airlines improve efficiency, companies want to do community development and tour operators travel and audit the greenness of their suppliers.

For example: Country walkers, (Part of TUI) has created a step program certification and awareness campaign to educate, clients, providers, suppliers and all their supply chain to reduce their impacts and becoming more sustainable. Another example he put forward was travel agency that has zero emissions as it neutralizes through forestry programs and using the lower emissions jets.

Rob Holmes of Green Living Project http://www.greenlivingproject.com

The represent a unique production and distribution team for US & North America. They carry over 175 events around the world. They create movies on experiential travel, we had a meeting with them and we are trying to produce a documentary on the shire of la Vera. According to their expertise the Nicaragua market needs more work in ecotourism and Costa Rica has been the leader year’s back. Their final goal is to educate the consumer. Today they are working on Granada in San Jose for their next event.

www.greenlivingproject.com

Conclusions:

European Escapes are increasing and there are everyday more people looking for different type of travel:

Sustainable Travel – standards are evolving and more and more companies are increasing their sustainable practices.
We need to unify these standards. There are many standards and in order to compare different destinations these need to be unified.
Increase in the number of certifications (TI) carbon offset arena.

o Formation education, it’s a process. No one is 100% sustainable!

o Standards A to B and finally to C. (Long term Process)

Sustainableairlines.org set criteria and international language for transport companies.

From this session we can identify the changing trends in travel and how the sustainable market is increasing and been every day more demanded. Its changing from an additional value to something that is been demanded by the adventure traveller.

Adventure Travellers want more sustainable practices to be implemented.

Would you be willing to pay a little more for your holiday if you knew that this money is used for recovery and protection of natural environments to recover cultures, communities and ancestral customs?

Discover, Engage & Deliver Awakening Destinations

2010-12-03T02:11:00.000-08:00

This session began with Christina Heyniger who is the President of Xola Consulting, Inc., which she founded in 2004. She works with governments, entrepreneurs and community tourism interests to develop and market eco/nature/adventure tourism products and services. They have supported clients in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States. She introduced the different participants and was the manager of the session. This session wanted to put forward the difficulties and success of some new destinations and how they are trying to establish themselves as adventure travel, responsible or eco-tourism destinations.

More information about the speakers: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/)

First speaker was Liza Masias – Director for Business Development Sales & Marketing, InKaterra. Liza acts as liaison between InKaterra and its clients and partners. She has broad experience in hotel management, conservation and fund raising, and a good understanding of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development issues.

Liza previously worked for the Four Seasons Hotel Company, Conservation International, the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development, Special Events Coordinator for The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC, and Director for Special Events for the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and most recently Assistant Analyst for InSpire Invest in the area of Social and Environmental Corporate Responsibility, Oslo, Norway. Liza holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.

She focused on the business development of InKaterra in Peru. This is a case study of good practices. She has achieved this great success in such an isolated area thanks to the long term conservation projects that they run parallel to their accommodation and touristic operations. They have investigations running for 20 years which aids in Latin American countries were instability can lead to great changes when political power changes. The other key issue is that company has sustainability within the company and transmitted to all the workers. She says how thanks to the investigation programs that they run they have been able to survive some of the difficulties that the country has had to live by. This is a great example of ecological research for conservation funded by tourism activity.

The second speaker is Mads Pihl, a tourism consultant in Greenland’s Destination Arctic Circle Region, an emerging adventure destination on Greenland’s West Coast.

He was once a social anthropologist but nowadays those skills are employed in a bottom-up approach to destination management in a vast Arctic region where tourism actors are few and far apart.

He spends most of his time either on the road connecting with local companies, encouraging networking and collaboration or he develops an online presence for the regional brand through various social media and websites.

Greenland is approximately the size of Mexico and the region where he works is the size of Greece.

He begins his presentation with the idea that Costa Rica was the first Marketing Emerging communities (1998) focusing on adventure travel but since there has been other 15 countries in the world with the same focus.

Some key issues that were brought up in the session include:

We are not alone, bring NGO,s, Boards, Private business to work together as a destination.
Connect routes, use nearby destinations that are more known and promote collaboration.
Cooperatives: Ho to make decisions, how to empower, how to train guides in order to offer a unique and wonderful experience.
Partnership with local, what to do if the visitor are not coming. Service is vital and the local people must be trained and be aware of what we want to achieve and promote local goods, produce and services.
Attract private capital (Eco-lodge) Facilitate (Equity, state, ownership)
Responsible investment. (make money but also develop the region and conserve the resources)
What do you sell, how you market, what’s different, strategic positioning. How do we differentiate from other emerging markets!
Market; analyze what market, what is interesting, link to other existing markets, potential, future trends, new tourist needs, among others.
Accessibility: easy to get to, ways to improve, very important for tour operators.
Identify the Problem – Opportunity. I.e. what is causing the threat to conservation; is there a need to change (Social Employment); design tourism offer to develop and support local communities.
Turn the challenge into an Asset.
Developing destinations need to offer the link between education and training of local population is vital.
Use luxury like stay in your rucksack in a unique environment experiencing a place where very few people have visited. I.e. Greenland; sleeping on a dog pulled sledge.
What is first, accommodation or services? Infrastructure or experience?

Private company & Administration

Management in private involves good relations with both local and international partners. You have to be present in order to adapt to changes (be out there business and associations). BE part of the local community but also market internationally, awards always help to create an image for your company or destination.

Tour operators and DMO´s (Destination Management Operators) have to work together to create products and services that follow the destination strategy. Private normally moves quicker that the public institutions so we have to take this into account. Is very important to never be isolated, connect with everyone in your area, with turoperators, reservations, local business, competition, administrational the key stakeholders.

In order to create a new destination it is key to create a close cooperation between local administration and business and to work on a joint strategy where the efforts of both are mutually reinforcing.

What are the most important aspects to create a new destination?

Transformative thinking - IMAGINE / INNOVATE / SHARE

2010-11-17T05:56:00.000-08:00

Imagine

We had the pleasure to meet Mr. Neil Fiske who has served as President and CEO of Eddie Bauer LLC since June of 2007. During his tenure he has led the effort to bring the company back to its roots and reclaim its place as an American icon. He explained how he has redesigned the image of Eddie Bauer according to its historical background.

Imagine, Believe, and Do

He has worked the great potential of the history of the brand, first real specialization on gear for the adventurers. He has been able to get out of the difficulties that the company was a couple of years ago and making great profits by going back to its origin and creating a sensible story. Some of the things he used were video and the social media, but always combining with traditional promotion and marketing.

He is the key to their success and was thanks to been able to imagine what he could do for this company. He launched the First Ascent in 2009 “the most significant line of outerwear in a generation”, built by some of the world’s best known mountain guides. First Ascent’s final testing ground was Mt. Everest in May 2009. And, as part of this, Eddie Bauer produced near real-time daily video coverage of its Return to Everest Expedition – a first in Everest’s history. Mr. Fiske has also pulled the company’s rich heritage forward bringing the quality, value, and style of its product back to the standards set by the company’s founder, Eddie Bauer, in 1920.

All of these goals have been achieved because in the beginning he imagined the idea, he then believed and made his team believe it was possible and eventually became a reality.

Innovate

Keith Sproule is the Tourism Advisor to the WWF-Namibia program office, focused on development of the Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector and support for joint-venture (JV) lodge and campgrounds in the communal conservancies.

A hands-on travel and tourism industry professional, Keith has been an advisor on ecotourism policy and planning to governments on three continents. He has worked and traveled in over 105 countries, including many of the premier ecotourism destinations around the world. He has been a long-term contract consultant with private tourism investment projects, international development banks and government agencies in Egypt, Belize, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Cyprus among other destinations.

He focused on the idea that tourism can be a tool to education. He put the focus on innovating to prepare packages with children and to make them learn and be aware of other cultures. Travelling can be a education experience and can aid the young to broaden their views and want to learn more about other cultures and ways of living. He finished his speech by calling for more packages including children and focus on giving that little extra which will make an effect on children and will open their eyes to other philosophies in life nad want to preserve them.

Finally for the last part of the presentation we had Nicky Fitzgerald who opened her first hotel in 1982 at the southernmost tip of Africa and since then has opened, operated and marketed over 60 luxury safari lodges and boutique hotels across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and India.

In 1994 she was employed by Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) as Operations Director and moved across to Sales and Marketing in 2001. Nicky was part of the team that grew CC Africa from 3 to 50 lodges across sub Saharan Africa, and later in India, in all the great wilderness high spots – Masai Mara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, Namib Desert, Kruger National Park, Kahna and Bandhavgarh National Parks, to name but a few. The company employed 2800 people and also ran successful tour operations business in 15 African countries. Many CC Africa lodges are award winning (Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was voted 2nd best hotel in the world by UK Conde Nast Traveller magazine in 2005) and the company has been honored with multiple prestigious ecotourism awards – including global winner of British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award. In 2008 she was responsible for the rebranding of CC Africa to &Beyond and repositioned &Beyond’s travel business from being a tour operator to becoming a luxury travel provider specializing in fulfilling high ticket trips off the website.

Nicky explain the African term “UBUNTU” and how we should all embrace it in our life.

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are." A translation offered by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee. Similar to a saying: A single straw of a broom can be broken easily, but the straws together are not easily broken.

Nelson Mandela explained Ubuntu as follows:

“A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?”

I leave a video which probably aids in the understanding of the term Ubuntu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0qGJCm-qU

Nicky went further and described it as “I am what I am through you”. After her experience described previously she put forward the idea that we need to share the information to become more efficient. She explained the great success of the lodges that she has set in south Africa managed by locals thanks to the process of information sharing where even the financials are known by all the stakeholders.

Some of the main mistakes we all make were put forward and she recommended that we all shared our own mistakes as this is the way to learn. Some of the key mistakes included; Arrogance, “my customer” term, not asking the communities where we operate, “I am Irreplaceable”, “I am the best”.

In the new era of the communication and information the ones who collaborate and share information will always be better prepared for the changes. We all need to do cooperation with our competition and this will report more benefits than working separately.

Sustainability Vs Development / Adventure Tourism Issues – OPEN FORUM.

2010-11-08T04:55:00.000-08:00

This forum was created with the participation of all the ATTA members. A questionnaire was distributed through the members and companies assisting the Adventure Travel World Summit. Of the 6 questions proposed the one selected was:

Fire in the fireplace: How can we structure ourselves to be a force for good?

Forum Experts Included:

(http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/ )

Costas Christ – World Travel and Tourism Council

Costas Christ is an internationally recognized sustainable tourism expert whose work and travels have taken him to more than 100 countries across six continents, including expeditions to some of the world’s most remote wilderness areas and archaeological sites.

Costas is the Editor At Large for National Geographic Traveler and the former Global Travel Editor for National Geographic Adventure. He also writes the Go Green Travel Column for Virtuoso Life, in addition to serving as Virtuoso’s Director for Sustainability.

Shanon Stowell – Adventure Travel & Trade Association

Shannon is President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Under his leadership, the organization has grown into the largest international association of adventure travel companies with more than 600 members and dozens of tourism boards, major corporations and influential individuals helping propel industry initiatives forward.

Moe Carrick – Momentum Inc.

Moe Carrick enthusiastically loves to help leaders transform themselves and their companies. When she is not doing that, she loves to play outside in glorious Central Oregon and can often be found digging in her garden or running local trails.

In addition, Moe has woven a cohesive and provocative tapestry of personal leadership experiences, Fortune 100 consulting, academic and institutional learning, keynote addresses, authorship, strategic partnering, and masterful facilitation.

Chris Doyle – Vice President, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) & Editor, AdventureTravelNews™

Chris Doyle is a long-time enthusiast of adventure travel who’s gained immeasurable insights from the people he’s connected with on five continents, and the activities he’s experienced including whitewater rafting, fly-fishing, rock climbing, sky-diving, paragliding, backpacking, marathon running, sea kayaking, dog sledding, mountain biking and mountaineering.

Since 2004, Doyle has played a key role in Adventure Travel Trade Association’s strategic direction and development. In addition to overseeing content for www.AdventureTravelNews.com and www.Adventure.Travel, he’s primarily responsible for the ATTA’s research, marketing, public relations and communications initiatives, and directs the content and execution of ATTA’s annual Adventure Travel World Summit, regional meetings and professional development programs.

Business perspectives on sustainability are changing and not only because is the “right thing to do” but because it brings more economical value. We see an increasing trend towards being more sustainable. It’s true that no one is totally sustainable as nobody is perfect but there are every day more companies moving towards this line of action and seeing the real values of becoming every day more sustainable not only economically but socially and environmentally.

There are consumer changing trends. For example Wal-Mart is now the leading organic retailer but 5 years ago was going very badly and had some very bad publicity on the conditions of work. 5 years ago they responded to the market shift, it was a strategic position that they followed as they understood that 20 or 30% of the market share was too much to be ignored. For example all the IBEX companies report their triple bottom line, and have code of conducts.

The Millennium Development Goals if endorsed by the tourism sector can aid dramatically for the sustainable development of communities. One of the issues is that sustainability is very hard to define and it seems there are many interpretations. We need to work with communities and with applications to get to common grounds and definitions.

What can we do?

There are various opportunities for merging this paradox: development and sustainability. We have to be specific with business goals and sustainability, we need to encourage and promote sustainable practices, combine efforts and communicate them thorough all the means possible. Teach the adventure traveler about sustainability principles. Never give false expectations, do not say you do more than what you really do, be transparent and responsible. Do not blow thing out of proportions.

Growth and Sustainability Paradox:

Adventure travel has grown in expense of other travel sectors.
Local travel is more sustainable.
Important to promote residents about sustainable practices
WTTC is meeting with ATTA to develop the best practices on sustainable tourism and sustainable content.

Finally Chris Doyle, representative of the ATTA, talks about the sustainable tourism council and how it promotes sustainable practices. We are asked if we want to include sustainability criteria as necessary for members of the ATTA. The vote results in a very mixed voting.

One solution is to include badges on the profile of companies that follow sustainability criteria and make them visible in the ATTA Hub. (Social Network) This will provide visibility to those companies which carry sustainable practices and will not be a limiting factor to those who want to become new members.

We have a great responsibility in the adventure travel sector, which is to balance the development and sustainability!

How do you think adventure travel could aid in this balance?